Pharmaceutical Industry

SK&A Physician Survey Data Shows Drug Sample Preferences

Last June, SK&A Research Associates administered a phone survey to 32,000 office-based physician sites to find out what physicians’ preferences are for receiving drug samples and if they store drug samples at their offices.

Results showed that 70 percent of physician offices prefer drug samples to be delivered by way of a sales rep or mail, with 27 percent preferring delivery by sales rep only and 3 percent preferring delivery by mail only.

Practice specialties with the highest rates for storing drug samples on site are allergy/immunology (85 percent), urology (80 percent), internal medicine/pediatrics (79 percent) and otolaryngology (79 percent). Specialties with the lowest rates for storing drug samples on site are pathology (1 percent), radiology (8 percent) and holistic medicine (9 percent).

Small- to mid-sized physician offices (one to 20 physicians) are most likely to store drug samples on site. Thirty-eight percent of physician offices with one physician store drug samples on site, and 47 percent of offices with six to 20 physicians store drug samples. The leading office size for drug storage is two to five physicians, with 65 percent storing samples on site. Offices with 21 to 50 physicians have a storage rate of 22 percent. This rate declines further to 15 percent for offices with 51 to 100 doctors and to 5 percent for offices with over 100 doctors.