Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Parke-Davis considered Dr. X [name withheld] a "key infl uencer" at one of Boston's "cen-
ters of infl uence" with the potential not only to increase his own Neurontin prescriptions,
but to infl uence his peers' Neurontin prescribing at New England Medical Center. Dr. X
was offered money to conduct a study on Neurontin's use for restless leg. After the pay-
ment was made, Dr. X placed more than 160 patients (non-study patients) on Neurontin,
(Exhibit 85).
Promotion based interdependencies
. Parke Davis regularly analyzed and tracked
market research data on physicians' prescription behaviors and patients' prescrip-
tion fi lling to bolster the sales efforts in direct interactions with targeted physicians
(Exhibit 132). For instance, Parke Davis used consultant and dinner meetings to
wine and dine high decile doctors to provide them with information about off-label
uses of Neurontin. Internal documents revealed that the invitation to attend these
meetings was based solely on high rates of prescribing (Exhibit 17) and attendees
were provided a “hard hitting message about Neurontin,” (Exhibit 69). One such
meeting at the Jupiter Beach, Florida was set up to expose 100 physicians with the
“greatest potential” to prescribe Neurontin,” (Exhibits 49 and 53). Area business
managers were provided with trending work sheets to track the pre- and post-meet-
ing prescription writing by participants (Exhibit 54). The Neurontin Marketing
team monitored the attendance and provided attendee names to territory managers
for follow-up. The following memo to area business managers illustrates the pene-
tration-surrogate interdependencies.
Attached is the Trending Worksheet for the recent Neurontin Consultants Program in
Jupiter Beach, Florida. The attendees from your district are listed. This tool is very valuable
in tracking the value of participating in this program, (Exhibit 54).
In another form of promotion interdependence, Parke Davis targeted thought
leaders from large teaching hospitals who have the greatest potential to write
Neurontin prescriptions. Sales people were reminded that “the key infl uencers
should be …kept aware of the availability of research opportunities in clinical tri-
als,” (Exhibit 24). Territory managers and medical liaisons used published evidence
garnered from such grants to persuade targeted physicians to write prescriptions
favoring the company. A territory manager from Parke Davis explains thus:
Medical liaison A [name withheld] and I went to see Dr. X [name withheld] last July… and
we brought Y's data with us on restless leg. We showed him that… right after we talked to
him, he began to try Neurontin on patients that he just started on, (Exhibit A).
Internal documents also illuminate the interdependence between penetration and
education strategies. For instance, Exhibit 39 states that “medical education sup-
ports the Neurontin promotional campaign and supplements fi eld sales efforts
providing physicians with the opportunity to share their experiences and to learn
from key thought leaders how to successfully use Neurontin in clinical practice.”
As noted above, Parke-Davis used commercial companies to monitor pre and post
prescription behavior of attendants to Educational Teleconferences using a Promo
Trak methodology (Exhibit 79). This data was provided to sales people to fi nd new
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