Is a sales force really needed in pharma?

Jan/10/2007 01:52 Filed in: Pharma Business
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An article in this weeks Wall Street Journal, written by a physician, details about how how he has turned drug reps away and as a result has less samples but more free time for patients. Is the pharma sales force becoming less effective at driving physician adoption of new products and more of a drain on expenses? My feeling is that it sure looks like it's headed that way, especially when pharma companies hire people right out of school send them through crash courses and then expect them to have a peer to peer conversation with physicians and other HCP's.


I used to shake my head at the pharma reps who came into HQ's for their training. Most looked like they were right out of school and they were taught to detail physicians using a script to the letter. The guys were all young and the women all tended to be very good looking (not by accident). If I were a physician, I often wondered, would I listen to these people to get my free my sample? Unless you have some new information on your product I probably wouldn't want to hear it. Yet big pharma continues to spend millions of dollars on sales people salaries, expenses, and travel. Sure some pharma companies have cut the number of sales people but there are still way to many out there.

What would happen if, in order to get samples, physicians would have to complete a detail online or via a CD-ROM( when THEY have time)? What would happen if pharma companies hired regional physicians to talk with physicians peer to peer via in person, online, or by phone? What if pharma companies could distribute the results of ongoing or new clinical trials to physicians without putting a spin on it? Could one company possibly handle samples for a number of pharma companies via mail thus reducing the need for pharma sales people to be expensive delivery people? These are things that pharma companies should be exploring NOW because the environment in which they compete is going to get worse and more competitive. They can't continue to funnel millions of dollars into a sales force that is becoming less effective.

There are some products that will require some type of sales force to keep HCP's abreast of changes in the market, most notably the sales people who sell speciality products like oncology products. But do we really need sales people to detail HCP's on Cialis, Viagra, Allegra, and other me too products? I am not sure what the direction or the answer is but pharma had better start testing a lot of programs to see what works and what doesn't because the people on Wall Street won't be kind when earnings decline and expenses continue to climb.
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