Cheerleaders Boost Drug Sales to Docs

There are some stories that are so perfect in their own way, so self-contained and self-explanatory, that additional commentary can only detract from the tale.  This is one, from The NY Times:

Gimme an Rx! Cheerleaders Pep Up Drug Sales

This paragraph conveys the essence:

Known for their athleticism, postage-stamp skirts and persuasive enthusiasm, cheerleaders have many qualities the drug industry looks for in its sales force. Some keep their pompoms active, like Onya, a sculptured former college cheerleader. On Sundays she works the sidelines for the Washington Redskins. But weekdays find her urging gynecologists to prescribe a treatment for vaginal yeast infection.

And in today's Times comes this rejoinder (requires paid subscription), also perfect in its own way:

To the Editor:

Re "Gimme an Rx! Cheerleaders Pep Up Drug Sales" (front page, Nov. 28):

As a female emergency physician, I smiled - no, laughed outright - that this made your front page.

Any doctor who sees pharmaceutical representatives knows that there is an overabundance of very attractive young women calling on doctors' offices.

Certainly, their appeal is obvious, but they are not selling lip gloss to teenage girls; they are selling expensive, patented drugs to doctors who I hope would be persuaded to prescribe the drugs for their merits and safety, not by the appearance of the representative.

If it's any consolation to the people who were shocked by this marketing stratagem, I was never swayed to prescribe a drug by a Cleveland Browns cheerleader.

Andrea Rodgers, M.D.
Akron, Ohio, Nov. 28, 2005

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