The impact of marketised discourse on the interaction between drug representatives and physicians

• Main Author: Gehrke, Jost-Tilo Alexander
• Published: Durham University 2010
• Subjects: 381
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.512909

Drug representatives (‘drug reps’) visit physicians to present and promote pharmaceutical products (‘drug detailing’). Against the background of a continuous innovative slow-down, drug companies have shifted strategic emphasis towards marketing and selling. With regards to drug detailing, I am investigating how this shift towards marketing is manifested in discursive terms. I show how the detailing discourse is impacting the attitudes and behaviours of those involved in it, namely physicians, drug reps and their managers. By means of qualitative interviewing I access the individual meaning-making and attitudes towards the phenomenon of drug detailing. I demonstrate how discourse is designed, transformed and responded to. In that, I point to a system of incompatibility resulting in unproductive action. Marketised discourse as devised by management is not fostering collaboration between the industry and the medical profession. Moreover, it leads to a growing detachment of drug reps from their organisations. By highlighting the issue of drug detailing for the first time from a drug rep perspective my research demonstrates that the industry is not an integrated ideological whole. I conclude by advocating a more transparent conduct of business, suggesting controlling means to improve the quality of information delivery. Last not least I want to stimulate a critical public discourse about the sublime ways of constructing and disseminating marketised pharmaceutical information.