Study: Drug Sales Reps Rarely Communicate Risks to Prescribers

The information provided by pharmaceutical sales representatives has been shown to influence prescribing; however, physicians based in the United States and Canada are rarely informed about relevant adverse events, according to the results of a study published in the April 2013 Journal of General Internal Medicine. More than 250 physicians reported on almost 1,700 drug-specific promotions. The researchers found that physicians were only slightly more likely to be informed of potential harms in regions, such as France, with stricter rules that define “minimally adequate safety information.”