Decentralized NHS could be a sales-rep boon

It's a good news, bad news kind of day for pharma sales. The good news--in the U.K., some experts think that a proposed overhaul of the National Health Service could mean more jobs for sales reps and their more technical brethren, health managers. That's because the new NHS would be more decentralized, with some 300 to 500 consortia of doctors' practices making key decisions.

So, while drug marketing is now concentrated on NHS headquarters and other national-level decisionmakers, marketing would have to be decentralized along with the health service. "This is in some way a return to the 'old model' with GPs enjoying more freedom of prescribing decisions," concludes Jean-Francois Delas and Stephen Mayhew of the consulting firm Kinapse, via InPharm.

Meanwhile, more physicians are relying on technology for their information on drugs. As Pharmalot reports, a new survey finds that 17 percent of doctors use their smartphones to handle e-detailing. In the same survey, 12 percent of specialists and 14 percent of primary care doctors said they expect to spend less time with sales reps this year.

- see the InPharm article
- check out the Pharmalot coverage

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