Even with specialty divisions, eventually, commercial field roles will be account managers handling contracts and key accounts. Account managers may or may not handle field reimbursement. Office based reps will be vaporized, with more MSLs being deployed to have clinical discussions. If sales reps can only talk on label, and there are long gaps between new indications, why continue to pay for field sales reps? And primary care is all based on formualry coverage and co-pays now, which is why NVS will soon shutter all of Gen Meds.
Product launches require reps almost every time. Only a complete breakthrough product, unique in some major way can sell itself. Few and very far between those types, so mega corporations with less stellar products will rely on promotion to to get them out of the gate and up to speed. Any product strategy can include attractive pricing for insurance coverage but that doesn't guarantee attractive revenue. No use selling at cost, right? That's the business side. On the medical side, there are too many medications per class now for busy prescribers to take it upon themselves to learn all the fine points. Can enough PhDs and PharmDs and MDs and DOs be found to cover all the prescribers out there who need to know? I doubt it. If Dr.s are too busy to learn the details when we bring it right to their doorstep repeatedly, how/when will they find the time to do the research themselves?
The US model of drug development is broken and is ending. There will be no more drug launches of drugs that do not offer an obvious benefit over those already in the market and bone will be developed. The era of the joke that was US Docs depending upon reps for "education" is over. The Docs worth a patient using won't see you and the uniformed left overs are changing or being squeezed. The model of pharma sales you described is over. Novartis signed on to the new one when they backed Obamacare.
The US model of pharma rep is over...for Novartis. Their well documented failings getting products to the US market and being able to sustain growth has become a self fulfilling prophecy. Yes, the market has changed. The blockbuster model is gone, me too drugs in the same class won't survive the first year and fewer reps will be needed overall. There is still, however, a place for unique medicines and ones with significant improvement over the rest in a class. But Novartis has become a shell of itself and is completely devoid of real leadership. They just keep rolling in the next dummy to stand in front of the sales force and spit out corporate cliches and best-in-class-pipeline boilerplate to pacify those left standing. They can't hide behind the "market has dramatically changed" bullshit any longer and act like a fickle pharma environment thwarted all their great product promotion. The fact is today's situation is a direct result of executive leadership & R&D's complete failure to execute their jobs and successfully bring product to market. The reps are just collateral damage.
This is one of the most uninformed posts that I have read. Go to the FDA website and look at the laundry list of me-too's meds that have been launched or will be launched in 2014. As long as there are competitive sales people in a capitalistic society companies will continue to launch. These meds might have minimal coverage at launch and through their life-cycle but it still pays to get them on the market.
These drugs were all in the pipeline long before the penalties for selling me-too drugs were agreed to by pharma companies. They are being launched to try and recover some of the sunk costs. Even Novartis agrees that Obamacare will greatly reduce the research of new drugs and theaters they will require many fewer reps to sell them. 40,000 rep jobs have left the industry since 2010. And the effect of Obamacare and the Sunshine laws are really just kicking in you moron. Novartis wanted it this way.
