Healthy Skepticism Library item: 7841

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: report

Millenson M
Getting Doctors to Say Yes to Drugs: The Cost and Quality Impact of Drug Company Marketing to Physicians
: Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association 2003
http://web.archive.org/web/20071026063406/http://www.bcbs.com/betterknowledge/cost/Drug_Co_Marketing_Report.pdf

Abstract:

Focus: To examine the impact of drug company marketing to physicians on overall healthcare costs and quality.

Study Design: Critical review of available data and literature.

Results:

From 1996 to 2001 the size of the detail force for the top pharmaceutical companies more than doubled, going from about 41,000 to 90,000.
The top companies average 4,000 representatives to sell to primary-care physicians and 850 representatives for specialists, each backed by an average field force budget of $875 million. The top-spending firms currently pour more than $1 billion each into their sales forces every year.
More than half (55 percent) of a group of “high-prescribing” physicians surveyed by the industry data-tracking group ImpactRx said that drug company representatives serve as their primary source of information about newly approved drugs. Only about one-quarter of the physicians (26 percent) mentioned medical journals as their first information source.
For new drugs with more than $200 million in annual revenues launched during 1997-1999, there was a $10.29 average return on investment (ROI) for each extra dollar invested in detailing. In comparison, the ROI for medical journal advertisements was $5.41, and for direct-to-consumer advertising it was just $1.37.