As Doctors Lose Clout, Drug Firms Redirect the Sales Call

The end is close at hand for many in the pharmaceutical sales industry..

 

Our company tried using KAMs for the launch of a new drug. It failed miserably. It was so bad that the scrapped the concept and laid off or demoted most of the KAMs. When sales took over, the sales grew 160% in the first year.

I think the strategy is sound but probably more effective when promoting a cluster of mature medicines. I remember when companies like Merck used KAM style promoting to sell Zocor and Vioxx by offering hospitals huge discounts to put all inpatients that needed pain or anti cholesterol agents on these drugs.

KAMs don't sell and can't sell. The yak all day for more money than reps get paid but don't sell. The area will grow but can't replace reps.

 

You can't sell anything if you're not on formulary , if not then HUGE uphill climb for minimum results...reps still will be needed to remind docs..hey! were on formulary for itchy butt! but contract reps can do that...as for access..companies don't like their employees taking time away from making them money...(docs are now clock punchers for the hospital groups)..access will continue to shrink to even more paltry levels...(Brain Storm! hospital allows 2 x year Drug Info type fair in some doc lounge...hand out some brochures call it a day)

 

As a somewhat outside observer of this industry (I'm a vendor, not a rep or a KAM), I find this dynamic interesting. KAMs think reps suck, and reps think KAMs suck. All righty then.

This is what I think is the real issue. The data you need to persuade an IDN to pick you up need to be created before launch (or in progress at launch). Without data, there is no song and dance anyone can do to move the needle. The other issue is complexity. Decision-making in IDN's is much more dispersed, sometimes across stakeholders in different geographic locations. If the account team isn't attacking the elephant from all sides and in a coordinated fashion, everyone fails. I think the other big gorilla in the room is that various silos figure out their own incentives/rewards for their people (KAMs, reps, nurse educators, MSLs) and if those aren't aligned then it's every man for himself and no one gives a damn about helping anyone attack an account.

 

So many issues!...Ivory Tower Tertiary institutions that have adopted an adversarial relationship with industry, greatly restrict access to any and all from the company so KAMs, MSLs, Reps, MMkt, etc. have no opportunity to even show what they have to offer-which can be substantial and of great benefit to the hospital system, providers, and patients. Hence, all suffer. The institution refuses to believe that their closed-door policies can be of any harm, in fact, the belief is that developing relationships with industry people could only dilute the purity of their purpose and subject the reputation to unnecessary risk. What bull! From the outside looking in, one can see hospital system policies that reduce time between patients and their providers, reduce the sharing of expertise between their experts and community physicians, place unnecessary burdens on patients, deny their physician staffs opportunities to learn from experts who practice outside their own system, engender an attitude of disregard for the opinions and protocols of other very high quality rivals, etc., etc. Typically, the caustic atmosphere that drives this counterproductive bahavior comes from a small but vocal and strident bunch within the institution that intimidate the rest. I could go on but I'll spare you.

 

It won't be long before many in IDN employees will long for the days that phama reps and MSLs were calling on them, on their hospitals and staffs and providing so many services, education, support for grand rounds, books, CME, etc. etc.
With everybody being overworked, pressured by administration for cost savings the patients will be suffering in the long run as no one will drive through change other than for financial cost cutting.

 

Bottom line, if you need more then 3-5 years to be eligible for pension(assumimg it still exists for those not grandfathered in), your 401K is all you will leave with.
Those in the 30-45 age group are really stuck.
The traditional point of service rep jobs have, and will continue to, evaporate.
This includes middle mgmt. as well. Party bus is running out of gas.

 

Really?