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 Seven percent of doctors nationwide now refuse to meet directly with drug sales reps, and in some regions that number can be as high as 50 percent.
Formal group practice policies are increasingly restricting the access that drug sales reps have to individual doctors. These "closed door" policies are becoming more and more common around the country, especially in Washington, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Managed care policies that favor low-cost generics are also making it more difficult for sales reps to push expensive name-brand drugs.
As a result, drug sales reps are facing massive layoffs and falling incomes as commissions drop. Pfizer is laying off 2,200 sales reps, about one-fifth of its U.S. sales force. CNNMoney.com April 4, 2007
Drug companies literally spend tens of billions of dollars every year persuading physicians and consumers to consider "newer and better" drugs that no one needs.
Reports in the mainstream news media about heinous drug company practices are a factor, but it is important to remember that YOU make a difference. When you share information you learn on this site with your friends and family you are raising the consciousness of what our culture will tolerate.
If enough of you do it they simply will not be able to get away with this type of reckless disregard for human life so they can profit handsomely.
Another result of all this increased attention is that doctors may be finally cutting themselves off from all of the trinkets given by drug reps that litter their offices -- from sticky notes to tissue paper -- not to mention that pipeline of free samples.
Heck, after awhile it just becomes too embarrassing to display drug company freebies, it becomes very "uncool."
No wonder there was so much attention paid to Pfizer's late 2006 announcement that it was slashing 20 percent of its sales force. And, perhaps that's why drug marketers are rerouting those funds to the Internet, in the form of branded Web sites, banner ads and prime search engine placement.
Drug companies will, of course, continue to spend vast sums of cash marketing to consumers and creating biased medical studies, but at least it's getting harder for them to get at the person who prescribes the drugs.
Now, if the dominant medical paradigm would turn away from prescribing needless, useless drugs altogether, that would be a true leap forward compared to this baby step in the right direction. But at least it is a step in the right direction.
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