Sales And Marketing

Biopharmaceutical marketing plays a critical role in improving patient care and fostering the appropriate use of medicines. Giving physicians timely information about the medicines they prescribe clearly benefits patients and advances healthcare throughout the United States.

[See related resources to the right]

Maintaining ethical relationships with healthcare professionals is a key part of our companies’ mission of developing innovative medicines and helping to get those medicines to the patients who need them. An important part of achieving this goal is ensuring that healthcare professionals have the latest, most accurate information about prescription medicines, which play an ever-increasing role in patient healthcare.

Appropriate marketing of medicines ensures that patients can get the products they need and that the products are used correctly to benefit the patient as much as possible. Company relationships with healthcare professionals are critical to achieving these goals because they help inform healthcare professionals about the benefits and risks (both established and emerging) of approved products, share new uses of approved medicines, disseminate recent data from clinical trials, and obtain feedback and advice from healthcare professionals.

In their interactions with the medical community, PhRMA member companies are committed to following the highest ethical standards and all legal requirements. The Food and Drug Administration and other federal and state agencies regulate company marketing activities, and companies devote substantial resources to compliance with government regulations.

In addition, PhRMA strengthened our "Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals" to reinforce our intent that interactions be professional, ethical, informational exchanges designed to benefit patients and to enhance the practice of medicine. The code recognizes that physician prescription decisions are based on various factors, including individual patient medical needs and the healthcare professionals' medical knowledge and experience.

Direct-to-consumer advertising is another important resource for improving healthcare awareness and patient care. DTC advertising informs patients who are potentially suffering from undiagnosed conditions, raises awareness of treatment options, and benefits the U.S. healthcare system by encouraging patients to seek medical attention that may help manage conditions and avoid the need for hospitalization or surgery.

Surveys show that DTC advertising brings patients into their doctors' offices and helps foster important doctor-patient conversations about previously undiagnosed or untreated medical conditions. In fact, a national survey by Prevention Magazine found that 29 million patients talked to their doctors about a health condition for the first time after seeing DTC ads. During those conversations, according to the survey, most patients discuss behavioral and lifestyle changes, and more than half receive recommendations for nonprescription or generic drugs.

PhRMA’s revised “Guiding Principles On Direct-to-consumer Advertisements About Prescription Medicines,” which took effect March 2, 2009, address aspects of DTC ranging from healthcare professionals and celebrities featured in advertisements to the presentation of balanced benefit and risk information, to the appropriate timing and placement of advertisements with adult-oriented content.

America’s biopharmaceutical research companies invest billions of dollars researching and developing life-saving medicines. However, the work they do can only help benefit patients who have access to the innovative medicines they develop. Biopharmaceutical company marketing efforts help providers -- and their patients -- stay current with important, up-to-date information, thereby improving patient care.

Resources

The Facts About Pharmaceutical Marketing And Promotion
This booklet offers facts about pharmaceutical marketing and promotion. PhRMA believes these facts are important to consider as the value of marketing and promotion are debated.

PhRMA Office Of Accountability
This office takes comments from the public and healthcare professionals regarding direct-to-consumer advertisements conducted by any signatory company to PhRMA's guiding principles on such ads.

Pharmaceutical Marketing in Perspective
This document explains the value and role of pharmaceutical marketing as one of many factors informing prescribing.