Doctors have whored for Big Pharma since forever, and there's a reason they refer to the sales reps as "pushers".
While they may have made the old-school perks illegal - things like vacation vouchers and stuff earned on a kind of points system for every prescription written for a particular drug - there's always been ways around any anti-payola laws.
Buying loyalty is the oldest play in the book, and other species do it, too.
Oh, and you also had the sleazy-ass pharmacists, too. Funny how the names I've seen and heard involved seem to originate from a certain subcontinent.
The pharma marketing culture now is a lot less about bribing rank-and-file community doctors and more about buying off and making whores of the "influencer" doctors who write the guidelines and give speeches at the conferences.
Doctors have whored for Big Pharma since forever, and there's a reason they refer to the sales reps as "pushers".
While they may have made the old-school perks illegal - things like vacation vouchers and stuff earned on a kind of points system for every prescription written for a particular drug - there's always been ways around any anti-payola laws.
Buying loyalty is the oldest play in the book, and other species do it, too.
Oh, and you also had the sleazy-ass pharmacists, too. Funny how the names I've seen and heard involved seem to originate from a certain subcontinent.
The pharma marketing culture now is a lot less about bribing rank-and-file community doctors and more about buying off and making whores of the "influencer" doctors who write the guidelines and give speeches at the conferences.