Word: forli
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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When the subcommittee asked Merck & Co.'s President John T. Connor for an explanation, he was well prepared. The big companies, said he have different selling costs for individual sales and bulk sales to Government, could not stay in business if they sold to everybody at the same price...
Three Classes. Drug firms, said Connor, fall into three classes: 1) "creators"; 2) "molecule manipulators" who change basic drugs around but seldom score "home runs"; and 3) "coattail riders." who do no research, wait for a market to develop, then jump in.
Illustrating the job of the creators, Connor said that his company spent 15 years trying to develop a cure for the rare (800 new cases a year) Addison's disease. In the search it found out, in 1949, how to mass-produce cortisone, today used by millions, and with...
Too Many Pitchmen? One of the biggest reasons for the high cost of medicines is the growing army of salesmen. The major drug firms employ an estimated 20,000, or one for every ten physicians, and they make 18 million calls a year to get doctors to prescribe and druggists...
Upjohn's Dr. E. Gifford Upjohn conceded that the race of drug companies to keep up causes his firm, in line with others, to spend 28.6% of its budget on 1,000 salesmen (out of 5,700 employees), plus other promotional activity. Research costs: 9%. Despite the high overhead...