Whats the current state of the physician-sales rep relationship?
John Moran. Physicians continue to cut back on time spent with pharmaceutical sales representatives in the office during practice hours. This is in response to increasing patient loads, escalating administrative requirements, and tighter formulary restrictions. IMS Health physician research conducted in the first half of 2009 indicates that physicians are giving office access to fewer, select reps on the basis of who delivers more value to the physician and staff. Physicians define value in very specific ways, and these vary according to the physician’s specialty, size of practice, geography, characteristics of patients under care and certain personal preferences. A three-year longitudinal analysis of IMS value metrics shows that value received correlates more strongly with prescribing preference and market share than traditional sales force effectiveness (SFE) metrics, which overemphasize the mechanics of the rep-physician interaction. By identifying the primary drivers of value for d
