Characteristics of Physicians Who Frequently See Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives

Abstract

Pharmaceutical sales representatives (PSRs) can impact physician prescribing. The objective of this study was to test a model of physician and practice setting characteristics as influences on decisions by physicians to see PSRs. A survey was sent to a random sample of 2000 physicians. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to test models for predicting influences on decisions to see PSRs frequently, defined as at least monthly. Independent variables included: presence of restrictive policy for pharmaceutical detailing, volume of prescriptions, gender, age, type of specialty, academic affiliation, practice setting size, and urban versus rural. The dependent variable was frequency of PSRs visits to physicians. Six hundred seventy-one responses were received yielding a response rate of 34.7%. Four hundred thirty-two physicians (79.5%) reported seeing PSRs at least monthly. The decision influence model was found to be significant. Primary care physicians and high-volume prescribers showed increased likelihood to see PSRs. Physicians practicing in settings that were small, urban, without restrictive policies for pharmaceutical detailing, and not academically affiliated were more likely to see PSRs frequently. This model of physician and practice characteristics is useful in explaining the variations in physicians' characteristics who see PSRs frequently. These characteristics could be used to guide the development of future academic or counter-detailing initiatives to improve evidence-based prescribing.

Strategic account management as a value co-creation selling model in the pharmaceutical industry

“…Selling strategies employed by pharmaceutical companies rely on a mix of personal and communication skills (Ahearne et al, 2007;Alkhateeb et al, 2009) along with reliance on scientific information obtained from the literature (Alkhateeb et al, 2009). Despite efforts to build relationships with physicians, the detailing model in use is centred primarily on the need to (Chimonas et al, 2007).…”

Urban–rural differences in the uptake of new oral bisphosphonate formulations

“…For instance, there may be urban-rural differences in prescribing owing to the isolation of rural physicians' practice, limited local diagnostic facilities, patient access to therapy [4], or less awareness of new therapies since pharmaceutical promotion is less common in rural areas [4][5][6]. Indeed, pharmaceutical promotion is identified as a primary source of new drug information for physicians, is often concentrated in urban regions [6], and has been shown to increase prescribing of the promoted drug [7,8]. For these various reasons, physicians in rural areas may be slower to adopt new formulations of therapies once they are available as open access on a public drug formulary.…”

Sales promotion by wholesalers affects general practitioners’ prescription behaviours in Japan

“…Many previous studies on the determinants of MR promotional effectiveness have focused on cases in the USA and UK [16–19]. Few, however, have explored this issue in the Japanese context.…”

“…Although aggressive marketing of pharmaceuticals can cause doctors to prescribe medicines on the basis of information about other scientific evidence, more than 75% of physicians found MRs’ visits to be valuable in learning about new drugs. Moreover, about 33% of physicians refer to MRs when deciding whether to prescribe a new drug [19]. Although it remains difficult to accurately measure the effectiveness of MR visits, it is nonetheless necessary to gauge the degree to which MRs and MSs are effective in promoting products in Japan.…”