Healthy Skepticism Library item: 2676

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Anonymous .
Rebirth of a salesman
The Economist 2001 Apr 14

Abstract:

The marketing of drugs remains a curiously old-fashioned practice. In America, 63,000 drug reps attempt to persuade doctors to prescribe their products. Such detailing accounted for almost half of the $15.5 billion spent on drug marketing. However, doctors have little time to listen to drug reps. One solution may be electronic detailing. A dozen such firms have sprung up. One firm, iPhysicianNet, has installed computers in the offices of almost 7,000 of America’s highest prescribing doctors, in return for one video-detailing session per month with each of the nine drug companies paying for the service. iPhysicianNet claims that video detailing is cheaper than real-life encounters, compared with which it boosts prescribing by 14%.