Does Detailing Pay?

Does the pharmaceutical industry's expenditure of $20 billion on detailing, or office visits by sales representatives, result in an increase in sales?
Natalie Mizik, Paul Glasserman  | Fall 2009
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Detailing, or visits from pharmaceutical sales representatives to medical offices to provide details about a drug's purpose and side effects, has become the pharmaceutical industry's most costly direct-to-physician marketing effort, with an estimated $20 billion spent annually. Research studies offer conflicting conclusions on the effectiveness of this approach. One study found every dollar spent on detailing resulted in incremental sales of $1.72 and another concluded it offered only a modest impact. In this case students generate a regression analysis to consider the impact of detailing and sampling on a physician's prescription rate.

Case ID: 090202
Supplemental Materials: Teaching Note , DDP Student Dataset
This case is used in core curriculum

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