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 The Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives’ Association of India (FMRAI) has demanded to the government to withdraw the restriction on medical representatives from Central government hospitals for sales promotion as it would have a negative impact on the whole pharma industry.
FMRAI is the apex body of medical and sales representatives organisations in the country with around 1.25 lakh members.
The demand comes in the wake of an office order from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) reiterating its instructions that the medical representatives should not be permitted in the hospital premises.
"Medical Representatives may be requested to share recent advances regarding any treatment/investigation/procedure by email or other digital media," it added. The order also directed the head of the institutions to take necessary action and submit an action taken report in this regard.
Already some of the states and private hospitals have barred medical representatives from their premises, and the restrictions from the Central government may result in more institutions to take similar measures.
This would have a larger impact on the sales promotion of medicines, thus impacting the pharma industry itself, said P Krishnanand, president of FMRAI.
"The main problem with this order is that it implies that if the medical representatives are allowed to meet the doctors, there would be an unholy nexus. This is defamatory to the doctors also," he said.
He reminded that it is the FMRAI that approached the Supreme Court seeking the Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices (UCPMP) to be made statutory provision. It was following the intervention of the Supreme Court, the Centre issued a revised UCPMP bringing in some penal provisions to the Code.
A medical representative is a person who visits the doctor merely to promote a company's products to the doctors and they are representing the company at that time. Every industry will have one or the other kind of sales promotion activity.
It is the right of the industry to communicate the quality, specifications and the advantages of their products to the consumers. That is the job medical representatives and sales promotion officers do for the pharma industry. If that activity is restricted, it will impact the pharma industry itself, he opined.
It will have an impact on around 3-3.25 lakh people working in the sales operations of pharmaceutical industry, he averred.
The medical representatives are facing new challenges following the developments during and after the outburst of Covid-19 almost five years ago. The working atmosphere of medical representatives have changed and the job opportunities are diminishing now.
"We have been raising the demand of right to work and fair treatment. MRs are facing higher pressure from the industry management. Amidst all this, why is the central government keeping this much animosity towards us?" he asked.
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