Only $175,000 or so. That’s for a primary care sales rep, by the way. However, the cost can range anywhere from $125,000 to $225,000 per rep each year when considering the range of companies queried by Cutting Edge Information, a market research firm that released a report on pharma marketing. Interestingly, the average cost per primary rep from the study showed an increase from a similar study compiled in 2005; hinting that costs are going up across the industry.

“Cost per primary care rep has been a number that we have seen hover around the $150,000 mark for several years,” says David Richardson, senior analyst at Cutting Edge, in a statement. “Though there were some companies in this study that still report costs near the $150,000 level, many other companies are revealing higher cost levels this year.”

Another nugget: the primary care rep carries, on average, 2.8 different sample drugs, while specialty and hospital reps carry an average of 2.5 different sample meds.