Forest, SmithKline 'most empowered'

According to "The Strategic Advantage: A Competitive View of Managed Care Sales Forces," a new survey released by Newtown, PA-based Scott-Levin, managed care decision-makers have named the managed care sales forces of SmithKline Beecham, Philadelphia, and Forest Laboratories, Inc., New York, the "most empowered."

The Strategic Advantage provides an overview of pharmaceutical managed care and long-term care sales forces. In addition, pharmacy executives from leading U.S. managed care organizations rate the sales forces in such areas as training of new account personnel, empowerment, flexibility, direct-to-consumer advertising and the contract approval process.

Managed care executives said that Forest and SmithKline Beecham give their account personnel the most authority to make contract revisions and other deductions on their own.

Forest has one of the smallest managed care sales forces in the pharmaceutical industry, while SmithKline Beecham has one of the largest.

Other highlights from the report:

•Â More than 40% of pharmaceutical companies plan to expand their managed care sales groups in the near future.

•Â SmithKline Beecham was ranked number one for flexibility. Pharmacy executives said SmithKline's managed care team showed an excellent ability to adapt to new, different or changing requirements. AstraZenica, Aventis and TAP finished second in this category.

•Â Aventis and Parke-Davis tied for first in the category measuring the most efficient contract approval process. According to Scott-Levin, pharmacy executives commented: "When I need to add a product quickly, we receive a quick turnaround [from Parke-Davis];" and "[Aventis] offers timely contracts with good rebates and simplified language/content."

•Â Bristol-Myers Squibb was named the company that offers the most acceptable amount of direct-to-consumer advertising. BMS was ranked second behind Merck for the quality of its DTC advertising.

•Â The companies with the largest managed care sales forces were SmithKline Beecham, Merck, AstraZenica, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Abbott, Novartis, Aventis, Pfizer, Schering and TAP.

•Â Disease management programs were the most preferred value-added service by managed care organizations. The following companies were mentioned for having innovative and valuable disease management offerings: Merck (congestive heart failure), Novo Nordisk (diabetes), Park-Davis (cardiac risk reduction), Pfizer (depression) Perdue Frederick (pain management), Schering/Key (asthma) and SmithKline Beecham (antibiotic resistance, diabetes and heart failure).

•Â Only the following companies reported having a dedicated long-term care sales force: Abbott, AstraZenica, Ethex, Janssen, Merck and Novartis.

The Strategic Advantage also includes profiles of more than 30 pharmaceutical companies, which detail the structure of the managed care and long-term care sales teams at each company. PR