Sales & Marketing

A new TV doctor show features the most loathsome pharmaceutical executive in recent memory. But in another important way, the show is serving pharma's best interests.

If you work for a company that isn't interested in increasing sales across your portfolio, don't read this article. Otherwise, you'll learn that your district managers (DM) are the keys to doing just that. DMs select and hire new sales reps, guide product knowledge, develop selling skills, provide feedback, and take action to turn around or terminate poor performers. The average industry DM is responsible for generating tens of millions of dollars in sales through his or her teams. But, only 45 percent of industry DMs achieve their sales goals. Companies that succeed in raising the overall effectiveness of their DMs will create sustainable competitive advantage.

OIG now requires corporate marketing departments and field sales reps to not only document how they promote products, but to also-for the first time-demonstrate the "intent" of marketing activities.

Direct-to-consumer spending increased from $3.2 billion to almost $4.1 billion between 2003 and 2004, the biggest leap since the category began in 1997. While other US industries are just getting their footing back after a prolonged economic slump, DTC advertising, as in previous years, seems unaffected and continues to thrive. Even in the wake of FDA's virtual shutdown of the lucrative COX-2 inhibitor market, both DTC and professional promotional spending have, so far, remained in tact. (See "TV Dominates")

Every quarter, pharmaceutical manufacturers confront a dizzying array of price reporting obligations. Participation in the Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Administration (VA), and Public Health Service (PHS) programs requires manufacturers to collect, organize, distill and manipulate vast quantities of information, and to generate from that data reportable figures that can have an enormous impact on the company's bottom line. It is critical that these figures be correct, not only to help ensure the integrity of these public programs, but because submission of false data to a federal agency is a prosecutable criminal offense, and the civil penalties and exposure can be staggering.

In a bright airy office above fifth avenue in New York, Lynn O'Connor Vos is talking about topics dear to her heart: trust-and how pharma can regain it-the need to put physicians back in the center of pharmaceutical marketing, and reinvention, a theme in her own life and the core to her approach to business.

Could it be that someone's finally going to wipe the grin off Smiling Bob's face? As we were putting this issue to bed, the Cincinnati newspapers reported that federal agents had raided the offices of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals, a company best known for its "natural male enhancement" pill, Enzyte, and for its repulsive television commercials starring Bob. The US Postal Service led the operation, which also included the FBI, IRS, and FDA. They froze bank accounts, sent employees home, and combed records, attempting to determine whether Berkeley, which has accumulated more than 5,000 complaints with the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau and the Ohio attorney general's office since 2001, had committed mail fraud.

The majority of headlines opposed the industry: 57.1 percent were negative, 18.1 percent were positive, and 24.8 percent were neutral. But the headlines were less negative than the stories themselves.

In an ideal world, an anti-counterfeit solution would provide protection throughout the supply chain, allow for easy product identification by physicians, pharmacists, and patients, be easily implemented without ongoing costs-and improve brand image and marketability while it's at it. Yet most current anti-counterfeiting measures involve packaging technologies such as holograms, inks, bar codes and radio frequency ID (RFID) that, although useful, cannot ensure the integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain, because drugs do not remain in their original packaging. Legitimate repackaging regularly occurs in the pharmacy and elsewhere, and authentic packaging-recycled or stolen-can contain adulterated, counterfeited drugs.

Should policy makers expect 90 percent of seniors to enroll in PDPs, or will 75 percent be enough? Will the program have to keep costs down to $400 billion a year, or will spending be linked to savings elsewhere?

For companies that are prepared, Part D represents a great opportunity. For others, failing to react quickly enough could be a costly mistake.

Physicians give only 25 percent of samples to newly diagnosed patients, along with a prescription.

As a reputation driver, ethical behavior has increased steadily in importance over the last three years.