Big Pharma's Marketing Tactics Case Study Sample

The use of trained sales representatives to convey the merits of the relevant pharmaceutical therapy is a big debate. This, many health professionals believe, should not be the case since the sales representatives are bound to be profit oriented and may overlook the key regulations, which guard the medical practice.
Manipulation of patients and doctors to ascribe to the drugs of these pharmaceutical firms through gifts and exaggerated adverts exposes the deep underlying issues of ethics in Big Pharma. This case exposes the many insidious ways that illness is used, manipulated, and in some instances created, for capital gain. The Big Pharma has used marketing to influence how both patients and doctors relate to disease and treatment.
Corruption is the other main big ethical issue that comes out very clearly. Big Pharma is able to ward off the government regulations by using the power of its big lobbying force. This includes the defeat of bills that seek to limit the ability of the industry to market its drugs. Alleged kickbacks to doctors also forms part of the questionable practices in this case.
Big Pharma advertising glamorizes and normalizes the use of prescription drugs. The Big Pharma has been criticized for concentrating on promotion of drugs, of which some are not effective, at the expense of research for new drugs, which is its primary goal. Illegal payments to doctors to motivate them to subscribe to the company’s drugs is done in various ways including trips, payments for speaking favorably about certain drugs from specific companies. Overpricing has been noted with many of the drug companies. The primary stakeholders in this case include the pharmaceutical firms, the government, the doctors, and the patients and the other health professionals.
There is no justification to the tactics employed by Big Pharma. The entire plot is to gain huge profits. It ignores all the basic regulations which are put in place to guard the industry. Big Pharma employs many marketing tactics. One of them is promotion to medical students. This involves promotion tactics when the doctors are still in school. These include giving the medical students free lunches, pens and even notepads. The second tactic involves the use of exaggerated television adverts.
So far, none of the tactics employed by big Pharma can be said to be acceptable. One of the most questionable tactics of marketing that pharmaceutical companies have adopted is financial lures. This, they achieve by paying doctors unsolicited amounts of money so that they may commit to prescribe the drugs of the companies. They are also lured to participate in the company’s clinical trials which often turn out to be disguised marketing ploys that required very little from them.
The excessive advertising and sales force spending leads the consumers to believe that Big Parma cares more about profits than protecting the health
For any firm to advance in research and development, it needs intensive financial investment. However, the money should be raised in an ethical manner. Big Pharma being an industry that deals directly with the lives of people ought to be very cautious on how it raises money. Unscrupulous forms of advertisement, corruption and general professional misconduct in order to get money, should not form part of its advancement in research and development.