GSK has announced sizable changes in the way it sells and markets its products to healthcare professionals in an effort to further ensure patient interests come first.
These latest moves build on the steps already taken by GSK to increase access to medicines and operate more openly and transparently, and repair its damaged reputation in the wake of its China scandal.
Changes include:
• A new sales force compensation system that eliminates individual sales targets, instead evaluating and rewarding reps for their technical knowledge, the quality of the service they deliver to support improved patient care and the overall performance of GSK’s business.
The aim is for this new compensation system to be in place in all of the countries GSK operates in by early 2015.
•Stopping direct payments to healthcare professionals for speaking engagements and for attendance at medical conferences.
This consultation will begin in early 2014, with the aim for the changes to be in place across GSK’s global business by the start of 2016.
According to Sir Andrew Witty, CEO of GSK, "We are outlining a further set of measures to modernise our relationship with healthcare professionals. These are designed to bring greater clarity and confidence that whenever we talk to a doctor, nurse or other prescriber, it is patients’ interests that always come first."
