Working in Surgeries???

[pharm2007]

What is it really like working for a pharmaceutical company that goes into surgeries - hoping to change patient's medication?

[johnep]

I worked as a rep in the 60s and later in the 80s and 90s.

In the 60s there were few reps (30 in our company) and it was easy to see Drs. We were trained to present facts re our product and demonstrate advantages over existing medication for a cohort of pts. The Dr could then make up his mind and change if he wanted to.

In th 80s training became more intense and we were told to press for 'committment' to change to our product. We used clinical papers to illustrate advantages. This time the company I worked for (one of the smaller) had 200 reps. Other companies ran several sales forces and there was Innovex who supplied extra reps on contract. This meant that Drs were besieged by reps and the job became very hard.

The latest development is to promote branded generics particularly to dispensing Drs where the Dr may be offered some inducement and the brand is priced just below DT price (for a while).

The reps will sometimes ask to be allowed access or provide a disc to change pts over.

When the DT catches up with the market price, the pts are then on a more expensive product.

repping to GPs is not a job I would enjoy now.

johnep

[kemzero]

What is it really like working for a pharmaceutical company that goes into surgeri, es - hoping to change patient's medication?

Its great...I work in surgeries too, but I am employed by a PCT

[pharm2007]

thanks for your replies. I've seen this job advert which says it's for a clinical support pharmacist position working for a famous pharmaceutical company. Do you think it's just a renamed sales rep job?

[admin]

thanks for your replies. I've seen this job advert which says it's for a clinical support pharmacist position working for a famous pharmaceutical company. Do you think it's just a renamed sales rep job?

Why not give them a ring and find out what the job's all about?

[SolomonQ]

Spam attack!!!!

[Jeff]

What is it really like working for a pharmaceutical company that goes into surgeries - hoping to change patient's medication?

Be a bit careful - working for a company that is reprimanded for breaking ABPI rules wont look good on a CV.

Jeff

[azz]

how did u go about being a rep for the pct??? also whats the money like? wot does being a rep entail? thanx

[johnep]

PCTs do not have reps as we would understand. What they do have are medicines mangement teams and these visit surgeries to basically try to reduce prescribing costs.

There is software available 'scriptswitch' which is used by pcts to present an more economical alternative at the time of a Dr prescribing.

Frequent route into PCT jobs is by having a clinical diploma from hospital but demand has been large as pcts developed so now quite possible to transfer from community, but likely to take an initial salary drop.

Why not contact your local pct to ask for advice from a kindly soul in the medicines management team.
johnep

[helerobe]

Hi there

I'm doing some research about drug reps and I'm keen to talk to former reps.

Would have time to tell me -in brief - how it all works?

Off-the-record.

Thanks