Prescriber profiles

Within a two-week period, two sales representatives from competing pharmaceutical companies visited the office of an orthopaedic group practice. One representative was elated that the group had been steadily prescribing his company's new arthritis medication. The physicians assumed that the representative was speaking about the number of sample packs used by their office. Several days later, a competing drug representative visited the office and complained that several physicians in the group were "not thinking of my company's medication first." The physicians were perplexed and asked him how he had come by that information. After multiple attempts at evading the question, the representative explained that pharmaceutical companies pay the drugstores for such data. Although unwilling to disclose the details of the arrangement, he did inform the physicians that the pharmaceutical companies know exactly which physicians are writing which prescriptions. He assured the physicians that patients' names are not disclosed. The physicians spoke to several pharmacists and other pharmaceutical representatives, who confirmed the practice.