Anonymous employee v Pfizer (AUTH/1876/8/06): Hospital rep “call rate of 8” breached Clause 15.4

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Key facts

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Case	AUTH/1876/8/06
Parties	Anonymous employee v Pfizer
Issue	Hospital representative call/contact frequency targets ("call rate of 8")
Complaint received	2 August 2006 (HTML page also states 01 August 2006)
Case completed	6 November 2006 (HTML page also states 05 November 2006)
Applicable Code year	2006
Breach clauses	Clause 15.4
Clauses considered (no breach)	Clause 2; Clause 9.1
Sanctions	Undertaking received; additional sanctions not stated
Appeal	No appeal
Published	February 2007 Code of Practice Review

Reviewed by Dr Anzal Qurbain (FFPM) — ABPI Final Signatory

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An anonymous Pfizer representative complained that hospital representatives were asked to call on target doctors eight times per year and felt their job was at risk if they did not.
Internal planning/performance documents instructed reps to “maintain a call rate of 8” and expected senior targets to be seen 6.5 times face-to-face (7.5 “overachieved”) in Dec 2005–Nov 2006.
Business Planning Guidance (Anti-Infectives) referenced coverage 90% and frequency 8 (with a footnote that frequency was to be planned by the salesperson and agreed with the district sales manager).
Pfizer argued “call rate” meant “contact rate” and that “contact” was interpreted broadly (including reactive contacts, meetings, corridor exchanges), and said it had not received HCP complaints about inconvenience.
The Panel considered “call rate” would be understood as proactive calls by a representative, not reactive encounters or meeting attendance, and noted the documents did not explain or refer to Code requirements.

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