Pharmaceutical sales representatives and physicians: ethical considerations of a relationship

Since their appearance in 1850, Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives (PSR) interactions with physicians have engendered intense emotional responses. The controversy has continued unabated since that time. Arguments in favor of the moral impermissibility of the PSR-physician relationship can be divided into four general categories; (1) influence, (2) patients pay but they do not choose, (3) violation of principlism, and (4) the erosion of the patient-physician relationship. None of the arguments that have thus far been proposed against the moral permissibility of these interactions gives sufficient warrant to avoid them (or pursue them). It may be the case that PSR-physician interactions place the patient-physician relationship in jeopardy. This would constitute enough warrant, from a pragmatic perspective, to shun such relationships. However, no research supports this contention. A careful evaluation of the literature leaves one ambivalent at best.