The first reason that the pharmaceutical sales force was reduced 25% since 2005 was due to the fact that the days of blockbuster drugs had come to end, which therefore left fewer products for the sales force to sell. During the years of blockbuster drugs, companies would stockpile as many sales representatives as they could to stay competitive with their major competitors. This was looked at as an “arms race,” that was fueled by the multiyear wave of blockbuster product launches, during the period before 2005; the pharmaceutical industry was in a period of massive growth. It was during the blockbuster period that “me-too” dynamic was created. This was when a company would make small changes in the chemical composition of a novel drug as …show more content…
Sales representative’s bonuses are no longer calculated on the amount of sales but on their overall knowledge of the disease-states and therapeutic modes of action. Mandatory training and education is now at the forefront of each sales representative’s curricula. This is helping companies to sculpt out specialized sales teams as opposed to larger ones, which are more agile and adapt to the changing needs of the industry. In addition, these specialized sales teams must become more knowledgeable than previously, due to the boom in the commercialization of more complex biomolecules. Another positive change that I have seen is compensating sales representatives using a fixed, yearly salary as opposed to commission-based. Companies are using this type of compensation package more now than previously to ensure that all representatives are operating with the regulations set forth in the Sunshine Act. All these changes can surely be looked at as having a more positive impact on today’s pharmaceutical sales force that, in the past, gave the industry a black-eye through dishonest sales …show more content…
With the advent of direct-to-customer (DTC) advertising, patients are becoming much more involved in the whole process and are certainly more educated than ever before. Today, even doctors have become more technologically savvy and it is important that sales representatives find what works best for physicians so that they can maximize their interactions. A lot of the changes to the sales model have certainly been for the good of the entire industry, as the days of the pharmaceutical “Wild West” are long gone and regulations have seen fit to coral in rogue sales
Working in the pharmaceutical industry, there are different types of environments you could possibly work in. There are chain pharmacies, like any kind of grocery store or CVS. There are franchise pharmacies, which are also known as apothecaries. Also, there are community pharmacies, which are also known as retail pharmacies. Some of them are independent pharmacies, which is usually owned by a pharmacist or a group of pharmacists.. There are hospital pharmacies, in which are in the hospital. There are many more different types, these are only a few.
Lyles, Adam. “Direct Marketing of Pharmaceuticals to Consumers.” Annual Review of Public Health, volume 23. 2002. Print.
In order to take advantage of this demand, five billion dollars is spent by the pharmaceutical industry on marketing each year. This marketing, usually in the form of advertisements, often distorts facts and makes the necessity for drug treatment seem greater.... ... middle of paper ... ... Washington, D.C.:
DTC advertisements aim to persuade that their possibly less effective drugs work better than other drugs rather than to inform consumers of correct information about drugs. The reason that pharmaceutical companies abuse the power of DTC advertising is because the pharmaceutical industry does not have a strong ethical code for advertising; their sales are so obsessed with profits. To solve this problem, policy makers should prohibit indiscreet DTC advertisements on air and fund more informative services about new drugs so that patients could make clever
Persuasion has always played an intricate role, in many ways, when it comes to promotion of a Fortune 500 companies like C.V.S. corporation. With the largest pharmacy chain of over 7400 stores in United States; no wonder they are at the top five largest pharmacies in the United States based on revenue generated from prescription only. However it's not only prescription is sold in stores; there are assortment of general merchandise including food, sundries, beauty products as well as health products sold there. In one of the stores I visited for this paper, located at 39th and Main street, I noticed that the products were sold in minute quantities so as to reduce the price of the merchandise.
...ll help the company in selling generic drugs and provide affordable medications to its customer base.
Direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads are dangerous and can have serious effects on the health of the general public. In the article “Pros & Cons Arguments: ‘Should prescription drugs be advertised directly to consumers?’”, the pros and cons of the advertising of prescription drugs are compared. The negative aspects of these ads outweigh that of the positives. DTC prescription drug ads misinform patients, promote over-usage, and pressure medical providers. The counter side argues that these ads inform patients, create a positive impact on patient compliance with medication, and cause patients to confront their doctors.
since the FDA allowed companies to advertise directly to consumers we saw an increase in
As each product has its own unique segment, target market, and symptoms relief, those differences are going to be essential to promote each product value to prevent cannibalization. Thus the best advertising agency was selected to provide us the best response.
Kaphingst, K. A. (2004). A Content Analysis of Direct-to-ConsumerTelevision Prescription Drug Advertisements. Journal of Health Communication,Volume 9: , 515–528,.
... middle of paper ... ... Six years later, in 2001, the majority of their income came from services to pharmaceutical companies (Martinez). This shows a definitive shift in the conduct of PBM’s.
If drug costs were to drop 40-45%, the amount of a drug to move from animal testing to human clinics would decrease by 50-60% (Abbott and Vernon). With such high risk and low reward, pharmaceutical companies will likely stop or slow research on new technologies and compounds. In 1969 Canada imposed regulations on drug prices (Weidenbaum). After the regulations were imposed, there was a decline in new drugs being created (Weidenbaum). This change in the pharmaceutical industry would likely have a major effect on the medical industry as a whole.
Scherer, A. (2012) ‘M&A in Big Pharma: Holy Grail or Buying Time’, Contract Pharma, 21 Mar [Online]. Available at: http://www.contractpharma.com/contents/view_experts-opinion/2012-03-21/ma-in-big-pharma/#sthash.NnrBSo3O.dpuf (Accessed at: 15 December 2013)
With the increased cost of manufacturing, pharmaceutical companies have been divesting in their smaller or less profit making operations and focus on large segments. Many Pharmaceutical companies sold their manufacturing sites to contract manufacturing organizations. The dynamics of interfacing with contract manufacturing organization added intricacy in pharmaceutical supply chain network of pharmaceutical companies.
In choosing to narrow its focus on its core pharma business in the 1990s, Lilly appears to have either deliberately or inadvertently made a choice to funnel their efforts into the category of neuroscience with the patented products Prozac and Zyprexa, Lilly's top sellers. Its imbalanced portfolio and lagging international sales was the consequence of its dependence on just a few key products. This type of a strategy with a focus on neuroscience was not well suited to the more cost conscious international regions whose focus was treatment of disease. Other factors that played against them were the regulations in non-US developed countries on pricing and payment programs for pharmaceutical drugs through national health insurance programs. Due to this fact, Lilly wouldn't have earned as high of a profit margin on its blockbuster drugs, Prozac and Zyprexa, in Europe and Japan as ...