Impact of pharmaceutical promotional strategies on physicians’ prescription behavior in India

This study focuses on the impact of the promotional strategies used by the pharmaceutical industry on physician's prescription behavior. This research was mainly carried out through a detailed literature review of past research and self-administered questionnaires. These questionnaires were electronically released and included data from a diverse group of medical doctors. Based on past research and theoretical underpinning, twenty different factors were categorized into four different promotional strategies. Responses to this study were marked on a five-point Likert scale and the relative importance index (RII) was used in order to rank the significant factors of promotional strategies. The study analysis showed that the majority of physicians agreed that the promotional strategies used by pharmaceutical companies impacted their prescription behavior patterns. The study also revealed that rapport, quality of a product and invitations to continuous medical education (CME) conferences speaker are the main factors shaping the prescription behavior of doctors.