Drug Promotional Practices among the Healthcare System by the Medical Representative of Pharmaceutical Companies in a Fast Developing City, Kochi

Objectives: The study was conducted to know the radius of drugs promotional practices, to know the validity and accuracy of new drug information and the impact of drug promotion on the prescribing behaviour of doctors. The role of medical representatives in this area and to understand how our healthcare professionals are influenced by the drug companies Methods: We developed a questionnaire to evaluate and understand how our healthcare professionals are influenced by the drug companies. The questionnaire was designed to get data about the knowledge, attitude and beliefs of the doctors, medical representatives and pharmacists regarding drug promotion. The study also focused on group discussion to get more information. We selected 20 doctors, 24 pharmacists and 24 medical representatives to get genuine factors in promotional practices. Key findings: Almost all the doctors and pharmacists had accepted gifts and incentives. Pharmacist goes for leaflets in the drug packs and CIMS to get information and also recognise the misleading promotions done by MRs by seeing the prescription. The MRs said that the doctors were influenced by offers provided for sales promotion and mentioned that they do the sponsorship for CME programmes, lecturer and seminars. Conclusions: The authorities should give training to our doctors and pharmacist that how to do the critical appraisal of medicinal drug promotion possibly while they are doing undergraduate. Another step is to improvement the knowledge regarding drugs available in the market through small seminars and presentations.