>if a doctor has a question about a drug, who better to ask than the rep from the company who makes it?
ideally a third party in the form of a board of scientists who don't have a direct conflict of interest. Look at the billion dollar settlements of J&J in the last decade alone for misleading marketing and health risks from products including hip replacements, psychoactive drugs and implants.
But if your patient is having a specific side effect and you want to know what information is available, your only choice is the company because they collect the information.
To ban sales reps is like running a garage to repair cars and never talking to the manufacturer.
I mean, if a doctor has a question about a drug, who better to ask than the rep from the company who makes it?
I worked in the industry and reps are generally account managers for the company.