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PhRMA Code Side Effects?
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The very clever pharmaceutical industry has already figured out how to maximize its efforts following last year's implementation of the new PhRMA marketing guidelines. This national code is designed to limit the types of interaction the drug companies have with doctors.

In researching the article that appears on page 45 of this issue, our team found little evidence of entertainment abuse within the ophthalmology community compared with other specialties. This I can echo from my own experience. My most memorable lecture assignments, including several held at a ski resort described in a trade magazine as "Where God would ski if God could afford it," came from device and implant manufacturers, not drug companies.

The drug companies have enticed me to several above-average dinners in order to hear their speakers, but they had to. Why would I leave my wife's wonderful cooking for a boring talk and rubber chicken? I didn't look on those dinners as a special enticement, but rather the bare minimum to get me to sit still for their peer sales talk.

The PhRMA regulations allow the drug companies to face what we have known for years. All else being equal, business selections are based on personal relationships. The company representatives who are helpful, friendly and considerate are more likely to get the business than those who are rude, pushy and unpleasant, no matter what entertainment is dangled before us.

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, some drug companies have responded by increasing the number of reps so dramatically that they now can have as many as five individuals calling on a single practice for a single product. Apparently they feel that blanketing the office with sales calls gives them a better chance of the doctor being receptive to someone.

Let's Keep our Relationship Healthy

I think we can predict where this will end up -- with a backlash against whichever company becomes a pest. With so many sales reps in the field, and more on the way, we should expect to see one call on us every few hours, maybe several each lunch break. Perhaps I'll end up hanging one of those "No Soliciting" signs on my front door. Drug reps be darned, I have work to do. I'll accept an occasional visit, but if crowds appear, I'll retreat into my shell and see no one.