HOLY MOLY—A $642 Million Fine!

I feel like I’m 1,000 years old making this statement. In the 90s when I was a pharmaceutical sales rep, the traditional dinner meeting was THE GO-TO Peer-to-Peer solution used to engage, educate, and activate healthcare professionals about your brand. What makes me feel less old is that the traditional dinner meeting was still the GO-TO Peer-to-Peer solution right up until 2010.

What happened in 2010?
Did you ever go to a party in high school or college and the police showed up? RUN! The parallel here is that in July 2010, Novartis entered into a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle False Claims Act lawsuits based in part on violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS) due to illegal honoraria paid to doctors through Peer-to-Peer Speaker programs. Novartis paid $642 Million to settle these allegations and others pertaining to illegal charitable payments to cover Medicare copayments and signed a corporate integrity agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General agreeing to implement a rigorous compliance program.

Holy Moly!
So, what do you do if you are the rest of the pharmaceutical industry after this bombshell drops? You start thinking about alternative ways to redefine the traditional dinner meeting/ Peer-to-Peer programming and how you can effectively and compliantly use these mechanisms to engage target healthcare professionals.

Why is Peer-to-Peer programming so popular in the Pharmaceutical Industry?
Peer-to-Peer programming is popular across ALL INDUSTRIES. Think about it. If there was a golf clinic provided by Tiger Woods and you were a golfer, you would want to show up. The same holds true in the Pharma Industry. If there is a psychiatry seminar provided by Stephen Stahl, MD, PhD and you are a psychiatrist, you show up.

The lists below outline two Virtual Live alternative speaker program solutions that can be used to engage healthcare professionals that still use “Peer-to-Peer” as the format, but move away from the traditional dinner meeting.

National Broadcasts:

• National Broadcasts provide an extremely effective vehicle to communicate your key brand messages to a large number of healthcare professionals in a compressed time frame using your brand’s top speakers.
• Messages are delivered in a Peer-to-Peer format in a consistent, compliant, and cost-effective manner.
• Depending on the disease state, I’ve seen this format engage 10,000+ healthcare professionals in ONE DAY!
• Pro Tips:
• Pre-record your National Broadcast and air it multiple times across multiple dates with each airing being followed by LIVE Q&A from one or more of the speakers.
• You can effectively air your National Broadcasts during the daytime at 8am ET, CT, MT, PT and at 12:15 ET, CT, MT, PT and avoid having a dinner meeting altogether.

1:1 Virtual Webinars:

• When I was a rep, I would offer an invite to my dinner meetings to my customers and would typically hear one of the following objections as to why they could not attend:
• The time does not work for me. I have kids at home and can’t go to dinner.
• I don’t like the speaker.
• I have questions “now” and can’t wait until a dinner meeting to have them answered by a thought leader.
• A solution to consider is the 1:1 Webinar.

What is a 1:1 Webinar? One Speaker to 1 Practice of 1 or more HCPs can select

• In-office program module topic
• ~20 Minutes Presentation (Unique Topics)
• Followed by ~10 Minutes of Q&A
• 3 preferred speakers
• 3 dates and times

In-office program occurs within 5 business days

In short, your customers get an exclusive presentation and Q&A session featuring just their practice.

Pro Tips:

• If your MLR will not allow 1 speaker to 1 practice, you should easily be able to negotiate 1 speaker to 1 practice of 3 or more HCPs. That way, you are still able to offer a personalized presentation to a practice to meet an unmet educational need.
• Since these take place In-office and usually over a sandwich at most, this format can be very compliant.

If you ever want to talk, debate, or discuss peer-to-peer programming, please reach out to me at george.griffith@relevatehealth.com. I would love to hear from you!