The ABPI Whats the big deal for medical sales

If you are looking for your first pharmaceutical job will almost certainly be asked what you know about ‘the ABPI.’ So what is the ABPI and what’s the big deal?

The ABPI is the pharmaceutical industry’s governing body, it sits between the industry and the law, it’s what makes pharmaceutical sales ‘ethical’. The implications of the body are wide ranging. If a company wants to make new claims about a product, they can’t just go ahead and say that their product is the ‘quickest’, ‘slowest’, ‘best tasting’ or whatever, without first submitting the clinical evidence to the ABPI for approval. Some rules are fixed, medical sales people can only call a product ‘new’ if it’s less that one year old, the rest is assessed in relation to the results of relevant clinical trials.

If a company feels another company is making false claims it can complain to the ABPI who make seek justification into the claims, if upheld, the company may have to withdraw all of the associated materials at a huge cost. If a Drs Practise is unhappy with the behaviour of a medical representative they would report the representative to the ABPI who would deal with the complaint.

Why is a governing body useful? Well to answer this consider what may happen if it were not there? It’s bit like professional sports. If a man in the street punches another, they would likely be charged with an offence and gain a criminal record. If a man on a Rugby pitch punches another player, he would end up in a ‘Rugby Union’ (their governing body) hearing, gaining a fine and 3 match ban…the law doesn’t normally get involved. In this sense, a governing body is a buffer between an industry and the law which can often prevent more serious consequences of hanging dirty laundry out in public rather than keeping it in the family.

To return to the ‘big deal’, the big deal is that if you are already in medical sales and you are found to have broken the ABPI, at worst, you could loose your job, or at best you could be the unpopular one responsible for bringing the company a large fine and much bad publicity. In reality these occurrences are very rare, however, they do happen. It’s not that every medical representative who breaks the code will be punished, as really it’s impossible to ‘police’ to any degree, however, to ensure the rules are followed they will make an example of people from time to time, so beware!

I few of the important facts

If you work in Medical sales the ABPI has an exam that you must pass within 2 years of your entrance to the industry, if you fail to achieve this, you can no longer work in the industry, you’ve lost your job! The good news is that most companies offer substantial training for this. In my experience, no matter what your background, if you put the work in you pass, if you don’t you fail. In most cases, if you fail one or more parts, you will have a second bite at the cherry, although it doesn’t look great to need this.

The ABPI has a code of conduct. The document itself is a bit of an encyclopaedia, but there are a few key points to know, particularly heading for your first job interview for medical sales.

Stick to what it’s says in your literature, you can’t make up your own claims about a product.

You can’t use items as an ‘inducement’ to see a customer…so ‘you can have a packet of biscuits if I can see the DR’ is likely to land you in hot water.

You can’t ‘overcall’ on a customer. You shouldn’t see a customer more than 3 times a year unless ‘invited’ to do so. The strict definition of ‘invited’ is up for debate, for example, an appointment could be labelled as an invitation as the Dr has consented to the visit?

Promotional items must be relevant to medical practise, ie. useable in a hospital or Dr‘s practise…so, golf balls and their latest favourite CD’s are out! Mugs, hand towels and tissue are in.

Promotional items must be of a certain low value, see your current copy of the code for the present limit.

If you hold a meeting, the entertainment must be secondary to the medical content of the meeting. This means proper presentations with catering provided, rather than a night on the tiles after a curry where you’ve handed out your business card.

For more you could read the code, but if you do, don’t forget your smelling salts! My advice, get hold of a local rep and bribe with a cappuccino and a baguette to quiz him on what you need to know. If you have job interviews ahead of you, and medical sales is your chosen career, show the manager your work ethic through turning up well researched with a good understanding of what the ABPI is and which bits of the code of practise matter to every day work.

Good luck

John.