Drug companies will do whatever it takes to make a profit; even if that means shelling out $16 billion a year to persuade physicians into prescribing their drugs to patients over others.
One famous tactic drug companies rely on to influence physicians is giving them free samples. Research has clearly shown that when doctors are given samples of drugs by pharmaceutical representatives, they are more likely to prescribe those drugs in lieu of over-the-counter or generic alternatives.
Settling the Debate
In order to clearly determine if drug prescribing is influenced by free samples, researchers conducted a randomized study of 29 internal medicine residents over a six-month period.
By random selection, half the residents agreed not to use the free samples.
After selecting five drug classes where free samples of heavily advertised drugs were distributed, and where inexpensive alternatives existed, researchers analyzed the prescribing differences between residents who had access to the free samples and those who agreed not to use them. Results showed:
Those with access to drug samples were more likely to write new prescriptions for heavily advertised drugs and less likely to recommend over-the-counter drugs than their peers.
There was a trend toward less use of inexpensive drugs.
The influence free samples have over physicians seems to violate published national guidelines on physician interactions with the pharmaceutical industry. Moreover, according to researchers, this finding contradicts the widespread beliefs that drug samples are essentially different from other forms of marketing and that samples help patients manage drug costs in the long term.
Medical News Today July 29, 2005
Drug companies are one of the most powerful industries on this planet. Do you know of many other companies that could lose $30 billion in one day and still go on strong?
Folks, it doesn't get any bigger than the drug companies. They even dwarf Internet darlings like Google. They use some of the most sophisticated marketing strategies known to man. And why not? They can afford the best, and I assure you they use it.
They have the full force of Congress behind them, as they control the largest political lobbying group and have spent over $1 billion alone on lobbying in the last 10 years. There are more drug company lobbyists than there are congressmen.
While spending a billion dollars to influence Congress over 10 years may seem like a lot, it pales in comparison to what they spend to influence you. They spent over $4 billion in the United States last year on direct-to-consumer advertising.
But even that pales to what is spent to influence your doctor. They spend over $10,000 every year for every doctor in the United States. That amounts to $15 billion a year.
These companies are anything but stupid; I assure you that they are not throwing this money away. They are only spending this much because they are getting a much better return on their investment for the money they spend. They are able to leverage their marketing dollars to major sales at the drug store.
Part of the process is to pay sales reps to visit your doctor and drop samples off to them. These "drug reps" are effective tools that clearly influence the way doctors prescribe. This is really so "last century," as that is when the study was first done that proved this fact -- that many doctors would still disagree with.
Related Articles:
Drug Companies Greatly Influence Doctors' Prescribing Habits Is Your Doctor Moonlighting -- As a Drug Rep? The Virtual Schmooze
Drug Companies Greatly Influence Doctors' Prescribing Habits
Is Your Doctor Moonlighting -- As a Drug Rep?
The Virtual Schmooze
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