ABSTRACT
The pharmaceutical manufacturers must deal with important groups of customers whose buying power requires special marketing skills and practices. This chapter discusses four of these groups: hospitals, the United States government, health maintenance organizations, and Medicare and Medicaid. The efficient operation of a hospital is dependent on the cooperative efforts of many types of health-care professionals, such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and lab technicians, who have independent interests. As a result, many proposed changes are decided by the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. Hospital purchasing in the past 10 years has rapidly shifted to a system of bid solicitation and group purchasing. The two largest segments of the government market interested in buying and dispensing pharmaceuticals are the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Veterans Administration (VA). The cost-containment mechanisms within prepaid health plans have a direct impact on the marketing of pharmaceuticals to Health Maintenance Organization (HMO).
