Dr. Drug Rep

In this past Sunday's New York Times Magazine, a Dr. Carlat details (forgive the pun) the process by which he came to be a paid speaker for the pharma giant, Wyeth, and its anti-depressant drug Effexor.

Why this article? Because it is so loaded with effective examples of how the Principles of Persuasion operate that it almost drowns in them.

Here's an interesting statistic pulled from the article and highlights the pharma companies overt use of peers to influence the prescribing habits of physicians:

"How many doctors speak for drug companies? We don’t know for sure, but one recent study indicates that at least 25 percent of all doctors in the United States receive drug money for lecturing to physicians or for helping to market drugs in other ways. This meant that I was about to join some 200,000 American physicians who are being paid by companies to promote their drugs."

And what's the impact of these physicians speaking to their peers? Here's Carlat's take, after a few talks where he found he was influencing more than he was educating:

"I began to think that the money was affecting my critical judgement. I was willing to dance around the truth in order to make the drug reps happy. Receiving $750 checks for chatting with some doctors during a lunch break was such easy money that it left me giddy. Like an addiction, it was very hard to give up."

Having worked closely as a consultant with a number of pharmaceutical companies over the years, I've always believed that they are among the very best at leveraging the science of influence. In many ways, the pharma companies, whether they know it or not, have been the pioneers when it comes to influence and persuasion.

Read the full article here.