Unlike the situation with most products, consumers can’t buy pharmaceuticals unless they have a doctor’s
approval. The pharmaceutical companies know that doctors are the ones who actually have the power to
get their drugs off the shelves and into patients’ medicine cabinets. So companies channel the bulk of their
marketing directly to health-care professionals.
In 2012, pharmaceutical companies spent $3.5 billion on direct-to-consumer marketing.
That same year,they spent nearly seven times that figure—about $24 billion—marketing directly to health-care professionals.
Marketing to health-care professionals happens in two primary ways.
First, the companies send sales representatives to routinely visit hospitals, bringing gifts
and free lunches to health-care workers. Former pharmaceutical sales representative Jamie Reidy
told Last Week Tonight that the lunches are more than just occasional offerings: “There are some
offices that advertise in the front desk job description ‘free lunch everyday’—not because the doctors
are paying for it, but because the drug reps are bringing it in everyday.”
The National Physicians Alliance said that 83 percent of doctors report having accepted food and
or gifts from drug companies. One study showed that the United States has about 100,000 drug
representatives, which means about one for every eight doctors—and the average marketing spent
on each doctor is more than $12,000.
Drug company gifts to doctors can also include fishing trips, educational fees, sample drugs—and services
such as building free websites. In one case, a drug company spent $9,750 on a dinner for three doctors—
in an effort to persuade them to prescribe its drugs.
[T]he average marketing spent on each doctor is more than $12,000.
This conflict of interests is so widespread that the government recently launched a website that allows
the public to see how much each doctor is receiving from various drug companies.
The second way pharmaceutical companies market to health-care professionals is by hiring doctors
to talk to other doctors about their drugs.
In 2013, federal prosecutors accused the Novartis drug company of spending almost $65 million
to pay doctors to conduct more than 38,000 such “speaker programs.”
The Wall Street Journal reported: “The speakers were paid an average of $750 to $1,500 per program,
with some speakers earning as much as $3,000 a program, prosecutors said. In one instance,
a Florida doctor was paid $3,750 for speaking to the same four doctors about a Novartis drug five times
in a nine-month period, prosecutors said” (April 26, 2013).
Novartis tried to defend itself, saying physician speaker programs are an “accepted and customary practice in the industry.”
But that’s precisely the problem. The customary nature of the practice means the objectivity
of many health-care professionals is corroded.
When a drug company pays a doctor to act as a spokesman for its drugs, that doctor will often feel obligated to that company. It will cause him to make some recommendations based not on his best judgment but on the wishes of the drug company.
So, the third question you should ask your doctor, if he recommends a certain prescription to you, is whether he is receiving money, gifts, speaking fees or other benefits from the company that makes the drug. You may also ask if his opinion of the drug has been influenced by doctors paid to speak on behalf of its manufacturer.
approval. The pharmaceutical companies know that doctors are the ones who actually have the power to
get their drugs off the shelves and into patients’ medicine cabinets. So companies channel the bulk of their
marketing directly to health-care professionals.
In 2012, pharmaceutical companies spent $3.5 billion on direct-to-consumer marketing.
That same year,they spent nearly seven times that figure—about $24 billion—marketing directly to health-care professionals.
Marketing to health-care professionals happens in two primary ways.
First, the companies send sales representatives to routinely visit hospitals, bringing gifts
and free lunches to health-care workers. Former pharmaceutical sales representative Jamie Reidy
told Last Week Tonight that the lunches are more than just occasional offerings: “There are some
offices that advertise in the front desk job description ‘free lunch everyday’—not because the doctors
are paying for it, but because the drug reps are bringing it in everyday.”
The National Physicians Alliance said that 83 percent of doctors report having accepted food and
or gifts from drug companies. One study showed that the United States has about 100,000 drug
representatives, which means about one for every eight doctors—and the average marketing spent
on each doctor is more than $12,000.
Drug company gifts to doctors can also include fishing trips, educational fees, sample drugs—and services
such as building free websites. In one case, a drug company spent $9,750 on a dinner for three doctors—
in an effort to persuade them to prescribe its drugs.
[T]he average marketing spent on each doctor is more than $12,000.
This conflict of interests is so widespread that the government recently launched a website that allows
the public to see how much each doctor is receiving from various drug companies.
The second way pharmaceutical companies market to health-care professionals is by hiring doctors
to talk to other doctors about their drugs.
In 2013, federal prosecutors accused the Novartis drug company of spending almost $65 million
to pay doctors to conduct more than 38,000 such “speaker programs.”
The Wall Street Journal reported: “The speakers were paid an average of $750 to $1,500 per program,
with some speakers earning as much as $3,000 a program, prosecutors said. In one instance,
a Florida doctor was paid $3,750 for speaking to the same four doctors about a Novartis drug five times
in a nine-month period, prosecutors said” (April 26, 2013).
Novartis tried to defend itself, saying physician speaker programs are an “accepted and customary practice in the industry.”
But that’s precisely the problem. The customary nature of the practice means the objectivity
of many health-care professionals is corroded.
When a drug company pays a doctor to act as a spokesman for its drugs, that doctor will often feel obligated to that company. It will cause him to make some recommendations based not on his best judgment but on the wishes of the drug company.
So, the third question you should ask your doctor, if he recommends a certain prescription to you, is whether he is receiving money, gifts, speaking fees or other benefits from the company that makes the drug. You may also ask if his opinion of the drug has been influenced by doctors paid to speak on behalf of its manufacturer.
Last edited:
