Pfizer Adds New Type of Tablet to Sales Calls
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) is equipping its sales representatives with new portable computers designed to improve their pitches to doctors–and at the same time help the drug maker comply with the law.
The New York-based company has been providing its thousands of sales reps with tablet PCs, a type of laptop computer whose screen can swivel and on which reps and doctors can write with a special pen.
Pfizer, maker of cholesterol drug Lipitor, believes the tablet PCs, which typically cost about $1,500, will help sales reps provide more thorough and up-to-date information about drugs to doctors, and in a timelier manner than printed materials.
But the devices have another purpose that caught the eye of U.S. authorities: they can better ensure that sales reps are appropriately distributing drug samples to doctors, or appropriately handling physician requests for medical information.
