Press Release
Commercial Compliance Benchmark Charts Promotional Monitoring by Pharmaceutical Companies
TGaS® Advisors Provides Landscape Analysis on Key Compliance Issue
East Norriton, Penn., June 29, 2009 — Promotional monitoring is one of the pharmaceutical industry’s toughest challenges. A recent benchmark, conducted by TGaS® Advisors Commercial Compliance Practice, found that pharmaceutical companies are using several methods to check for regulatory compliance by sales representatives, including “ride-alongs,” audits of physician message recall and sampling and expense account monitoring
TGaS Advisors, a leader in benchmarking and advisory services to the pharmaceutical industry, conducted the targeted, peer-set benchmark among heads of Commercial Compliance Groups at 12 of the top pharmaceutical companies. The goal was to learn how companies are handling this issue and create a confidential industry landscape analysis for clients. Key findings:
- All study participants monitor promotional efforts of sales representatives.
- “Ride-alongs” are one key audit method for two-thirds of the participating companies. District Managers (25%), Regional Managers (17%), Home Office compliance staff (33%) or contract personnel (less than 10%) accompany sales representatives and audit sales calls.
- A second method audits physicians for message recall data. Three-quarters of the companies conduct these audits, mostly using outside market research.
- All companies monitor expense reports for promotional issues and 75% audit sampling. Companies are also training their compliance officers to conduct these audits. In general, companies devote about a day to training, and more than half is in-person. One company requires a week (40 hours) of training.
According to Stephen E. Gerard, Managing Partner, the TGaS Advisors 2009 Annual State of Pharmaceutical Commercial Operations Benchmark predicted that compliance would be one of the areas of greatest change this year. “Regulatory concerns are on everyone’s radar,” said Gerard. “Commercial Operations leaders are deeply conscious of compliance issues across the board, from sales calls to Internet marketing. Sharing information on promotional monitoring supports industry efforts to stay compliant in a time of flux.”
About TGaS® Advisors LLC
TGaS Advisors, ranked ninth among health-related companies by the Inc. 500, is the leader in benchmarking and advisory services to the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry. The TGaS Advisors roster includes nine of the top 10 and the majority of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies with operations in the U.S. market. The firm’s benchmarking and advisory services suite of solutions, PharmaStance®, provides clients with a way to measure where they stand with respect to their organizations and answers the question, “How do other pharmaceutical companies do ‘it’?”® TGaS Advisors is based in East Norriton, Pennsylvania.
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