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Long-term care executives named Pfizer Inc., New York, the pharmaceutical company that best meets their needs.

The potential for medication mix-ups worries patients most, followed by fear of negative drug interactions and treatment costs.

Total retail prescription drug sales for 1999 are expected to exceed $121.6 billion.

Rep. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced a bill that would use market competition to reduce the cost of prescription drugs.

Drug benefits for enrollees in Medicare health maintenance organizations vary greatly from plan to plan.

The Food and Drug Administration claims that Glaxo Wellcome's Spanish-language television advertisements for Flonase® (fluticasone) nasal spray, which ran in Puerto Rico in 1998 and 1999, failed to disclose risk information.

For-profit hospitals cost the Medicare program more than not-for-profit hospitals, according to a recent article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 341, no. 6).

The American Heart Association has estimated that patient non-compliance with physician instructions regarding medication use costs the United States $100 billion annually in unnecessary medical costs and lost national productivity.

Classic tips for earning a customer's trust.

FDA regulations violate free speech

Active listening will help you remain focused on your customers, thereby allowing you to uncover their real needs.

Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ, has entered into an agreement with Centocor Inc., Malvern, PA, under which the two companies will merge.

PR salutes reps who make a difference.

Congress is considering a bill that would establish an independent review process to consider patent extensions for drugs that spent more time than normal in the FDA review process.

Pharmaceutical Representative welcomed two new members to its editorial advisory board in 1999: Mark Osborne, director of sales training at Chicago-based Searle and Professor Mickey Smith, professor of pharmacy administration and the director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management at the University of Mississippi.

On July 28, a district court judge in Washington ruled that some provisions of the FDA Modernization Act are unconstitutional because they violate pharmaceutical companies' rights to free speech.

An "evidence-based formulary" that compares the safety, efficacy and cost of pharmaceuticals in the top eight therapeutic classes is being made available to clients of Express Scripts.

Some reps may be promoted to management before they're ready.

The United States joined 21 other trading nations in eliminating tariffs on pharmaceutical items.

Five ways to tip the scales in your favor.

Minnesota health maintenance organizations increased their average per-member premium revenue but continued to lose money, according to the recently released Minnesota Managed Care Review 1999.

Helping novices climb the sales mountain.

For Searle's David Washco, it was a "very honorable and very humbling experience" - not to mention a big surprise - when the company named him its 1998 rep of the year.

Results from a new survey shed new light on how frequently health plans and care providers disagree about appropriate care for patients.

RJR Tobacco Co., long known for its cigarette products, is turning its knowledge of nicotine into compounds that fight Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

One of the best methods to build relationships and gain valuable application knowledge is to take part in a preceptorship.

Investor-owned health maintenance organizations fall short of non-profit HMOs in 14 quality-of-care indicators, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Make your working relationship a two-way street.

When asking doctors whether or not they have been prescribing a drug, specialty sales rep David Schwartz's advice is, "Don't accept yes or no for an answer."

How one rep turned the tables.