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SmartMoney Magazine Peddling Pills By Angie C. Marek |Angie C. Marek Archive |Published: January 10, 2008 Subscribe Today
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ON A RECENT EVENING at dusk, Josie Salcedo-Guzman, a tall mom in a crisp navy and lime green pantsuit, walks briskly into the office of Dr. Larry Neuman in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The office, a clinic that sees 200 patients a day at its busiest, is experiencing a rare moment of quiet, and Neuman bounds into the lobby, kisses Salcedo-Guzman on both cheeks and brings her into the back. They briefly reminisce about a recent dinner they had at Buddakan, New York's hot Pan-Asian restaurant of the moment. Salcedo-Guzman gives Neuman a token of thanks: personalized sign-in sheets he can put in the waiting room, his practice's name and address embossed on top.
But then it's on to business. With clinical precision, Salcedo-Guzman reaches into her bag for a blue box the size of a long ladies wallet. She flips it open to reveal what she calls "a very exciting educational tool" — a tiny illustration of a set of lungs with airways shaped like tree branches, colored cherry red to show inflammation. "This is what the lungs look like when you have asthma, even if you're symptom-free," she enthusiastically explains. She pulls a cardboard tab to reveal a second illustration, this time of airways colored a faint, healthy pink. "But if you take a daily maintenance medication, your lungs can look like this." The box includes a quiz that can gauge the severity of someone's asthma; a booklet on the disease; and most important, several $20-off vouchers for Symbicort, a new asthma medication made by Salcedo-Guzman's employer, AstraZeneca. She asks Neuman to give the packet "to just that one person" whose symptoms aren't yet under control. "You guys are so creative," he says, playfully arching his reddish eyebrows. "Can I hold it?" She hands the box across the table. "Tenderly, please," she says, chuckling, "like a baby."
For an inside look at how drug reps operate and how some doctors make money from drug companies, see the February issue of SmartMoney magazine, on newsstands now.
Welcome to the pharmaceutical sales pitch, 21st-century edition. Salcedo-Guzman is, of course, a drug-sales rep, and though most patients have no way of knowing it, a small army of people just like her are tugging at the lab coats of their doctors. Not long ago reformers thought they'd curbed this coziness between doctors and the Willy Lomans of Big Pharma, as physicians and drug companies alike instituted a widely publicized ethics crackdown. But with the drug industry facing the loss of more than $60 billion a year in sales to competition from generics, companies in recent years have been quietly inflating the ranks of these well-dressed professionals, with their suitcases full of samples. There were 35,000 reps in 1995, but the number is close to 100,000 today, according to the consultancy the Hay Group. Put another way, there's one office-based physician for every 975 Americans — and roughly one drug rep for every three of those physicians.
1 comment:
SmartMoney Magazine
Peddling Pills
By Angie C. Marek |Angie C. Marek Archive |Published: January 10, 2008
Subscribe Today
This story is from SmartMoney magazine.
Subscribe at a discount
Give the gift of SmartMoney
See stories from this month's issue
AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget
RSS Feeds
Read/Post Comments Read/Post Comments (7) Single Page view Single Page
Get News Alerts Add this column to your News Alerts
PrintPrint
SendSend
ON A RECENT EVENING at dusk, Josie Salcedo-Guzman, a tall mom in a crisp navy and lime green pantsuit, walks briskly into the office of Dr. Larry Neuman in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The office, a clinic that sees 200 patients a day at its busiest, is experiencing a rare moment of quiet, and Neuman bounds into the lobby, kisses Salcedo-Guzman on both cheeks and brings her into the back. They briefly reminisce about a recent dinner they had at Buddakan, New York's hot Pan-Asian restaurant of the moment. Salcedo-Guzman gives Neuman a token of thanks: personalized sign-in sheets he can put in the waiting room, his practice's name and address embossed on top.
But then it's on to business. With clinical precision, Salcedo-Guzman reaches into her bag for a blue box the size of a long ladies wallet. She flips it open to reveal what she calls "a very exciting educational tool" — a tiny illustration of a set of lungs with airways shaped like tree branches, colored cherry red to show inflammation. "This is what the lungs look like when you have asthma, even if you're symptom-free," she enthusiastically explains. She pulls a cardboard tab to reveal a second illustration, this time of airways colored a faint, healthy pink. "But if you take a daily maintenance medication, your lungs can look like this." The box includes a quiz that can gauge the severity of someone's asthma; a booklet on the disease; and most important, several $20-off vouchers for Symbicort, a new asthma medication made by Salcedo-Guzman's employer, AstraZeneca. She asks Neuman to give the packet "to just that one person" whose symptoms aren't yet under control. "You guys are so creative," he says, playfully arching his reddish eyebrows. "Can I hold it?" She hands the box across the table. "Tenderly, please," she says, chuckling, "like a baby."
For an inside look at how drug reps operate and how some doctors make money from drug companies, see the February issue of SmartMoney magazine, on newsstands now.
Welcome to the pharmaceutical sales pitch, 21st-century edition. Salcedo-Guzman is, of course, a drug-sales rep, and though most patients have no way of knowing it, a small army of people just like her are tugging at the lab coats of their doctors. Not long ago reformers thought they'd curbed this coziness between doctors and the Willy Lomans of Big Pharma, as physicians and drug companies alike instituted a widely publicized ethics crackdown. But with the drug industry facing the loss of more than $60 billion a year in sales to competition from generics, companies in recent years have been quietly inflating the ranks of these well-dressed professionals, with their suitcases full of samples. There were 35,000 reps in 1995, but the number is close to 100,000 today, according to the consultancy the Hay Group. Put another way, there's one office-based physician for every 975 Americans — and roughly one drug rep for every three of those physicians.
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