Re:I was a drug rep and know how pharma companies pushed opi...
by danso on Sunday December 01, 2019 @07:28PM
(#21678865)
The author left the pharmaceutical marketing industry in 2000; now, the author works as a doctor. From the bottom of the essay:
> When I was a drug rep, I really believed my pitch for our products — and I believed that by exerting influence over doctors, I helped patients access medicine they needed. As a doctor, I now have colleagues — colleagues with sharp, clinically trained minds and only the best of intentions — who think they write prescriptions on a wholly rational basis.
In 2000, the author would have been witness and/or a party to the industry most excessive and unmonitored marketing practices, i.e. well before the federal push for transparency and disclosure [0]. Now, as a doctor – albeit an ER doctor, who may not be the biggest target for pharma reps – he likely has decent awareness of how both pharma marketing and doctor attitudes have changed.
> When I was a drug rep, I really believed my pitch for our products — and I believed that by exerting influence over doctors, I helped patients access medicine they needed. As a doctor, I now have colleagues — colleagues with sharp, clinically trained minds and only the best of intentions — who think they write prescriptions on a wholly rational basis.
In 2000, the author would have been witness and/or a party to the industry most excessive and unmonitored marketing practices, i.e. well before the federal push for transparency and disclosure [0]. Now, as a doctor – albeit an ER doctor, who may not be the biggest target for pharma reps – he likely has decent awareness of how both pharma marketing and doctor attitudes have changed.
[0] https://www.propublica.org/article/we-found-over-700-doctors...