17. Market Research

Market research links the consumer, customer and public to the marketer through the gathering of anonymized respondent information – for the sole purpose of pointing out and defining marketing opportunities and issues; generating, refining, and evaluating marketing programs; monitoring marketing performance; identifying patient and prescriber needs and improving understanding of the marketing process.

Market research details the information needed to address these issues, designs the method(s) by which anonymized respondent information is to be collected, manages and/or implements the data collection process, analyzes the collective results, and communicates the findings and their implications.

This section applies to market research carried out within the framework of various activities including quantitative and/or qualitative studies such as, individual and group interviews, ethnographic research, and patient level information.

Market research should always be conducted for the sole purpose of collecting legitimate market information, following proper and accepted principles guiding the collection and dissemination of market research information and the treatment of the respondent(s) and the information they provide.

The market research questionnaire or program should not be designed in a manner that could be interpreted as leading to a specific response or product conclusion. More specifically, the market research program should not be designed to sway the opinion(s) of the participant(s) directly or indirectly about Member prescription medicines and should not be used to convince or promote the use of Member Prescription Medicines, as a disguise for selling or developing sales contacts, nor as a substitute or disguise for clinical research.

The number of experts surveyed should be reasonable in light of the total number of Health Care Professionals part of that specialty.

Member companies should take appropriate steps to ensure Health Care Professionals should not leave any market research meetings with any kind of promotional material.

The purpose of a market research program and, if applicable, the use of recording devices and presence of research ‘Viewers’ must be made clear to participant(s) at the start of the interview. The research Viewer(s)’s identity must remain anonymous to participants to preserve respondent objectivity. Due to confidentiality of respondents, “Viewers” may not include Member sales representatives or any other field-based personnel who have contact with and the ability to influence respondents/participants.

Even when a consent form is signed, the confidentiality and anonymity of participant(s) and their individual responses must be preserved to the fullest extent possible. The identity of the participant(s) must not be revealed for purposes of promoting Member prescription medicines to them in the future. The purpose of the market research as well as the way the responses (individually or aggregated) will be transmitted to the Member should be transparently stated in the consent form.

Direct contact with the participant(s) in the market research project, in which the identity of the sponsoring company is intentionally masked, should be limited to marketing research personnel only with no Member sales representatives influence or involvement. There should be no follow-up by sales representatives or staff derived specifically from these market research projects.

Honoraria offered to Health Care Professionals who gather or provide market research information should be based on industry accepted rates for market research activities and should be similar to (and not higher than) their usual rate of compensation.

Members are committed to separating market research from other types of activities unrelated to the sole purpose of gathering of legitimate market information.