TY - JOUR

T1 - Impact of pharmaceutical representative visits on GPs' drug preferences

AU - Søndergaard, Jens

AU - Vach, Kirstin

AU - Kragstrup, Jakob

AU - Andersen, Morten

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: AstraZeneca funded the study through a grant to the Research Unit for General Practice in Odense. The authors did not personally receive any financial benefits from AstraZeneca and have no other relations to the company. The sponsor contributed with data on the pharmaceutical representative visits. AstraZeneca did not get insight into dispensing data at the level of the individual GPs or patients and was not involved in the design of the study, management, analysis, interpretation of data, preparation, review or approval of the manuscript or the decision to submit it for publication. The company received the manuscript 6 weeks before it was submitted for publication. Conflicts of interest: Professor Søndergaard has received a fee on one occasion for giving a lecture at an AstraZeneca symposium. MA has participated in research projects funded by Lundbeck, Novartis and Nycomed and has received fees for teaching from the Danish Association of the Pharmaceutical industry. Ethical approval: Not applicable. According to Danish legislation, ethical committees do not approve observational studies entirely based on register data.

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - Background. Pharmaceutical representative visits are believed to have substantial impact, but the effects on prescribing patterns have not been systematically evaluated. Objective. This study investigates how pharmaceutical sales representative visits influenced physicians' company-specific drug preferences and prevalence of steroid prescribing. Methods. Observational cohort study in Funen County, Denmark, including 165 general practices visited 832 times by pharmaceutical representatives and 54 080 patients treated with asthma drugs. Visits were conducted from 2001 to 2003. Our main outcome measures were (i) company-specific drug preferences measured as the proportion of dispensings of the promoted drug among all dispensings of fixed combinations of inhaled corticosteroid and long-acting β2-agonists and (ii) the proportion of patients receiving repeated β2-agonist dispensings who were treated with inhaled steroids. Results. The first visit had a statistically significant effect on the GPs' drug preference in favour of the marketed drug [odds ratio (OR), 2.39; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.72-3.32]. The effect on drug preference increased further after the second visit (OR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.19-1.93), while there was no significant change after the third visit (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.94-1.20). Pharmaceutical sales representative visits did not influence the overall treatment pattern with inhaled steroids (OR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.97-1.06). Conclusions. Pharmaceutical sales representative visits markedly increased the market share of the promoted drug, but only the two first visits had significant impact. Visits had no significant impact on GPs' overall prescribing of inhaled steroids.

AB - Background. Pharmaceutical representative visits are believed to have substantial impact, but the effects on prescribing patterns have not been systematically evaluated. Objective. This study investigates how pharmaceutical sales representative visits influenced physicians' company-specific drug preferences and prevalence of steroid prescribing. Methods. Observational cohort study in Funen County, Denmark, including 165 general practices visited 832 times by pharmaceutical representatives and 54 080 patients treated with asthma drugs. Visits were conducted from 2001 to 2003. Our main outcome measures were (i) company-specific drug preferences measured as the proportion of dispensings of the promoted drug among all dispensings of fixed combinations of inhaled corticosteroid and long-acting β2-agonists and (ii) the proportion of patients receiving repeated β2-agonist dispensings who were treated with inhaled steroids. Results. The first visit had a statistically significant effect on the GPs' drug preference in favour of the marketed drug [odds ratio (OR), 2.39; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.72-3.32]. The effect on drug preference increased further after the second visit (OR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.19-1.93), while there was no significant change after the third visit (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 0.94-1.20). Pharmaceutical sales representative visits did not influence the overall treatment pattern with inhaled steroids (OR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.97-1.06). Conclusions. Pharmaceutical sales representative visits markedly increased the market share of the promoted drug, but only the two first visits had significant impact. Visits had no significant impact on GPs' overall prescribing of inhaled steroids.

KW - Epidemiology

KW - Family medicine

KW - Practice management

KW - Prescribing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=66749182258&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1093/fampra/cmp010

DO - 10.1093/fampra/cmp010

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 19273463

AN - SCOPUS:66749182258

VL - 26

SP - 204

EP - 209

JO - Family Practice

JF - Family Practice

SN - 0263-2136

IS - 3

ER -