Replacing Reps with Call Centers

[Anonymous]

Dr. Dave,
The end of last year AstraZeneca pulled all of their traditional reps for Nexium and replaced them with a telemarketing call center. Realizing Nexium is a product for which there have been no new indications or significant data added to its profile in some time, it still seems like a pretty gutsy move.

See article for more information:
http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10008222/death-of-a-salesman-astrazeneca-replaced-entire-nexium-salesforce-with-telemarketing-call-centers-and-it-worked/?tag=shell;content

Interested in hearing your thoughts on this? Do you think you or your staff would utilize this kind of service when you reguire information or samples?

What do you see as the pros and cons of pharma moving in this direction?

[PCP_Rep]

If any companies are still sampling PPI's and have equal coverage to Nexium, I see AZ losing market share.

[DrDave]

My general impressions are that this is a play to navigate the evolving "no-see" landscape. I'm not sure if it will work, but the potential success could lie in a mechanism for employed/faculty physicians to get samples within institutions that don't allow drug rep access. As far as calling for information, I guess questions about third-party payor coverage and preauthorization issues might generate interest, but I'm skeptical that many physicians would use this as a clinical resource.

I would not personally use such a service, but we still allow rep access in our office. If that changed, I still doubt it, but who knows?