PharmaLive, the website that bills itself as the "Pulse of the Pharmaceutical Industry," ran this press release today from PeopleMetrics, a marketing research firm. The group surveyed physicians to measure the effectiveness of detailers pushing atypical antipsychotics for five leading US-based pharmaceutical companies: AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen, Lilly and Pfizer.

The survey's questions measured physicians' response to the salespersons who visit their offices. Depending on the answers, the docs were categorized as either Fully Engaged, Engaged, On The Fence and Disengaged. "Overall, 31% of physicians were Fully Engaged or Engaged, while the largest proportion of physicians (53%) were On The Fence," the research showed.

"Sales representatives must develop personal relationships with their physicians to achieve the highest levels of engagement," the survey concluded. "In fact, emotional components such as friendship with the reps are the strongest indicators of Fully Engaged physicians. . . We find that this emotional dimension is key in understanding physicians' perceptions toward their reps and the pharmaceutical company as a whole" and will be "the most impactful drivers of physicians' prescribing behaviors."

Gee, and I thought it was the peer-reviewed literature they dropped off showing how well the drugs work. Silly me.