[maxerickson]

The sales rep calling up the doctor seems an awful lot like marketing.

Now a sales rep was on the other end of Owens’s phone from Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., the New Haven-based maker of Soliris—one of the world’s most expensive drugs, typically priced from $500,000 to $700,000 a year.

The rep was calling to argue with the treatment plan. She pressured Owens to continue Soliris treatments, ticking off detailed information about the mother’s organs that the doctor hadn’t shared with the drugmaker. “How did you know that?” Owens remembers thinking. She was monitoring the patient’s condition with seven hematologists and wasn’t swayed by the Alexion rep. “I was really taken aback by how bold and brash she was,” Owens says. “I’ve never had an experience like that—before or since.”

There was recently a discussion here about a new drug for ALS and when reading about it I took note of the line in the FAQ that mentions that anyone with a prescription can call the pharma company up and get a case manager to help explore their coverage and setup copay reimbursement ("Searchlight Support").

http://web.alsa.org/site/PageNavigator/alsa_radicava_faq.htm...

That's not exactly marketing, but it isn't really terrific that manufacturers are setting prices so high that they can spend significant resources helping people use their insurance.