Everything is changing!
(Ref: Bloomberg)
March 17th, 2014
By: Matthew Dennis
Deirdre Connelly, head of GlaxoSmithKline's US pharmaceuticals business, said the company will recruit doctors as in-house representatives to provide education about its medicines instead of paying external speakers, Bloomberg reported Monday. "We'll continue to disseminate this very important information on drug benefits and risks, but we’re just not going to do that by hiring external speakers," Connelly remarked, adding "we want to ensure that no one even perceives us to be doing anything wrong."
The move is the latest overhaul of GlaxoSmithKline's marketing practices after the drugmaker concluded a $3-billion agreement in 2012 to resolve multiple US government investigations into its promotional activities for certain products, including marketing them for unapproved uses. In December last year, the company indicated that it would start a consultation on stopping direct payments to healthcare professionals for speaking engagements and for attendance at medical conferences. In addition, GlaxoSmithKline decided to scrap individual sales targets for all of its sales employees after having implemented a similar programme in the US in 2011.
A recent analysis from ProPublica found that payments from some pharmaceutical companies to US health professionals for promotional speeches have fallen, with GlaxoSmithKline spending $9.3 million on such activities in 2012, down from $24 million the year before.
Connelly noted that GlaxoSmithKline will hire a range of people with medical backgrounds, including doctors and scientists with expertise in specific disease areas, who will be expected to use a range of digital tools, such as online streaming of educational material, to help market products. She indicated that the number of new recruits will be fewer than the number of external speakers the company has employed. According to Connelly, the drugmaker has reduced its sales force by more than 30 percent since 2009, while creating new educational roles and jobs targeting pharmacies.
"In addition to how we operate...we have a different business model today from what we had before," Connelly commented. The executive suggested that the changes have insulated GlaxoSmithKline's US sales from an ongoing bribery investigation of the company in China.
However, industry commentator Erik Gordon from the University of Michigan noted that corporate ties and a lack of reputation among practicing colleagues could potentially impede GlaxoSmithKline's new hires. "Doctors aren’t influenced by just any other doctor," Gordon remarked, adding "they are influenced by doctors who are sufficiently well known, respected, and seen as key opinion leaders, real experts with lots of experience with patients."
(Ref: Bloomberg)
March 17th, 2014
By: Matthew Dennis
Deirdre Connelly, head of GlaxoSmithKline's US pharmaceuticals business, said the company will recruit doctors as in-house representatives to provide education about its medicines instead of paying external speakers, Bloomberg reported Monday. "We'll continue to disseminate this very important information on drug benefits and risks, but we’re just not going to do that by hiring external speakers," Connelly remarked, adding "we want to ensure that no one even perceives us to be doing anything wrong."
The move is the latest overhaul of GlaxoSmithKline's marketing practices after the drugmaker concluded a $3-billion agreement in 2012 to resolve multiple US government investigations into its promotional activities for certain products, including marketing them for unapproved uses. In December last year, the company indicated that it would start a consultation on stopping direct payments to healthcare professionals for speaking engagements and for attendance at medical conferences. In addition, GlaxoSmithKline decided to scrap individual sales targets for all of its sales employees after having implemented a similar programme in the US in 2011.
A recent analysis from ProPublica found that payments from some pharmaceutical companies to US health professionals for promotional speeches have fallen, with GlaxoSmithKline spending $9.3 million on such activities in 2012, down from $24 million the year before.
Connelly noted that GlaxoSmithKline will hire a range of people with medical backgrounds, including doctors and scientists with expertise in specific disease areas, who will be expected to use a range of digital tools, such as online streaming of educational material, to help market products. She indicated that the number of new recruits will be fewer than the number of external speakers the company has employed. According to Connelly, the drugmaker has reduced its sales force by more than 30 percent since 2009, while creating new educational roles and jobs targeting pharmacies.
"In addition to how we operate...we have a different business model today from what we had before," Connelly commented. The executive suggested that the changes have insulated GlaxoSmithKline's US sales from an ongoing bribery investigation of the company in China.
However, industry commentator Erik Gordon from the University of Michigan noted that corporate ties and a lack of reputation among practicing colleagues could potentially impede GlaxoSmithKline's new hires. "Doctors aren’t influenced by just any other doctor," Gordon remarked, adding "they are influenced by doctors who are sufficiently well known, respected, and seen as key opinion leaders, real experts with lots of experience with patients."