pharmaceutical sales??

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teelove2ball

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I was just wondering if you all can offer as much info as possible to me about pharmaceutical sales? I would like to know anything you all know about it.

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I was just wondering if you all can offer as much info as possible to me about pharmaceutical sales? I would like to know anything you all know about it
 
I was just wondering if you all can offer as much info as possible to me about pharmaceutical sales? I would like to know anything you all know about it.


My brother-in-law is a drug rep for a large multi-national drug company and I have dealt with many as a scientist in the Pharma Industry.

What I know:

• Very flexible hours (depending on who you work for) as long as you
meet your sales goals

• Most reps are assigned to 1 or 2 drugs to focus on. Presentations
are both informal and formal depending on setting (hospital, doctors
office, lunch presentation etc.)

• Your success has a lot to do with the exclusivity status of the
drug(s) you are selling and not necessarily your skills as a sales
person. Meaning if your drug loses patent protection you could lose
40% of your market in a month.

• If you do not perform, you will be put on a very short leash.

• Salaries range from 50 K – 200 K (bonus included), I believe the
bulk of salary comes from an incentive based bonus, but I’m not
sure?

• You do not need 1 iota of scientific knowledge to do this job
(though it would certainly help). My B-I-L was a business major in
college and only took the minimum in science courses and does
quite well at his job.

Hope this helps.
 
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My wifes aunt makes better than 100K/year. I have to hear about how she took no real science classes in college and yet she will or does make more then I ever will.
 
a simple bachelor will get you into it, any sales experiences and the pharmacy companies will hire you.
 
a couple of friend of mine do it. You have the potential to make alot of money. They usually offer a generous base plus commission, and a company car (if not a car, at least a car allowance). You are basically in charge of a certain area and you gotta go from doctor to doctor pitching your drug. Theres alot of schmoozing and favors involved (you buy them lunch alot etc.). Since you are responsible for a certain geographical area, its sorta like having your own business. You are basically responsible for everything. Like I said, it can be very lucrative, but you need prior outside sales experience before you will ever get hired, and since its a sales position, you have to have that aggressive, thick-skinned personality. Personally its not for me.
 
I don't know much about the field but what I do know is that most pharm reps are above average looking.
 
That might be the most useless comment I've read so far today.


why? I've certainly never had an ugly drug rep come in to the pharmacy, most often they're mid 20's attractive women in rather snugly fitting suits. It was an accurate comment, it's sales not radio, looks count for something
 
why? I've certainly never had an ugly drug rep come in to the pharmacy, most often they're mid 20's attractive women in rather snugly fitting suits. It was an accurate comment, it's sales not radio, looks count for something

hey you've seen my wifes aunt
 
I was just wondering if you all can offer as much info as possible to me about pharmaceutical sales? I would like to know anything you all know about it

You have to be hot.
 
You have to be hot.

Yeah, it certainly doesn't hurt...but don't forget to mention you have to kiss a lot of ass.

I'll tell you what though, I'd buy anything a drug rep had to offer if they looked like Heather Locklear does when she plays that role in "Scrubs".
 
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You have to be hot.

To put it another way; if your were a high profile gynecologist, endocrinologist, or cardiologist would you want to be seen having lunch with a not so hot looking sales rep?! Of course, we are talking about women.
That is my perspective...:laugh:
 
:smuggrin: This job is onbe of the main reasons why we have so many ***ing health problems in the US today....

USELESS....take up patient time to see the doctor and promote a drug you know nothing about EXCEPT for the studies provided by your own company which has stock market stake in the success of the drug...this job is 100% sales, they know that people with science degrees can think and will object...that why they look for business and communication sorority girls who wont see or care about how ***ked up our healthcare has become.

Man I hate these guys....
 
Kind of like the paid petition circulators who just shove the thing in front of you and ask you to sign. If you ask about it the feed you the bull their supervisor fed them. If you read the explanation on the petition it can be the complete opposite of what they tell you. They've honestly never read it and they get between $.25 and 3.00 per signature.
 
:smuggrin: This job is onbe of the main reasons why we have so many ***ing health problems in the US today....

