An In-Depth Analysis of the Influence of Pharmaceutical Marketing Strategies on the Prescription Practices and Decision-Making Processes of Medical Professionals.

Abstract

The study seeks to explore how pharmaceutical marketing strategies impact doctors’ prescribing habits within the complex relationships between healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies. Five alternative pharmaceutical products are analyzed across six distinct evaluation parameters to understand the multifaceted impact of marketing efforts. The dataset includes information on marketing spend, prescription rates, and various evaluation criteria such as efficacy, safety, affordability, brand recognition, promotional materials, reputation, and convenience. These parameters are crucial in assessing the comprehensive influence of pharmaceutical marketing on doctors’ decision-making processes. Understanding how pharmaceutical marketing impacts prescription practices is crucial for ensuring patient welfare and safety. It helps in evaluating whether prescriptions are driven by genuine medical needs or influenced by marketing strategies, thus promoting patient-centered care. The study addresses ethical concerns related to the interactions between pharmaceutical companies and healthcare professionals. Uncovering the extent of marketing influence aids in developing ethical guidelines and regulations, fostering transparency and trust in the healthcare system. The COPRAS-G method necessitates identifying selection criteria, evaluating relevant information for these criteria, and creating methods to assess how well the surrogate meets the participants’ needs. Decision analysis involves a Decision Maker (DM) who must consider a specific set of alternatives and choose one from several options, often with conflicting criteria. Consequently, the developed complexity proportionality assessment (COPRAS) method can be applied. The results indicate that Doctor 03 ranked first, while Doctor 05 ranked the lowest.