Pharmacists' Opinions About Pharmaceutical Manufacturers

Abstract

Pharmacists' opinions about pharmaceutical manufacturers are important to manufacturers in fortnulating marketing strategies and policies. For both research-intensive and principally generic manufacturers, we (1) identified and investigated their aggregate favorable and unfavorable activities and characteristics, overall performance, and support for pharmacy, (2) identified companies that were viewed favorably or unfavorably and investigated reasons for such views, and (3) investigated changes in aggregate attitude ratings of research-intensive manufacturers since 1977. After pretesting, a questionnaire was mailed to a systematic random sample of 400 pharmacists residing in Wisconsin. The response rate was about 38%. The magnitude of pharmacists' general views of favorable and unfavorable activities or characteristics were different for the two types of manufacturers. Research-intensive manufacturers generally were viewed as providing new products and full service for those products and for the pharmacy p...