Ever more US physicians saying 'no' to drug industry rep visits

Obtaining access to busy physicians grew still more difficult for pharmaceutical representatives in 2009, in the USA as the number of physicians willing to see most reps fell nearly 20%, the number of prescribers refusing to see most reps increased by half and the number of management-planned sales calls that were nearly impossible to complete topped 8 million.

These are among the findings of the latest AccessMonitor, a report from global consulting firm ZS Associates that examines how often physicians and other prescribers will meet with sales representatives from pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The study monitors the sales rep-related interactions of more than 500,000 physicians, nurse practitioners and other pharmaceutical prescribers USA-wide and tracks both the planned and completed sales calls of more than 41,000 pharmaceutical representatives - about half of all representatives in the USA.