The pharmaceutical industry started in the middle Ages, 18th AD in Baghdad in 754 by an Arabian. Until the early 70’s the industry grew at a small pace. In the 1970’s business began to boom and competition began to upsurge. In the 1990’s these industries and companies became more aggressive with their marketing strategies.
In ’97 the U. S. Food and Drug Administration brought new rules and regulations concerning the marketing area and it required companies to present the risks of the drugs they advertised. Since then pharmaceutical companies have come a long way in terms of their marketing strategies.Millions of dollars are put into research for the drugs that are manufactured.
“In 2005 the research and development expenditure for the biopharmaceutical industry within Europe and US was 15,474 billion euro. ” (The Pharma Industry Figures, 2006). Since there is a lot of money that is invested in the process of discovering and developing a drug, testing it to see whether or not it is innocuous, seeking permission from the regulatory boards in order to put it on the market.The companies have much at stake and they focus on sales in order to make profits.
Pharmaceutical companies commonly spend a large amount on advertising, marketing and lobbying. In the US, drug companies spend $19 billion a year on promotions. ” (Wikipedia) Sales representatives are a very important tool in the marketing of their drugs. “Currently, there are approximately 81,000 pharmaceutical sales representatives in the United States pursuing some 830,000 pharmaceutical prescribers. ”In an effort to have an extensive clientele list, they have become well known for their ways of persuading physicians and medical students to endorse their products. A pharmaceutical sales representative is the key part within the sales of all drugs.
They are responsible to ensure the healthcare profession is informed of the benefits of the drug along with the safety and the side effects to assist a healthcare profession as the correct information and choices to prescribe medication to the patients. The firm used is ethical promotion, which can be described as communication of ethical values to promote their product to physician. ” (Wright & Landstrom, 2004) I personally believe that the ways that pharmaceutical companies have operated is more unethical than it is ethical.They have bad ways of advertising and marketing their products.
They are sometimes caught up in cases involved with environmental problems due to their ways disposing waste material. They are known to have the most devious methods of testing their drugs. They are also known to find loop holes in the law in order to get their products on the market. Pharmaceutical companies have been known to have many marketing tactics that have hidden agendas.
Pharmaceutical reps provide funds for different events and activities. Most of these activities have to do with the medical field.They offer scholarships to medical students, nurses and as many medical field careers they can. “Strategies with unclear or hidden promotional intent included teleconferences directly and indirectly sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. In some cases pharmaceutical representatives established the teleconference agenda and monitored teleconferences unbeknownst to attendees. ” (Wikipedia) This is not just, fair or right it is wrong in many senses.
The attendees under the influence/ notion that teleconferences are hosted by people who really have an honest interest in getting the right medicine out.These people are advertising medicines that they probably would not drink themselves if pharma reps could ask themselves the golden question- “Would I want anyone else to treat me in the way I am treating them? ” Our market would be safer. In conclusion pharmaceutical companies exploit the market to sell their product. I do not like the way they do business and a lot of honesty would do us all better.
After all medication is essential in our world today proper advertising would still help sell their drugs.
