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Former Drug Sales Rep Tells All

drug rep, sales, salesmanShahram Ahari, who spent two years selling Prozac and Zypraxa for Eli Lily, told a Senate Aging Committee that his job involved "rewarding physicians with gifts and attention for their allegiance to your product and company despite what may be ethically appropriate."

Ahari claims that drug companies often hire former cheerleaders and ex-models, as well as former athletes and members of the military, even if they have no background in science.

During their five-week training class, Ahari says he was taught sales tactics such as:
  • How to exceed spending limits for important clients
  • How to be generous with free samples to leverage sales
  • How to use friendships and personal gifts to foster a "quid pro quo" relationship
  • How to exploit sexual tension
Ahari claims that he‘s even heard stories about sales reps helping to pay the cost of a doctor‘s swimming pool, or taking a doctor to a nightclub where a hostess was paid to keep him company.

For this work, sales reps often earned more than researchers. On top of a base salary of $50,000 for starting reps, Ahari says, "there were four quarterly bonuses, an annual bonus, stock options, a car, 401K, great health benefits, and a $60,000 expense account."

Sources:

Dr. Mercola''s Comments Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Shahram Ahari must be one of the drug companies’ worst nightmares; he is one of the few who has witnessed the corruption firsthand, and then moved on to speak out about it.

By now, it’s old news that drug companies use extreme sales tactics to influence doctors’ prescribing habits, but to hear the extent of just how far things go -- buying doctors’ swimming pools or using sexual innuendos to make sales -- is still shocking.

"The nature of this business is gift-giving," Ahari said, and indeed it seems that in the world of pharmaceuticals, everything has a price.

Your Doctor Probably Has a Relationship With a Drug Rep

It is the rare physician who refuses to meet with drug sales reps. In fact, as of April 2007, the percentage was just 7 percent of U.S. doctors.  

Even I met with drug reps until the year 2000, at which time I just refused to see any. Before that I was actually a paid speaker for the drug companies. They would fly me to various physician education events around the country and pay me a VERY generous stipend to lecture to these groups. That was more than two decades ago, before I was able to remove myself from their very powerful brainwashing techniques -- and I was finally able to understand the truth of what they were doing.

So there is a very good chance that the doctor you see right now is being subjected to similar intense sales tactics like the ones Ahari describes. According to one study published in The New England Journal of Medicine:
  • 94 percent of doctors have some type of relationship with the drug industry
  • 80 percent of doctors commonly accept free food and drug samples
  • One-third of doctors were reimbursed by the drug industry for going to professional meetings or continuing education classes
  • 28 percent of doctors have been paid for consulting, giving lectures, or signing their patients up for clinical trials
Drug reps can be very sneaky. According to a report in PLoS Medicine co-authored by Ahari:

“Physicians who refuse to see reps are detailed by proxy; their staff is dined and flattered in hopes that they will act as emissaries for a rep's messages.”

Clearly these are no ordinary sales meetings; this is psychological warfare.

Sales Reps are Trained to Brainwash Doctors

Pharmaceutical sales reps are trained in tactics that are on par with some of the most potent brainwashing techniques used throughout the world, according to the PLoS report. Said Ahari:

“It's my job to figure out what a physician's price is. For some it's dinner at the finest restaurants, for others it's enough convincing data to let them prescribe confidently and for others it's my attention and friendship ... but at the most basic level, everything is for sale and everything is an exchange.”

Drug reps must target doctors because it is only through a physician that a consumer can purchase their product. Although in the United States they have also ramped up their direct-to-consumer ads on television and in magazines, their real “meat and potatoes” comes from their marketing directly to physicians.

This is why drug companies spend $4 billion each year on direct-to-consumer ads in the United States, but $16 billion to influence physicians. That is $10,000 for every single doctor in the United States.

The Drug Sales Rep Ambush

Most doctors don’t even stand a chance against a seemingly innocent drug sales rep. They appear friendly, eager to please, and knowledgeable about their product, and most physicians think there is no harm in accepting a free sample here, or a free lunch there.

Well, studies have shown that those free samples and lunches DO impact doctors' prescribing habits. So you can imagine what a more lavish gift -- like a free vacation, “consulting fee” or even companionship -- can do.

