Do physicians have a right to be compensated for "promoting" medications?

Nov/28/2007 06:35 Filed in: HCP Marketing
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Well there has been quite a bit of buzz around the article in the Sunday Times Magazine about a physician who said that he became addicted to money for working with Wyeth to promote one of their products. His story is probably not unique among doctors but I believe that physicians are entitled to compensation for talking to other doctors about medications they talk about on behalf of drug companies much the same way that politicians earn money for speaking while in office.



If a health care professional really believes that a mediation he or she prescribes helps patients then by all means they should spread the word to others within the HCP community. But when people from sales review presentations or critique them for "enthusiasm" then the line has been crossed. HCP's want to know the good and the bad with prescription medications as well as patient outcomes. They know that every medications is not right for everyone so they want to hear about outcomes with patients as well as how the HCP managed side effects. This is an open exchange of information not getting up in front of your peers and using promotional language and claims that come right out of a detail piece.



Establishing a medical practice today is both expensive and time consuming and HCP's have a right to be compensated for their time. Pharma has to do a better job of recruiting physicians for speakers talks by recruiting those doctors that really believe in the product and can be impartial when communicating benefits to their peers. Sales people need to be far removed from this process because they have a major vested interest in converting docs to write more Rx's.


There are a lot of great drugs out there that allow people to lead healthier lives but perhaps probably none are more addictive than money. Instead of relying on this addiction pharma needs to ensure that HCP's believe in the products and the company. It's not a hard process to employ but then pharma has never been one to acknowledge its one shortcomings.
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