USELESS....take up patient time to see the doctor and promote a drug you know nothing about EXCEPT for the studies provided by your own company which has stock market stake in the success of the drug...this job is 100% sales, they know that people with science degrees can think and will object...that why they look for business and communication sorority girls who wont see or care about how ***ked up our healthcare has become.

Man I hate these guys....

WOW...I don't even know where to start. As a "sorority girl" whose Mom and Dad have both worked for pharmaceutical companies for the past 20 years, I can't help but laugh at your arrogance. Learn your facts before you attack an industry...especially when you are about to enter a closely related field!
 
WOW...I don't even know where to start. As a "sorority girl" whose Mom and Dad have both worked for pharmaceutical companies for the past 20 years, I can't help but laugh at your arrogance. Learn your facts before you attack an industry...especially when you are about to enter a closely related field!

What do they do? My take was that they were attacking an occupation, not an industry. (Which you're right, probably shouldn't be doing) Though like most sales jobs there is a certain amount of generalization. Same with the petition circulators. My mom and bro did that for a few months, gave it up because of the above mentioned issues with information vs misinformation.
 
What do they do? My take was that they were attacking an occupation, not an industry. (Which you're right, probably shouldn't be doing) Though like most sales jobs there is a certain amount of generalization. Same with the petition circulators. My mom and bro did that for a few months, gave it up because of the above mentioned issues with information vs misinformation.

Both my Mom and Dad have been involved in the sales part of the business for years. More recently, my Dad has become a regional reimbursement specialist...helping doctors and patients get their medications paid for and understand medicare/medicaid. My mom is a clinical oncology specialist for an amazing biotech company and her training was actually quite extensive, learning much more than I have in many of my classes (i'm a bio major and biomedical sciences minor). So really, as a specialist, she is able to be very informed and is actually a great tool for doctors.

As for the issues that surround the money spent by reps to "wine and dine" doctors, pharmacists, nurses, ect., they have seen HUGE changes in past years regarding what they can and cannot do. They are very very regulated on spending money...which is good. So that is definately a huge misunderstanding, as many people assume that pharm reps are able to take doctors to any kind of entertainment and spent large amounts of money.

As with any business, it has it's pros and cons. I've seen both, but I think it's a great profession. If I wasn't doing pharmacy school, I would definately be applying for rep jobs.
 
Both my Mom and Dad have been involved in the sales part of the business for years. More recently, my Dad has become a regional reimbursement specialist...helping doctors and patients get their medications paid for and understand medicare/medicaid. My mom is a clinical oncology specialist for an amazing biotech company and her training was actually quite extensive, learning much more than I have in many of my classes (i'm a bio major and biomedical sciences minor). So really, as a specialist, she is able to be very informed and is actually a great tool for doctors.

As for the issues that surround the money spent by reps to "wine and dine" doctors, pharmacists, nurses, ect., they have seen HUGE changes in past years regarding what they can and cannot do. They are very very regulated on spending money...which is good. So that is definately a huge misunderstanding, as many people assume that pharm reps are able to take doctors to any kind of entertainment and spent large amounts of money.

As with any business, it has it's pros and cons. I've seen both, but I think it's a great profession. If I wasn't doing pharmacy school, I would definately be applying for rep jobs.

Very good info to have. Thanks for sharing.
 
1. Don't get pharmacists and also techs confused with sales....sales people are not even close to knowing as much a Tech...they are parrots.

It is true that a pill could sometimes spare someone from expensive surgery BUT (and these are FACTS below):

Then tell me why Pharma companies have to spend so much on PR mentioning this and how they help the community????
Recall the Prop 78 and 79 mess in CA in 2005 special elections?? They spent
100s of MILLIONS on PR to stop negotiations on pricing in CA and with Medicare...just look up the big favor good old Bush did for Eli Lilly with the anti-psychotic drugs..

How about the passage of pharmacogenomic drugs such as Bidil which should be banned for being marketed incorrectly...... Bottom line is say good bye to ethics after you take this job, this and the 1000s of pharma lobbysists on congress should be ILLEGAL! ..you know what forget it...its no use...just give me my thorazine drip please :hardy:

We must tighten up the FDA and that is exactly where I plan to work.