What they don’t get to see is the well-oiled machine that is controlling these reps, and ultimately the physicians as well, like marionettes.

From the instant a drug rep enters your office, the ambush is underway. Says Ahari:

“A photo on a desk presents an opportunity to inquire about family members and memorize whatever tidbits are offered … these are usually typed into a database after the encounter. Reps scour a doctor's office for objects -- a tennis racquet, Russian novels, seventies rock music, fashion magazines, travel mementos, or cultural or religious symbols -- that can be used to establish a personal connection with the doctor.”

In their PLoS Medicine report, Ahari and Adriane Fugh-Berman, an associate professor in the department of physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University Medical Center, even put together this chart of the specific tactics used to manipulate physicians.


 
What is the Moral of the Story?

Your doctor may have the best intentions in the world, but if they are being visited by drug reps, there is a strong likelihood they have been influenced by highly skilled, multinational, self-serving corporate interests and their opinions about prescription drugs are likely highly biased as a result. This can certainly happen even at a subconscious level, and the end result is a higher tendency to prescribe the drugs that have been marketed to them.

This is why I remind you often, taking ownership for your own health by leading a healthy lifestyle, and only resorting to drugs as a last option, is the key to surviving, and thriving, in the 21st century.


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Comment on This Article Community Comments (146)
 
 
Posted On Apr 06, 2008

Dr. Mercola's article on the road that has led him to where is he now, in repects to his training and experiences was interesting and indicative of how difficult it is to find a really expert healer who doesn't use big pharma's drugs. And if you are fortunate enough to find one, chances are slim to none that insurance will help pick up the tab. Why should they; they make much more money supporting the disease care system instead of the health care system. I understand there are doctors out there curing diseases, even cancer, but they have to work very discreetly or they could find themselves out of a career and in jail.Apparently the wonderful people at the F*A have come up with a brilliant law or regulation which states that only a drug can treat or cure a disease, with no small pressure from big pharma, I'm sure. So. what that means is that if you cure or help heal someones disease without drugs and a medical license to prescribe them, you have broken the law and are liable to be prosecuted which means shutting the doctor down and possible jail time. If this sounds to you like something out of the Bizarro world, I agree with you. It's so bizarre that it may even defy belief for some, but that is how things are sometimes down in this world. And with ever more conditions being classified as "diseases" the medical/pharma cartel is constantly expanding (and trying to defend)their turf. A chiropractor friend of mine secreted a Rife frequency generator into the county several years ago and cured his mother's cancer. These doctors cannot claim to cure anything. The medical/pharma cartel has an effective monopoly. Now don't misunderstand me; I think there is a place for medical doctors in our society. But that place is a very small one compared to the huge slice of the pie they now enjoy. Use them for broken bones, stitching up a wound or other emergency care. Big pharma is an investment industry and people are making billions peddling death by deception. Caveat Emptor!


 
tomalex
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 4/2008
tomalex  
 
 
 
Posted On Apr 05, 2008

Robert Passmore Liversidge III, my only son, was killed by Lilly's Olanzapine (Zyprexa) in October 2002 at the age of 39.  My family's life has been basically ruined as a result, and oftentimes I don't want to live.  Yet I will battle Pharma until the day I die, whenever that may be.

I would be interested in corresponding with the man further up in the comment section whose father was killed by Zyprexa.


 
Grieving
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 4/2008
Grieving  
Replied

samurai
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 4/2007
samurai  
 
Posted On Apr 07, 2008

Grieving,

I am deeply saddened by your post.  Although I have little experience with anti-depressants with myself, nor my family, I would like to say that last year, I was poisoned with Depo-Provera.  I found many women on the website www.askapatient.com who wear the same shoes as I.  It has been very helpful to me.  Maybe you can come in contact with others that have suffered as you?  I wish you the very best of luck.

Heartfelt wishes,

Samurai



WellnessMom
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2006
WellnessMom  
 
Posted On Apr 08, 2008

Dear Grieving,

I am so sorry to about your loss, I pray for you and your family. Like samurai, I have never lost anyone due to a prescription drug, but I have suffered a detached retina in one eye and numerous tears in the other after taking an antidepressant called Cymbalta from Eli Lilly for a little over a month. Getting off of it was like having withdrawals from a bad drug. That was in early 2005 and my eyes have never been the same.

