Understanding Sample Usage and Sampling as a Promotion Tool: State of Industry Practice and Current Research

Abstract

In the United States, drug sampling has been one of the most important marketing practices adopted in the pharmaceutical industry. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry delivered an estimated $18.4 billion worth (in retail value) of free drug samples to doctors in year 2005 alone -- more than all other marketing expenses combined. Although sampling, as a marketing tool, has been studied in the marketing literature, especially for consumer package goods; sampling in the pharmaceutical industry is very special due to the constraints that drug samples cannot be legally dispensed directly from the manufacturers to consumers. This creates a unique environment in which doctors play ``gatekeeper and decision maker'' role in dispensing samples to patients.