Citation

Tan, Kong Hun and Tan, Booi Chen and Tan, Olivia Swee Leng (2022) Pharmaceutical Marketing in Malaysia – The Ethical Perspectives of Pharmaceutical Medical Representatives. In: Postgraduate Social Science Colloquium 2022, 1 - 2 June 2022, Online.

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Abstract

Background - The sales and marketing of pharmaceutical medicine are highly regulated by the law. In Malaysia and most parts of the world, patients can only purchase prescription medicine upon getting a prescription from doctors, and advertisement of prescription medicine is prohibited. Hence, the principal method pharmaceutical companies promote their products is by promoting directly to the doctors through medical representatives who are incentivized to persuade doctors to prescribe the medicine to patients, who end up paying for it. Purpose - The relationship between medical representatives and doctors often raises ethical issues. The extensive literature, mostly employing a quantitative approach, describes the medical representative’s use of financial and non-financial inducements to unethically influence doctors’ prescription of medicine. The current literature is mostly examined from the perspective of the doctors in arriving at the conclusion that pharmaceutical marketing is unethical. In addition, such a conclusion is often reached without reference to any existing theoretical framework of marketing ethics theory. The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine the ethical issues that arise from the relationship between medical representatives and doctors from the perspective of the medical representatives themselves. It aims to discover the moral component and thinking process that a medical representative goes through when marketing to doctors and the justification used to resolve ethical conflicts and dilemmas. It also aims to elicit their normative views on practices to improve the current situation pertaining to pharmaceutical marketing. Design/methodology/approach - As this study aims to examine the ethical perspective of the medical representatives themselves, a qualitative approach will be adopted using phenomenology to focus on the experiences, events, and occurrences directly perceived by the medical representatives. The qualitative approach is also useful to minimize the risk of social desirability bias in view of the sensitivity of the issue to be studied. The sampling population will comprise medical representatives of pharmaceutical companies in Malaysia, which means employees whose principal roles involved promoting pharmaceutical products to doctors. Purposive sampling will be employed using the snowball method, and samples shall be collected to the point of theoretical saturation. Data collection will be in the form of qualitative in-depth interviews, either face-to-face or online to be conducted using open-ended questions of a semi-structured type. Findings/Expected Contributions - The study hopes to contribute toward improving ethical standards in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure there is no compromise on patient safety. It will also contribute to insight into the ethical decision-making of medical representatives and thus enabling their companies to design better control and training. It will help healthcare regulators to form better policies in pharmaceutical marketing. Finally, it aims to contribute to the existing literature on pharmaceutical marketing ethics using theories of normative marketing ethics as a conceptual framework. Research limitations - A limitation of the study will be the difficulty in getting the medical representatives to disclose the truth about their own ethical perspectives and therefore the possibility of social desirability bias cannot be eliminated. The small and purposive sample and the exploratory study limit the capacity to generalize the findings. Further, a quantitative investigation is necessary to test the theory and develop these initial findings to gain insight into the ethical perspective of medical representatives and its relationship with its antecedents. Originality/value - The current literature on pharmaceutical marketing ethics often lacks a theoretical framework. This study aims to fill the literature gap by examining current pharmaceutical marketing practices against the framework of normative marketing ethics. Normative theories of marketing ethics recommend ways to improve ethics in marketing according to what should be done. By drawing on the standards, principles, values, and norms laid down by normative marketing ethics as consolidated by Ferrell (2013), this study aims to provide new insight into the ethical perspective of pharmaceutical marketing. Design/methodology/approach - As this study aims to examine the ethical perspective of the medical representatives themselves, a qualitative approach will be adopted using phenomenology to focus on the experiences, events, and occurrences directly perceived by the medical representatives. The qualitative approach is also useful to minimize the risk of social desirability bias in view of the sensitivity of the issue to be studied. The sampling population will comprise medical representatives of pharmaceutical companies in Malaysia, which means employees whose principal roles involved promoting pharmaceutical products to doctors. Purposive sampling will be employed using the snowball method, and samples shall be collected to the point of theoretical saturation. Data collection will be in the form of qualitative in-depth interviews, either face-to-face or online to be conducted using open-ended questions of a semi-structured type. Findings/Expected Contributions - The study hopes to contribute toward improving ethical standards in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure there is no compromise on patient safety. It will also contribute to insight into the ethical decision-making of medical representatives and thus enabling their companies to design better control and training. It will help healthcare regulators to form better policies in pharmaceutical marketing. Finally, it aims to contribute to the existing literature on pharmaceutical marketing ethics using theories of normative marketing ethics as a conceptual framework. Research limitations - A limitation of the study will be the difficulty in getting the medical representatives to disclose the truth about their own ethical perspectives and therefore the possibility of social desirability bias cannot be eliminated. The small and purposive sample and the exploratory study limit the capacity to generalize the findings. Further, a quantitative investigation is necessary to test the theory and develop these initial findings to gain insight into the ethical perspective of medical representatives and its relationship with its antecedents. Originality/value - The current literature on pharmaceutical marketing ethics often lacks a theoretical framework. This study aims to fill the literature gap by examining current pharmaceutical marketing practices against the framework of normative marketing ethics. Normative theories of marketing ethics recommend ways to improve ethics in marketing according to what should be done. By drawing on the standards, principles, values, and norms laid down by normative marketing ethics as consolidated by Ferrell (2013), this study aims to provide new insight into the ethical perspective of pharmaceutical marketing.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Normative Marketing Ethics, Pharmaceutical Marketing, Phenomenology.
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA960-1000.5 Medical centers. Hospitals. Dispensaries. Clinics
Divisions:	Faculty of Management (FOM)
Depositing User:	Ms Rosnani Abd Wahab
Date Deposited:	18 Aug 2022 01:45
Last Modified:	19 Aug 2022 08:31
URII:	http://shdl.mmu.edu.my/id/eprint/10416

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