CME fatigue

In the 'monkey-see-monkey-do' world of pharma marketing, it is rare to find a gem such as Nexium (AstraZeneca) and Lipitor (Pfizer) whose market leader status are the resulting of pure marketing genius which turned the 'me-too' drugs into the global phenomenon that they are now.

CMEs in my opinion, no longer serves as a reliable lever given that every brand in the market are doing it. Last I heard, distributors are holding their own CMEs for post-patent products in the hope to regenerate some new interest.

And certain companies too, have led the pack into organizing GSAs (Group selling activities) led by drug reps to less than impressive results if i must say. The proliferation of these GSAs have caused the rest of the industry to follow suit and develop an industry norm.

From what doctors have candidly professed, they are simply there to enjoy the food and collect CME points. And with the abundance of these meetings, they can well afford to pick and choose which to attend.

Given the common pool of physicians that most pharmas are courting, high- level GPs, cardiologists, oncologists, ENTs, psychiatrists, and various others, it is little wonder that they are suffering from CME fatigue.

Like how one particular cardiologist said it: "I see 30patients at each clinic, after which I'm accousted by 3-4 drug reps with nothing interesting to say. I'd rather pay for my own lunch and be spared the repetitive drug spew.'

With the dwindling number of attendees and the increasing number of poorly organized CMEs, it is perhaps time for the industry to think if it is all worth it in the end. A mediocre event will perhaps put your A&P back $80 per head and given the recent inflation, it may not generate the kind of ROI that we like to imagine.

That is not to say that we shouldn't hold anymore CMEs for that is still the most effective way to get out message out to the people who matters. But it is time to relook and finetune it to an art. Bringing back the crowd through more professional content, credible speakers, knowledgeable exchange to provide value for the audience is more important than putting on an event for the sake of meeting some KPIs and stressing the reps to deliver the audience.