How Far is Too Far?

After the initial uproar over the “bucket of money” comments of AstraZeneca’s Mike Zubillaga (which got him fired), an additional issue came to light that opens up a serious sales training question. A Powerpoint deck from this AZ group was anonymously provided to a blogger, and subsequently made available to the world at large, showing a head-to-head comparison between two breast-cancer treatment drugs, when in fact the two drugs were not tested head-to-head. You’ll quickly understand, as pharma sales trainers (and former sales people), why this is a problem.

The defense was made that this was a “for information only” training piece, and the information was not to be used for detailing. Well, maybe. Here’s the question I’d like to have your comments on – where does a company draw the line between giving out information like this to sales reps, even if there is a “not for detailing” disclaimer? Where does this stand with the compliance/ethical practices of your company? How far is too far?

Here’s a link with the back story, which contains, if you’d like, a link to the slides in question:

http://pharmalot.com/2007/04/the_astrazeneca_scandal_secret.php

As a sales training community, we have a unique opportunity to give a valuable perspective on this aspect of the scandal. Your comments welcome!