In the latest update on allegations that Pfizer encouraged off-label marketing of its HIV drug before it was approved, Question Authority has posted a series of e-mail exchanges between Pfizer managers, at least one Pfizer saes rep and doctors.

Some names are redacted, but the issue here is that sales reps shouldn’t chat with docs about unapproved indications or drugs, unless a doc asks first, Rost notes. This is part of the same chain of events, by the way, in which sales reps were used as liaisons to help medical affairs recruit docs into trials. Docs were paid $1,200 per patient for a year to ‘promote’ the trials.

The Pfizer sales rep tells Rost: “We were asked to solicit sites for Phase III trials prior to approval specifically for maraviroc. We were asked to solicit small community health centers because they had a lower threshold for following certain protocols that may be inside the larger academic centers…meaning Pfizer would be able to control the process and use reps as go betweens.”

For his part, Rost claims he was told by sources inside Pfizer, his former employer, that an internal legal investigation of this matter has just started and an external law firm is interrogating Pfizer sales representatives. A Pfizer manager recently warned sales reps not to slip and have conversations that could be construed as off-label marketing.

More here.
[tags]Maraviroc, Pfizer[/tags]