Ha llegado el fin de las grandes marcas de las "big pharma"? De la sustitución, como target, de generalistas por especialistas?

Es más y más probable, en el futuro, que el visitador médico toque las puertas de los neurólogos, de especialistas que seguir con la habitual visita al médico de familia...

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Pharmaceutical companies have long spent millions of dollars pitching pills to U.S. primary care doctors, the main prescribers of the world's most lucrative medicines.

These physicians were the gateway to selling everything from cholesterol-lowering drugs to antidepressants, blood pressure medicines, allergy pills and stomach ulcer treatments.

But with patents on many of the world's best-selling drugs expiring, the industry is seeing less value in its traditional strongholds. Now it is the specialist physician who is more likely to hear from the sales force.

"The mass market is really starting to disappear," Sanofi Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher told the Reuters Health Summit this week, where healthcare executives discussed the industry's changing focus.

Viehbacher himself took a big step away from the mass market with Sanofi's $20 billion (12.3 billion pounds) purchase of biotechnology company Genzyme, which specializes in treatments for rare genetic diseases.

Oncology, multiple sclerosis and hepatitis C are some of the therapeutic areas where the industry is focusing its commercial efforts to fight stagnating sales.