Times have changed for the Pharmaceutical industry. Gone are the days when sales reps could take physicians on weekend junkets. Thanks to voluntary industry standards, established in 2008, reps don’t even take doctors out to dinner or offer them an endless supply of promotional pens anymore. One group of health care providers, No Free Lunch, even formed a web site proclaiming their refusal to accept all gifts, even prescription samples, from the health care industry.
These changes make the few moments of face time that a pharmaceutical sales rep gets with a physician much more precious. Big Pharma’s most recent response to this sea change has been to buy iPads for its reps. Lots and lots of iPads.
The Pharmaceutical companies are banking on the iPad’s portability and knock-out visuals to maximize the brief time reps now have to pitch to physicians. Reps may only get 30 seconds of a primary care doctor’s time, and they want to make the most of it, so rival tablets do not interest sway of these corporate giants. Jonathan (Jack Donaghy’s sycophantic assistant on 30 Rock) uses an iPad. He wouldn’t be caught dead whizzing around clutching a Motorola Xoom, and neither will any of these reps.
There’s only one problem: nobody has any apps. Vendors have yet to create the sales force automation applications the reps need to do their jobs. Instead of waiting for the apps to arrive, however, several of the major companies admit to “stockpiling iPads for later use.”
While this news bodes well for Apple, as they are now in position to dominate this emerging market, it might give the average person pause. The words “stockpiling” and “iPads” are not words we often use together. Generally people wait in line for hours to get just one of these coveted devices. And what of the “for later use” part of the equation? Big Pharma had better get applications they need before Apple rolls out the iPad 3.
These changes make the few moments of face time that a pharmaceutical sales rep gets with a physician much more precious. Big Pharma’s most recent response to this sea change has been to buy iPads for its reps. Lots and lots of iPads.
The Pharmaceutical companies are banking on the iPad’s portability and knock-out visuals to maximize the brief time reps now have to pitch to physicians. Reps may only get 30 seconds of a primary care doctor’s time, and they want to make the most of it, so rival tablets do not interest sway of these corporate giants. Jonathan (Jack Donaghy’s sycophantic assistant on 30 Rock) uses an iPad. He wouldn’t be caught dead whizzing around clutching a Motorola Xoom, and neither will any of these reps.
There’s only one problem: nobody has any apps. Vendors have yet to create the sales force automation applications the reps need to do their jobs. Instead of waiting for the apps to arrive, however, several of the major companies admit to “stockpiling iPads for later use.”
While this news bodes well for Apple, as they are now in position to dominate this emerging market, it might give the average person pause. The words “stockpiling” and “iPads” are not words we often use together. Generally people wait in line for hours to get just one of these coveted devices. And what of the “for later use” part of the equation? Big Pharma had better get applications they need before Apple rolls out the iPad 3.
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