Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8765
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
Agovino T.
Bristol, Boehringer Sales Teams Rank 1st
Associated Press 2007 Mar 6
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070306/pharmaceutical_marketing.html?.v=4
Full text:
Report: Bristol-Myers, Boehringer Ingelheim Sales Teams Rank Tops Most
NEW YORK (AP) — Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Boehringer Ingelheim Corp. ranked best in a new survey that ranks the effectiveness of the drug industry’s sales forces set to be released Tuesday.
Bristol-Myers has the most effective team for targeting specialists while Boehringer’s representatives were rated best at reaching primary care doctors, according to a survey of more than 20,000 physicians conducted by TargetRx Inc., a consulting company specializing in pharmaceutical sales and marketing. The survey covered a total of 210 brands but doctors were only asked about products that had been marketed to them.
The size and expense of drug companies’ sales forces has increasingly become an issue as numerous drug makers seek to cut costs as many struggle with patent expirations and consumers’ resistance to pricey medicines. Last year, Pfizer Inc. announced it was cutting 20 percent of its U.S. sales force while last week Abbott Laboratories said it was laying off several hundred representatives as it absorbs its purchase of Kos Pharmaceuticals Inc.
An average sales person costs a pharmaceutical company about $200,000 including salary and benefits such as a car, said Mike Luby, president and CEO of TargetRx. He said that the challenging business environment means it is imperative for drug makers’ sales forces are as effective as possible.
Luby said the survey asked doctors about numerous issues including the quality of the marketing materials, the representative’s knowledge of the product, disease and appropriate patient population and whether the sales person’s pitch was balanced and efficient.
Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company which is widely considered among the best marketers in the business, ranked 12th among primary care doctors and eighth among specialists. In a statement, Pfizer said it had fared better in other surveys and that overall its sales force has consistently held high rankings from physicians in the areas of performance, professionalism and customer focus.
Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc., a subsidiary of Forest Laboratories Inc., ranked last of the 16 companies rated by primary care doctors while Merck & Co. was in the basement of the 18 drug makers measured by specialists.
In a statement, Tony Hooper, Bristol-Myers’ President of U.S. Pharmaceuticals, said that the company works closely with physicians to ensure that they have the information needed to make informed decisions for patients and that it was constantly measuring, evaluating and correcting its sales approach.
Boehringer spokesman Mark Vincent said the company strives to hire high-quality individuals and arm them with good information to help physicians. A core component of the strategy is to ensure sales people understand the realities of physicians’ life such as their time constraints and contracts with numerous managed care companies, so the representatives can be as sensitive and useful as possible.
Merck said in a statement said that it introduced five medicines and vaccines last year and that “the strong uptake of these new products is a stronger measure than any survey.
Forest Labs declined comment while Boehringer, a privately held German company, didn’t have an immediate comment.
