Don't think it will change much of anything- a doctor in CA will now be capped at $250/year for meals, which is more than adequate for 1 lunch per month, unless they attend special programs. As far as the study- of course- think about your hospital systems who write mainly metformin, sulf's, nph and other older medicines, and the volume of patients they see, this is a large percentage of those in the study who do not see reps and who do not write 'name brand drugs'. It's a study designed for the headline, IMO.
you think one lunch a month is adequate? A lot of our key customers get at least one lunch a month plus multiple Starbucks runs plus attend speaker programs. And then we have counterparts, and the $250 includes anyone who calls on that customer, such as ocs reps. This is a game changer, gonna kill business and complicate who gets lunches, etc. And I would assume this new bill ends speaker programs, that hurts education and future product launch impact. Not good for sema in ca.
Hate to be "that guy", but you are looking at this through a DBMs eyes. Allow me to clarify California trains a significant percentage of doctors that practice on and near the West Coast. Many of the major teaching hospitals are already shut tight against Big Pharma. How do you think this news will affect the UCLA or UCSF-trained docs that has zero experience with us during their training, and are now struggling to understand our value now that they're in a huge group practice in the Bay Area? You seem to think that doctors will pull out their calculators and check lists whenever we bring in lunch. " I think that they'll have a much, much simpler solution to avoid hitting that $250 limit. The study is written to support the theory first brought to light by the JAMA or NEJM editor over 10 years ago. A few years later, teaching hospitals and medical clinics started proving again and again that by shutting us out, Rx costs went down while quality of care was un-effected. Instead of poo-pooing studies like these (or coaching our "leaders" to cry on stage), we need to hire some bright minds to help us navigate these waters. Studies like these when added to investigations on price collusion equals dramatically decreased access, more bad press, increased pressure from PBMs, SMALLER PRICE INCREASES. Guess how we will respond to that soup of negativity? The way that Pharma always does: we will fire someone from Plainsboro, hire a cast-off some another company to take his or her place, and reduce field force head count. Mark it.
What gifts? The study was from 2014. No one gave gifts to docs in years under the pharma code. It doesn't specify whether food is a gift or not in the link. We've still not seen anything come from the Sunshine act as far as published lists or punitive decisions. Furthermore, anyone outside of CA thinks that state is crazy anyhow. There are differing opinions and other medical schools that do not care what CA does or doesn't do.
Yeah I'm pretty sure the docs weren't writing more OxyContin because they received more gifts from pharma. They were over prescribing for other reasons like seeing more patients(and billing) for pain management. CA needs to look into those "pain clinics" Or maybe medical marijuana will take the place of opioids now.
Or gee, could it possibly be that the thought leaders are also the ones who are the most forward thinking and want to utilize the newest treatments?
Try selling in MN where we are capped at $50 by the state and $40 by NNI. We can not spend more than $40 per doc per year for the entire field force. We get by, but just have to get creative.
Or in Massachusetts where there are signs posted out front "No Reps allowed" so we can't spend money in any amount.
Displacements at Novo Nordisk Plainsboro, NJ insiders state more "rightsizing" is just a matter of time. One source suggests that more changes are coming in Q3 as recent price hikes were unsuccessful of their popular diabetes medications Victoza and Tresiba. "We may have to consider looking for ways to cut costs, and labor is our biggest cost." Novo Nordisk a pharmaceutical leader specializing in diabetes was once a double digit growth gem with predictable stability. Currently the company is more concerned with all job cuts and profitability.