While I thank God I didn't lose my eye's completely, I fear that so many people are suffering needlessly at the hands of not only big pharma, but their own doctors who are being bought off by them.

May God heal your grieving heart and give you the strength you need to continue to battle Big Pharma as will the rest of us.

WellnessMom



saynotoquacks
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 4/2007
saynotoquacks  
 
Posted On Apr 08, 2008

Grieving, I am so saddened and deeply angered by your loss.  I was on that super-poison Zyrexa for eight months, over two four-month periods.  Each time I quit I felt like I'd had a lobotomy.  I could barely walk.  I could hardly even breathe.  I couldn't sleep for more than two hours a night.  I had no emotions except extreme anxiety, suicidal depression, and rage.  I was paranoid and agorophobic.  Two years later the withdrawals have hardly improved.  I still get suicidal at times and am very sensitive to negative things, and sleep is a rare Godsend, and I feel like I'm floating in some other world.  I am still ten pounds overweight from it, even though I run every day.  Of course this is absolutely nothing compared to your loss.  It is genocide.  Big Pharma are *** and the doctors who perpetuate their dope and their lies are just as guilty as the followers of the *** were.

WellnessMom, I am so saddened and angered by what happened to you as well. I wonder if turmeric might help heal your retinas?  Best of luck to you.



saynotoquacks
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 4/2007
saynotoquacks  
 
Posted On Apr 08, 2008

I am surprised that the word "nazi" was censored from my post.  What about "fascists?"  That is indeed what the pharmaceutical industry is, is it not?



Alexis_203
Novice User Novice User Joined On 11/2007
Alexis_203  
 
Posted On Apr 22, 2008

Poor Grieving; I'm so very sorry for you:(


 
 
 
Posted On Mar 14, 2008
Pharma companies gifting physicians is barely the tip of the iceberg of this incredibly broken system.  I think any negative press that reminds/prompts people to think is helpful.  Its also true that research institutions and universities need funding for their research and it's not hard to guess where that's coming from.  So the doctors are wooed into brand loyalty, but what about the fact that they're trained in school is to medicate (and they barely spend 3 minutes with a patient).


 
HealthCoachSandraG
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 3/2008
HealthCoachSandraG  
Replied

skyblupink
Novice User Novice User Joined On 3/2008
skyblupink  
 
Posted On Apr 06, 2008

I had a very good dr who leaned to the holistic side at a university med center warn me about vioxx before any bad press aboout it, saying there werent many studies, expensive etc.... unfortunately she had a lot of trouble with them and left...

i have heard our rights to buy supplements is in jeopardy, that 'codex alimentatis (sp?) could make them all condidered a drug and illegal, and there will no longer be places like the vitamin shoppe... anyone else hear that?



Gr8Health
Novice User Novice User Joined On 4/2008
Gr8Health  
 
Posted On Apr 07, 2008

Skyblupink, your fears are well-founded. Big Pharma would love nothing more than to put the supplement and natural health industry out of business. They tried, with the FDA's help, to overturn the U.S. law passed in the 80s that classified supplements as "food" and not subject to FDA regulation. The FDA wants to reclassify supplements as "toxins," regulate them, and allow them to be "prescribed" only by medical doctors who, coincidentally, are not formally trained in nutrition, know little or nothing about supplements, and have been taught to push drugs. In essence, regulating supplements would put the supplement industry out of business. Fortunately, through massive efforts by the Natural Solutions Foundation (www.healthfreedomusa.org) and others, the FDA and Big Pharma failed in their attempt—this time. They will try again because, after all, Big Pharma’s profits are at stake.

As for the Codex Alimentarius, that too, is real. See “Codex Crash Course” on the link above for a brief description of what it is. Basically, it is a U.N.-mandated code, established in 1962, to define standards for the international trading of food. To quote the website:

“Codex' decisions are heavily influenced by the desires of multinational special interest groups who send representatives to sit on national committees and as NGO delegates. Because Codex is so heavily influenced by corporate interests, its decisions are, in our opinion, often helpful to corporate well-being but strikingly detrimental to human and environmental health.”

