Physicians don't seem to be making the connection between the exorbitant prices for drugs and what is spent to lure them into prescribing,'' says Gerstein, director of pharmacy services for Tufts Health Plan in Massachusetts. That's nonsense, says the drug industry. The drug industry sponsored more than 314,000 physician ''events'' last year, ranging from catered lunches in hospital conference rooms to getaway weekends at resorts, nearly double the number held 4 years earlier, Scott-Levin reports. Newer drugs get promoted more heavily. Drug reps say they don't think the freebies affect a doctor's prescribing efforts.
Many doctors agree.
They say drug reps provide important information that they may not have the time or ability to get elsewhere. They are not swayed, they say, in picking medications for their patients by free pens, catered lunches or industry-funded educational seminars. Life as a sales rep Bill Bly spends his days trying to get doctors to listen to him, even for 30 seconds. I was in a doctor's office the other day, and they'd had 10 reps visit already,'' says Bly, president of the Tulsa Pharmaceutical Representative Association. These are legitimate programs.