Pharmaceuticals, Cheerleaders, and the Selling of Drugs (or is that Sex?)

The New York Times this past week reported on an interesting trend in the pharmaceutical industry to recruit and hire former cheerleaders as pharmaceutical sale representatives.  Not only are these (mostly) women invariably good-looking, but they are good at "exaggerated motions, exaggerated smiles, [and] exaggerated enthusiasm," all qualities that can help when trying to convincing a doctor to write more prescriptions of your company's drugs.

There are a number of  troubling aspects to this trend (not to mention the lack of focus on the bona fides of the drugs themselves).  From a sexual harassment perspective, although no one in any of the drug companies is going to admit that seduction appears to be a deliberate marketing strategy (one company head saying that, "It has nothing to do with looks, it's the personality"), stories abound of doctors who mistook a sales pitch for more than just a sales pitch.  Indeed, one informal survey by a doctor in Pittsburgh found that 12 of 13 female drug reps believed they had been sexually harassed by doctors.

What to do? What I used to do in my former life as an attorney for these pharmaceutical companies: Spend a lot of time on sexual harassment training seminars for these employees and cross your fingers because the days of the attractive drug rep are far from over.

Post by: Paul M. Secunda