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| In my experience |
28-Apr-2005 |
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DR MARIUS LOEFFLER
ALMOST 40 years ago I was a GP in Roleystone, a town in the Darling Ranges, 30 minutes from Perth, WA.
I recall a representative from Pfizer visiting the surgery with a new drug, Tenormin, which he said was suitable for the treatment of hypertension. I was quite excited about the new drug because the ones I had been prescribing for patients had been relatively ineffective. Seeing my excitement, the rep suggested I might like to conduct some trials and said he would supply me with all the Tenormin I needed.
I decided to put most of my hypertensive patients on a trial of Tenormin, which at that time was supplied as a 100mg tablet.
The result was spectacular. Most patients experienced lower blood pressure. However, I noticed a side effect — bradycardia.
At the time I didn’t know if this development was desirable or not. I decided to cut the Tenormin dose in half and was amazed that patients’ blood pressure did not go up, with slightly reduced bradycardia.
My patients were doing well on 50mg a day so it seemed logical to change my therapeutic approach.
Some time later the rep called in to see how the trial was progressing. Excitedly, I reported my findings to him and he appeared interested. I saw his eyes glowing and then he disappeared, leaving me with a few more samples.
I didn’t hear from him again and never suspected that I had made a discovery of great significance to the pharmaceutical industry in general and Pfizer in particular.
Many years passed. One day I was walking through the car park of Pinjarra Hospital in a small country town in WA when I was approached by a man who casually asked: “Do you remember me?”
I told him I didn’t and he continued: “I am the rep who saw you years ago in Roleystone. You remember you reported to me that half a dose of Tenormin works as well as a full dose? I reported your findings to the company, and as a result of your report, the company made a re-trial all over the world and the standard dose of Tenormin was reduced to 50mg.”
He told me that the discovery had saved Pfizer millions of dollars.
All I could do was stand speechless as I tried to reconstruct the events of the past. Everything clicked into place exactly as he had told me. I remembered the trial well. I was flabbergasted, but before I could speak, the rep thrust a company biro and a packet of sticky notepads in to my hand and disappeared.
I hope that Pfizer will be able to include this short story in the history records of the company.
Dr Loeffler is a phlebologist in WA.
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