“Codex pertains to every … kind of … food traded internationally and allows high doses of pesticides, veterinary drugs, synthetic hormones, contaminants, artificial sweeteners, and other dangerous compounds and processes (like mandated irradiation of food) while it forbids health claims for food.”

This is just the tip of the iceberg of what’s really going on out there. Do a little research and stay informed!


 
 
 
Posted On Apr 05, 2008

Big Pharma and M.D.wont go away till the insurance companies start paying for natural medicine practice ; if people would have choice and the insurance pays fully, chemical drugs and chemical doctors wont stand a chance to the holistic approach;

people please demand from your insurance companies to pay for the holistic  !!!!!!!!!!!!


 
sobber
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 10/2007
sobber  
Replied

RockLakeYachtClub
Novice User Novice User Joined On 3/2008
RockLakeYachtClub  
 
Posted On Apr 05, 2008

Better yet, dismantle the tax incentive the government gave employers to pay for their workers' health insurance, and get insurers out of the health care business.  Insurance works best when it's used for catastrophic events, not routine health care!


 
 
 
Posted On Mar 13, 2008
I wonder where the objective academic literature is going to come from,  Especially since most schools that research pharmaceuticals are heavily influenced by pharmaceutical companies.

Mary

 
mmc88121
Moderator User Moderator User, Joined On 11/2006
mmc88121  
Replied

Islander
Moderator User Moderator User Joined On 3/2007
Islander  
 
Posted On Mar 14, 2008
Mary, that is exactly the crux of the matter. Who but pharmaceutical companies have the do-re-mi to pay for drug trials? And of course they have a vested interest in the outcome. Historically they bury the unwanted results and promulgate the ones that put the new drug in a favorable light. Sadly, I don't see how it will change.


Charisse
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 10/2007
Charisse  
 
Posted On Apr 07, 2008

Islander, you and Mary make excellent points.....my sister is a doctor(MD) and even in the honor's program in med. school...she didn't have much in the way of pharmaceutical training...not nearly as much as a pharmacist....that really bothered her (and me)...so these "well-meaning" doctors don't have time to dig up adversarial research??? so they depend on the research from the drug Rep???

Looks like the fox is guarding the henhouse....If your not getting your info from any other source on a regular basis than the drug rep, then...it's a conflict of interest plain and simple.....I don't care how trusting and well meaning they are....they're all intelligent enough to know better......



Joan Courtenay
Novice User Novice User Joined On 1/2007
Joan Courtenay  
 
Posted On Apr 08, 2008

Mary here are several sources of alternate information from qualified third parties.

First, you can pay a subscription (I believe it costs $15 per year) to worstpills. org (Ralph Nader started this organization in the 1990s with a number of doctors concerned about pharmaceutical company products). This organization has raised alerts about drugs well ahead, in some cases years ahead, of an FDA Black Box warning or pulling a drug off the market.

Also, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada has an excellent program that was established a few years ago to help eductate doctors and the public. Their website address is www.ti.ubc.ca

Third, you might be interested to read the editorial column of the current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal at www.cmaj.ca. The editor blasts the whole notion of "industry funded physician education." Mighty brave of him considering this is the journal for the doctor's lobby group.

Lastly, people everywhere should be advocating hard with their elected representatives to put universities and arms-length govenment bodies back in charge of both research and education. We're all too numbed into apathy by nonsense reality shows and skewered news media. Come on people, they're not on our side. We have the power, we just need to stand up and be counted. Make noise, don't just tune in to mush head TV.

By the way, Obama has said his answer to fixing health care coverage costs is to "work with the pharmaceutical companies." Well I guess you know how effective that "babe in the woods" approach will be with the sharks. My, my, how gullible he and the public are when fuelled by media hype that he's the heir to Martin Luther King. Obama couldn't hold a candle to Martin Luther King's intelligence. Obama is King-lite, and maybe not even that. He's just an illusion for people to pin hopes on, he has no real substance. And the Republican brain trust knows it. They can't wait to carve him up.


 
 
 
 
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