The role of the pharmaceutical sales representative has often been challenged from a public relations perspective. Some protagonists believe that the representative, as an extension of the pharmaceutical company itself, is overly influential when dealing with a healthcare practitioner, which flows through to a product decision-making process. Every now and again we hear that much more time is spent on pharmaceutical marketing efforts than is spent engaged with research and development for the product itself. Nevertheless, pharmaceutical marketing techniques are essential in disseminating the information necessary for the practitioner to make a final deliberation as to whether the product should be prescribed or not. The sales force plays a critical role in bringing the product to the market as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Due to some of the negative public relations, some markets in the United States have imposed restrictions on gift giving, including the dissemination of drug samples by pharmaceutical salespeople. In particular, Partners Healthcare, the largest hospital and physician network in the state of Massachusetts has implemented guidelines, specifically prohibiting their physicians and researchers from accepting gifts or drug samples from pharmaceutical manufacturers. Now, sales representatives must get written permission before they are allowed to interact with the network’s employees and if any drug samples are provided, the samples must be forwarded to a centralised system, so that they are distributed anonymously and for the use of the entire network. The president of the Association of American Medical Colleges determined that these new guidelines represent “a serious and comprehensive step forward in the rapidly evolving arena of medicine and its relationship with industry.”

According to the originators of this policy, the recommendations came from an internal review, where potential conflicts of interest were analysed over the preceding two years. At that time it was recognised that the relationship between the pharmaceutical company and the health care professional was fundamental to enable scientific advantages and advances to propagate to the patient, but the body did question whether some techniques used could compromise the integrity of the system.

Some have suggested that gifts or drug samples may adversely affect the healthcare professional’s neutrality and may promote them to issue or prescribe the associated drugs more favourably than any others.

It remains to be seen how the developments in Massachusetts pan out, or whether similar proposals are adopted within other networks or jurisdictions. We can certainly determine from this development that the pharmaceutical marketing industry is once again developing and changing. It is yet another reason why pharmaceutical companies should devote their resources to pharmaceutical consultants, so that the consultant can ensure that the team is up-to-date and ahead of the competitive game. Healthcare legislation is all around us, even as we are all getting used to the importance of new communication methods and as such pharmaceutical sales training is so important. The significance of primary accounts will increase in the market, as there is more reliance on two-way communication and information exchange. Not surprisingly, key account management training is a role that the competent pharmaceutical marketing consultant is best placed to undertake under the overall mantra of pharmaceutical sales training.

Alan Gillies is the CEO of L2L Consulting, a cutting-edge pharma consultancy firm which specialises in optimising productivity and performance within international companies by applying tailored organisational strategies.