Both my Mom and Dad have been involved in the sales part of the business for years. More recently, my Dad has become a regional reimbursement specialist...helping doctors and patients get their medications paid for and understand medicare/medicaid. My mom is a clinical oncology specialist for an amazing biotech company and her training was actually quite extensive, learning much more than I have in many of my classes (i'm a bio major and biomedical sciences minor). So really, as a specialist, she is able to be very informed and is actually a great tool for doctors.

As for the issues that surround the money spent by reps to "wine and dine" doctors, pharmacists, nurses, ect., they have seen HUGE changes in past years regarding what they can and cannot do. They are very very regulated on spending money...which is good. So that is definately a huge misunderstanding, as many people assume that pharm reps are able to take doctors to any kind of entertainment and spent large amounts of money.

As with any business, it has it's pros and cons. I've seen both, but I think it's a great profession. If I wasn't doing pharmacy school, I would definately be applying for rep jobs.
 
It's great we all have our opinions... and that we live in a country where we can have them :)
 
:smuggrin: This job is onbe of the main reasons why we have so many ***ing health problems in the US today....

USELESS....take up patient time to see the doctor and promote a drug you know nothing about EXCEPT for the studies provided by your own company which has stock market stake in the success of the drug...this job is 100% sales, they know that people with science degrees can think and will object...that why they look for business and communication sorority girls who wont see or care about how ***ked up our healthcare has become.

Man I hate these guys....


I'm with you.

BTW...ingredients in Bidil are good for some patients.
 
this is headed a whole different direction. Can you all share more info on the salary and typical day of this field.
 
As for the issues that surround the money spent by reps to "wine and dine" doctors, pharmacists, nurses, ect., they have seen HUGE changes in past years regarding what they can and cannot do. They are very very regulated on spending money...which is good. So that is definately a huge misunderstanding, as many people assume that pharm reps are able to take doctors to any kind of entertainment and spent large amounts of money.

My mom is a cardiology NP and drug reps will take her and another doctor out to a VERY expensive dinner and pay her $500-$750 to discuss lipid management. So there is still alot of wining and dining going on in that industry.

A typical day for a drug rep- drop off samples, take lunch into a doctor’s office, loiter around trying to pitch a memorized spiel to a doc... that's pretty much it. From what I've seen starting salary seems to be $35-40k base with commission. There is alot of turnover in the industry though.
 
Not to go off on a totally different direction, but there is another way to approach this. That is - as an independent rep. As an independent you have the ability to represent as many product lines that you can comfortably carry. In time, you can also develop your own Rep Agency, in which you have Reps selling the same products as you, but elsewhere - and because they are part of your Rep Agency, you get a piece of the commission.

There are two prominent websites that can help an independent sales reps to contact manufacturers or principals and find new lines.


One is RepHunter at http://www.RepHunter.net and the other is Replocate at http://www.Replocate.com



Searching in RepHunter, I came up with 231 Principals/Manufacturers that match the keyword - Pharm and 583 that match the keyword - Medical.



Best of yet, it's a FREE service for Reps. The best of these is RepHunter because it has a larger database and tracks online the contacts that you have made.


RepHunter also provides training and they have an informative FAQ page located at http://www.rephunter.net/faq.php.


Both sites post their phone numbers, so you can get to a real person. And you will usually get to a person right away. The posted number for RepHunter is 612-486-5020; for Replocate the number is 651-438-3364.
 
Some things should not go together... Medication and money...

Anytime you do put them together - one inevitably affects the other (effects?).

Case in point: XXX hospital puts nearly every inpatient on ranitidine - you know, zantac... which has been out for like 20 years... and yet, prilosec (omeprazole) has been out for several years that better treats the very same ailments.

Why do we not then prescribe this better medication - well... we get an excellent discount for using ranitidine. And its not limited - Prevacid, Lovenox, etc... the list goes on and on.

I am not saying that the Pharma reps are creating the mess - they are merely the committing agent. The whole system is messed up - /rant]

~above~
 
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