GlaxoSmithKline to ditch sales target-based compensation, change other global marketing practices

In the wake of the bribery scandal in China, as well as a record-breaking $3 billion fine in the USA over marketing practices (The Pharma Letters passim), UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) today set out plans to evolve the way it sells and markets its products to health care professionals to further align the company’s activities with the interests of patients.

During 2014, GSK says it will implement a new compensation system which will apply to all its sales employees who work directly with prescribing healthcare professionals. The company also intends to begin a consultative process towards stopping direct payments to health care professionals for speaking engagements and for attendance at medical conferences. At the same time, the company will increase its focus on developing its multi-channel capability and alternative approaches to enable it to continue to provide appropriate information about its products and to support medical education for health care professionals.

Chief executive Sir Andrew Witty (pictured) said: “We believe that it is imperative that we continue to actively challenge our business model at every level to ensure we are responding to the needs of patients and meeting the wider expectations of society. Over the past five years, this has seen us take significant steps to increase access to medicines in developing countries and to be more transparent with our clinical trial data. We’ve also made changes to how we work with health care professionals. Building on this, today we are outlining a further set of measures to modernize our relationship with health care professionals.”