Drug Rep (salesman) vs. Dr. Grobstein

More than any of the big drug companies, Pfizer is well-known for fielding a young, attractive, fresh-faced sales force, many of them having recently populated the country’s finest fraternities and sororities and emerged ready to undergo “training” from the world’s largest drug company, sport their new gold watches and pester doctors along Park Avenue or — horrors! — less glamorous places around the country. Think of a 10,000-strong army of models from the Abercrombie & Fitch catalogue, but wearing a lot more clothes and delivering a sales pitch.

But now, Hank McKinnell — Pfizer’s monotonal economist CEO — is putting the brakes on the gravy train. Pfizer has announced plans to cut $4 billion in costs over the next three years, a strategy that includes the restructuring of its sales force. Maybe the withdrawal of arthritis drug Bextra — linked to serious heart problems — and recent reports of the sudden onset of blindness in men taking Viagra have made Pfizer think twice about paying the bloated salaries of so many of these sales reps. In any case, the twenty-something pill-pushers, having already invested in suburbia and golden retrievers, aren’t too happy about the prospect of job cuts.

Doctors, meanwhile, might be happy to have some relief. Bombarded with visits from eager sales reps with little medical knowledge, many physicians think their offices are nearly saturated with Prevacid pens, Prilosec post-it notes, and Pepcid paperweights. Free lunches can be nice, but it means subjecting yourself to annoying presentations by the sales reps and taking time away from patients.

Enter Dr. Naomi Grobstein and her anonymous scathing critic from the Abercrombie drug rep class. A family practitioner in Montclair, New Jersey, Grobstein groans whenever she sees a drug company sales rep sitting in her waiting room. Too much schmoozing, too much lobbying, not enough time with patients. She’d rather not have any reps in the office at all, but her partners in the family practice allow it.

So, in the interests of representing harried physicians nationwide, Grobstein expressed her views to the Newark Star-Ledger, the paper of record for northern New Jersey. “It’s great news,” said Grobstein of the potential sales-force cuts. “They’re crawling all over themselves with trays of food. It’s a disgrace.... Does anyone believe they really come here to educate us?” She went on to say that she barely has time for her family and friends, let alone sales reps, and that she hopes other drug companies follow suit and cut back.

Well, an unidentified sales rep decided to convey his, ahem, disagreements with Grobstein in an angry letter to her dated April 23 and signed as “Proud Pharm Rep.” It seems that sales reps have been building up resentment toward Grobstein for a while for caring more about her patients than slick, sniveling drug company employees, and the letter writer took the Star-Ledger article as an opportunity to chastise her for such egregious practices.

“Many reps do not enjoy going to your office and do not even attempt to see you because of your poor attitude (your partners are held in high regard),” the mysterious foot soldier wrote.

“My wife and I are both 33 year old reps (she calls on your office) with a one month old baby. Do you hope that we are the typical people that lose their jobs? How would you feel if you read an article with quotes from sales reps reveling in your high malpractice liability insurance?” The writer criticizes Grobstein for eating the free lunches sales reps sometimes provide without actually engaging the sales reps themselves. Grobstein and her office have since discontinued pharma-sponsored lunches.

He then goes on to trap Grobstein in her web of lies and deceit, recalling her eating a dinner — gasp! — at which Big Pharma reps were dutifully serving the public. “I guess you weren’t busy with your family when you attended a dinner at Bellisimos (business meeting) in 2004, listened to our speaker and ate a ‘free’ dinner. I even remember you thanking us for the wonderful presentation that our speaker gave because you felt you learned something!! WOW! We felt sooo privileged. I’m sure that you continue to attend these ‘stupid’ lectures that you seem to have no time for so I’ll look forward to seeing you at one soon!”

Aha! So she was eating dinner! Thankfully, our Proud Pharm Rep caught the doctor red-handed and set her straight about the important role of sales reps in the education of doctors. (Note, by the way, his fear of liability as he puts quotation marks around the word “free” and assures us that the dinner was a business meeting, lest he and his cohorts be mistaken for violating recently adopted industry standards about the context of meals and outings for doctors — standards that were agreed to voluntarily by drug companies to pre-empt the federal government from cracking down on largesse that is tantamount to bribery.)

Finally, the drug rep tries to prove his worth to Grobstein: “I have been a rep for many years and 95% of my physicians and staff members not only respect me and my job but also gain from my coming into the office with new information, samples, patient education, reimbursement info, etc...not all reps are useless and detestable.”

We’re all so Proud, Mr. Pharm Rep.