Drug representatives (hair, physician, reviews, therapy)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think the reps provide samples and other incentives for people to try the drug, which can be helpful. Ideally people should be trying the cheap/inexpensive options first (and most doctors I have will try those), but many will give out a sample of a newer drug first because people don’t want to spend tons of money on something that may not be effective.
It goes beyond that - there are many folks for whom the old "cheap drugs" don't work but their insurance or Medicaid won't pay for something newer so docs give away free samples to them.
It goes beyond that - there are many folks for whom the old "cheap drugs" don't work but their insurance or Medicaid won't pay for something newer so docs give away free samples to them.
I used to work in Community Mental Health and a large percentage of our clients could not afford their meds. Those samples allowed us to give them their necessary meds while we helped them apply for free meds from the pharmaceutical companies.
Oh, and two out of three or four were men. They didn't use sex appeal; they used lunches for the entire staff and large quantities of samples that we could use for our clients.
There were times that the reps went away with all of their samples as our supervisor declined a trial.
I've seen both male and female reps when I escorted my daughter to her allopathic MD appts. Never saw them at my Integrative MD offices. And I agree, these reps can be drawing some handsome salaries from the rich pharma companies.
I saw a more holistic oriented rheumatologist after my THR and mentioned Celebrex samples to her and she said the reps never come to her office, she's too holistic. She is not a huge fan of the drugs.
On a serious note, are drug reps even needed any more?.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mike1003
My feeling is that no they are not, other than at the major medical conventions.
They are another reason the cost of meds are so high.
I always felt that they should have given us coupons or vouchers for the patients to use at their pharmacy for samples or discounted drugs.
That way they could get a 2 week trial of a new maintenance med to make sure they could tolerate it.
Giving out samples can contribute to adverse drug to drug reactions when the pharmacist is out of the loop and the patient has several doctors giving Rxs and samples and no one is keeping track of ALL their meds.
We had to attend 50 hours of continuing education every year which provides a good venue for drug reps to introduce new meds or new indications for old meds.
Many, if not most, drug reps today are pretty young women. The drug companies have found that young women of a certain look have a much easier time getting the MD's attention for their 30 second sales pitch which leads to more prescriptions being written for the drug that they are pushing during any quarter
Sorry, Mike. Seventy percent are male and over half are over forty years old.
I've seen both male and female reps when I escorted my daughter to her allopathic MD appts. Never saw them at my Integrative MD offices. And I agree, these reps can be drawing some handsome salaries from the rich pharma companies.
I saw a more holistic oriented rheumatologist after my THR and mentioned Celebrex samples to her and she said the reps never come to her office, she's too holistic. She is not a huge fan of the drugs.
A rheumatologist that isn't a fan of the "drugs"???? She must be the least effective rheumatologist on the planet....
Rheumatology is almost ENTIRELY a medication based specialty and with good reason as the DMARD's that are available to patient's with RA are life altering and can limit or slow the progression of disease...
Still calling BS on the lineup of pharmaceutical reps you CLAIM to have seen when escorting your daughter to "actual MD" appointments.....
They aren't typically sitting in the waiting rooms with patients.....
A rheumatologist that isn't a fan of the "drugs"???? She must be the least effective rheumatologist on the planet....
Rheumatology is almost ENTIRELY a medication based specialty and with good reason as the DMARD's that are available to patient's with RA are life altering and can limit or slow the progression of disease...
Still calling BS on the lineup of pharmaceutical reps you CLAIM to have seen when escorting your daughter to "actual MD" appointments.....
They aren't typically sitting in the waiting rooms with patients.....
Jamin probably identified any woman under 40 she saw in a skirt as a drug rep - I can't imagine she was introduced and would know such a thing for a fact. Therefore, any men seen would not have triggered jammin to even think THEY were a drug rep. We often see what we want to see and with no one to disconfirm, it becomes fact whether it is or not.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.