Big Pharma Marketing Influences Prescriptions of 98% Doctors
How much impact do pharmaceutical corporations’ marketing operations have on doctors’ prescription practice? A vast bulk of doctors accepted that three main exercises impacted their prescription decisions. One among them is certainly big pharma marketing as it influences prescriptions of 98% of the doctors in the country.
A three-year study comprising 1,100 physicians undertaken by the faculty of management at Gujarat Technological University (GTU) revealed that 97.6% of doctors have accepted promotional activities from pharmaceutical corporations, reports the Times of India.
A vast bulk of doctors — whether paediatricians, dentists, general practitioners, gynaecologists, or consulting physicians — accepted that three main exercises impacted their prescription decisions: customer relationship management, sponsorship, and medical representative understanding of their commodity.
Other factors mentioned by the doctors included expensive healthcare journal subscriptions, a higher quantity of trail packages or samples, focused digital marketing, and recurring reminders from the medical representative to write a prescription of their medications, all of which had an impact on their prescription conduct.
Krunal Vishavadia of GTU’s School of Management conveyed the severity of the above-mentioned marketing methods — for example, 88% of doctors desired MRs to have in-depth grasp of their products, 91% of doctors said pharma companies’ initiatives on continuous medical education (CME) of doctors affect prescription habit, 98% of physicians acknowledged that customer relationship management strategies served a key part, and 75% of doctors felt that the quantity of free samples provided tends to swing their prescription behavior as well.
According to Vishavadia, 23% of doctors were undecided on this issue.
When it came to drug company sponsorships, such as high-value gifts, medical products, or cash for international conferences, the doctors declined to comment to the investigator.
Many of the doctors in the survey were aware of the advent of the Uniform Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP).
Vishavadia reported that general practitioners (GP, MBBS and GP, Non-MBBS) account for 34% of all doctors in the country and write 39% of all medications from a total pool of 3.7 lakh practitioners within the nation.
Dentists come in second with a 14 percent contribution and an 11 percent prescription share, followed by consultant physicians with an 8 percent contribution and an 8 percent prescription share.
With an average of 788 prescriptions each month, or 26 prescriptions per day, paediatricians had the most prescriptions.
- Source : GreatGameIndia
