NEW YORK —
The announcement appears to be a first for a major drug company — although others may be considering similar moves — and comes at a particularly sensitive time for Glaxo. It is the subject of a bribery investigation in China, where authorities contend the company funneled illegal payments to doctors and government officials in an effort to boost drug sales.
Andrew Witty, Glaxo's chief executive, said in an interview Monday that the changes are part of a yearslong effort "to try and make sure we stay in step with how the world is changing."
Under the plan, which Glaxo said would be completed worldwide by 2016, the company will no longer pay health care professionals to speak on its behalf about its products or the diseases they treat, "to audiences who can prescribe or influence prescribing," it said in a statement. It will also stop providing financial support directly to doctors to attend medical conferences, a practice already prohibited in the United States.
Glaxo will continue to pay doctors consulting fees for market research because Witty said it was necessary for the company to gain insight from doctors about their products.
Beginning in 2015, Glaxo will also no longer compensate sales representatives based on the number of prescriptions doctors write, a standard practice that some have said pushed salespeople to inappropriately promote drugs to doctors.
Glaxo said its sales representatives worldwide would be paid based on their technical knowledge, the quality of service, and the company's business performance. The company made such changes in the United States in 2011 — and is required to continue the new program in this country under a corporate integrity agreement with the Justice Department — but will now extend the practices to its global business.