BACKGROUND Pharmaceutical representatives are a vital component of the marketing of pharmaceutical products and an important source of prescribing information for general practitioners. AIM A study was undertaken to explore the attitudes of New Zealand general practitioners to pharmaceutical representatives. METHOD A questionnaire survey of 100 general practitioners was undertaken to which ...

In 2000, pharmaceutical companies spent more than 15.7 billion dollars on promoting prescription drugs in the United States [2]. More than 4.8 billion dollars was spent on detailing, the one-on-one promotion of drugs to doctors by pharmaceutical sales representatives, commonly called drug reps. The average sales force expenditure for pharmaceutical companies is $875 million annually [3]. Unlike...

Convergence processes are based on the activity of distinct industry sectors showing crossindustry collaborations. The aim of this paper is to analyze cross-industry collaborations between the food and pharmaceutical sectors in the convergence area of functional foods. Selected companies from food (Nestlé/Danone) and pharmaceutical (Martek/Bayer HealthCare) sectors are analyzed using the determ...

Some or all of the promotional activities of pharmaceutical companies are typically governed through self-regulatory codes administered by industry associations. However, the conflicts between the commercial objectives and the ethical and scientific goals of promotion can potentially lead to serious weaknesses in the way in which these codes are enforced. This paper focuses on 5 critical aspect...

In this paper, we describe the evaluation of a real-world awareness (RWA) prototype designed to help managers perform environmental scanning in the pharmaceutical industry. RWA in the pharmaceutical industry consists of not only the tracking and tracing of drugs but also of pattern recognition for relevant events – both internal and external to the company which can affect a company’s drug rese...

Background: Management is a social process manifested on the market. Methods Rather than in an isolated vacuum, organizations operate in a complex dynamic environment. Organizations’ efforts are aimed at using business opportunities and averting (or neutralizing) dangers. Results: a substantial number of top organizations are engaged in continuous efforts to influence a large number of factors ...

The internet is now recognised as a growing international phenomenon. All kinds of products and services are being marketed over the internet to consumers throughout the world because country borders no longer restrict conducting business in the international marketplace. Though there are several advantages of online commerce, this form of marketing does raise ethical dilemmas, particularly whe...