Levaquin Sales Rep in Need of Auctioneer Training?

January 4th, 2011. By Hunter West

The recent victory by a Levaquin plaintiff in his lawsuit against the manufacturer of the fluroquinolone antibiotic raises an interesting sidebar. 

Earlier this month John Schedin was awarded more than a million dollars by a jury, after he suffered ruptures in both his Achilles tendons three days after starting on Levaquin together with a steroid. The doctor who prescribed the duo to the then-76-year-old indicated that while he was aware of the potential for tendon complications with Levaquin, he was not aware of the increased risk to seniors when Levaquin is taken in concert with a steroid. 

Schedin now has to crawl up the stairs on his hands and knees in order to get to his bed at night. His doctor is mortified at the role he played in his patient’s misfortune. 

The trial featured the usual back-and-forth as to what was known and what wasn’t, what was revealed and what allegedly was not, and so on. The manufacturer (defendant) claims that all the necessary info was made available on the medication guide that came with the product. The plaintiff countered that such information—including the black box warning—was buried deep within the bowels of a document few patients will ever read anyway, let alone their busy doctors. 

The doctor testified that he did not recall the manufacturer’s rep ever referencing tendon problems during her visits to the office. The sales rep, while testifying she did slip an information packet into the basket with all the free samples, did not recall either whether, or not, she had made any verbal reference to the Levaquin tendon issue. 

However, she said, she may not have had time anyway. She testified that in this day and age, with high caseloads, getting to actually talk to the doctor for 30 seconds would leave her feeling ‘lucky…’ 

Thirty seconds? 

Something is wrong here. 

How can a drug company rep effectively disseminate product information to a doctor in that time? For that matter, there isn’t any time for the sales pitch, let alone necessary information by which the doctor treats his patients. 

So how does this work, anyway? Does the sales rep make an appointment? Or is it just a dropping-in? Is the doctor the right person to have his ear bent by a drug rep at all? 

Yes, the doctor is the one prescribing the medication. What’s more, the doctor has the medical and legal right to prescribe off-label any drug she sees fit that could benefit her patient. Thus, the doctor needs every bit of information on a drug in order to ensure the intended use is intelligent, appropriate and relatively safe. 

That doctor is not going to get the goods in 30 seconds… 

And is that doctor going to take the time, or will she even remember to wade through the reams of content in the medication guide on his own? 

Better, perhaps that an educated drug rep meets not with the doctor, but with a trusted staffer such as a nurse. The nurse could then report to the doctor at a more convenient time when both have the opportunity to discuss the various merits, or drawbacks of a drug. Should the doctor have additional questions, those questions can be answered by the manufacturer’s rep independently via, again, a trusted staff person in the doctor’s office. 

Save for any inappropriate information, or overtures for off-label use that a drug company rep is strictly forbidden to promote to the doctor, there is important information on both new drugs, and existing drugs that change and benefit from post-marketing trials that a rep needs to communicate to the doctor. The benefits, and the cautions. 

You can’t do that in 30 seconds. Unless, of course, you’re world champ livestock auctioneer John Korrey (see video above).

Somebody in authority over the health care system in this country should take a good, hard look at this issue. 

Perhaps, in the Schedin case, important information about Levaquin was purposefully and conveniently withheld. Or perhaps—as the witness suggested—there was just no opportunity. Whatever the reason, better communication might have saved an otherwise proud senior from having to crawl up the stairs to bed at night, like a child… 

Tags: JOhn Schedin, Levaquin, Pharma Sales

This was posted on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Drugs/Medical . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.