GSK changes sales tactics
pharmafile | December 17, 2013 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | GSK, Witty, bribery, corruption, cuts, sales, transparency
GlaxoSmithKline is to remove individual staff sales targets and end doctor payments for activities that promote its products.
The UK pharma giant is seeking to future-proof its operations in the wake of several corruption scandals in China, and accusations of devious marketing tactics.
GSK’s chief executive Andrew Witty said: “We believe that it is imperative that we continue to actively challenge our business model at every level to ensure we are responding to the needs of patients and meeting the wider expectations of society.”
The firm has outlined how it intends to repair its reputation by announcing key measures that include an overhaul to its sales force compensation, and ending payments to healthcare professionals based on product promotion.
Set to be in place by 2015, GSK sales teams who work directly with prescribing healthcare workers will be evaluated and rewarded for their technical knowledge and service quality, rather than compensation based on unit sales the company says.
And in another first for the industry, by 2016 it will end the practice of paying healthcare workers to speak on its behalf to audiences who can prescribe or influence prescribing. The UK affiliate of GSK removed its sales targets in 2012.
GSK says it will also stop providing funding to individuals to attend medical conferences, and instead will fund education for healthcare professionals through unsolicited, independent educational grant routes.
The firm added it will continue to provide “appropriate fees for services to healthcare professionals” for GSK sponsored clinical research, advisory activities and market research.
Witty said: “We recognise that we have an important role to play in providing doctors with information about our medicines, but this must be done clearly, transparently and without any perception of conflict of interest.”
The fallout from corruption investigations in China has hit GSK in the pocket, which announced third quarter sales in the country were down 61% year-on-year. But some will welcome GSK’s transparency moves, as the company is not averse to leading change in the industry.
ABPI chief executive Stephen Whitehead spoke today on GSK’s announcement, saying: “The pharmaceutical industry is committed to increasing the transparency of payments to medical professionals and is now moving from aggregate disclosure to full disclosure, on an individual level, of payments to medical professionals on marketing and education activities.”
He added: “Information on sponsorship collected during 2015 will be disclosed on individual healthcare professionals in 2016, across 33 European countries. A similar arrangement will apply to contractual agreements with consultants, with individual details again to be released in 2016. Consultants are already obliged to declare their consultancy and other commercial interests when undertaking speaking engagements and in publications.”
Brett Wells
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