A pharmaceutical marketing arms race that has chewed up billions of dollars a year of potential industry profits seems to be coming to an end. Rivals breathed easier on Wednesday after the world's biggest drugmaker, Pfizer Inc., announced plans to cut its U.S. sales force by about 20 percent, or some 2,200 jobs, in a move that may trigger similar cutbacks by others. The employment of a large sales force, among drug companies' biggest costs, has come under scrutiny as sales slow and generic competition intensifies.
See "Rivals breathe easier as Pfizer cuts sales force", Ben Hirschler, San Diego Union-Tribune, November 28, 2006