Well I’ve worked in the industry for a long time, I felt like I “grew up” professional in the industry, even did my Ph.D. research at a big pharma lab. I’ve carried the bag as a rep, and granted, I didn’t do the sales job for too long (I left it once I learned about the MSL job), but I always have a soft spot in my heart for sales reps.
I know you can’t tell most of the time, but really, I do. I get mad when I hear about sales force ineffectiveness and how MSLs should be the future sales reps. It’s not only because I think it’s insulting to make MSLs do the sales reps’ job, since they signed up to be MSLs, not sales reps, I find it insulting when sales reps are told that they’re so stupid that someone else that didn’t even want to do their job should be made to do their job. If I didn’t care about sales reps’ future, I wouldn’t have spent 3 years of my life writing monthly columns for Pharm Rep magazine (2004-2007!) helping reps understand clinical concepts so they can be better prepared to do their jobs. (By the way, that column-writing was a NON-PAYING GIG.)
The reason why sales reps are ineffective is because companies have made them ineffective, by using them like widgets instead of people with brains.
The reason why there is off-label promotion is because sales reps are being motivated to do this by someone higher (management). I doubt there is a rep who wakes up in the morning and say, “Now, how do I break the rules today? How do I break the law today? What can I do that may land my ass in jail next year, or maybe on the front page of the Wall Street Journal?” And yet there are reps who break rules and sell off-label uses of their drugs. Why? Because they believe it’s the only way to keep their jobs.
When I saw the PLoS medicine journal publish a study that looked at a retrospective analysis of off-label promotional tactics, I was not surprised to see that the majority of the whistleblowers were SALES REPS. Think about that! Sales reps see what’s going on, and they honestly want to be proud of what they do for a living. Yes, the money is good and the lifestyle can’t be beat if you are a top performer. But there are other ways to make good money besides being in a profession where you’re constantly made fun off or put down. Most of these people go into the industry believing that they are doing something important to help patients, and that is to remind the doctors who are running ragged to remember important details about dosing and side effect management of a drug.
So what if they now have to do this only by feeding the doctors’ office, almost every single one of these reps would rather NOT have to cater food. I know it was what I hated the most (next to the promo dinner programs) when I was a rep!
Anyway, my whole point of this short rant is that I’m glad to see in print that sales reps do have a moral compass and that they are troubled by what they’re asked to do. Some of them troubled enough to pretty much risk their whole livelihood and be blacklisted forever just so they can do the right thing. It speaks to the lousiness of our industry for retaliating against those people who still want to do the right thing.
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