Speaker programs have a long and sordid history in the pharmaceutical and medical device world. For many years, these companies have used free meals and hand-picked speakers to pitch their message to a captive audience. While many companies have moved away from such inducements, several continue the wining and dining.
Lurking beneath the surface of these programs is the Orwellian methodology the companies use to target prescribers and to fine tune their tactics to achieve their goals. Among the tools used are data mining the prescriber’s patterns, creating psychological profiles of their targets, monitoring social media accounts, and assigning specific-looking representatives to meet the “interest” of top-targeted prescribers.
Educating physicians about new drugs is a crucial role for the industry, but brainwashing, tricking, and bribing should not be. Just last week, another whistleblower successfully exposed kickbacks in the pharmaceutical industry. Daiichi Sankyo agreed to pay $39 million to settle allegations of paying kickbacks to physicians to prescribe several of its drugs, including Welchol, Benicar, Azor and Tribenzor. The brave whistleblower was former sales rep Kathleen Fragoules. Her share of the settlement is expected to be $6.1 million.
The complaint alleged that Daiichi initiated different speaker programs in order to pay doctors kickbacks in the form of honoraria and meals.& Some physicians spoke only to their office staff, while some spoke to their own spouses. In a new twist to round-tabling, payments were made to multiple physicians “speaking” about duplicate topics at lavish dinners, all paid for by the drug maker. I envision a table of automaton doctors flatly repeating the corporate message over and over until they believe it. Shame on the prescribers for continuing to fall for this kind of nonsense, but they continue to do so. Maybe more settlements like this will hopefully change their behavior.