Se llama Julio Rodriguez. Es Visitador Médico (Pfizer) en Petare, una de las zonas más peligrosas de Caracas (Venezuela)...

By AVERY JOHNSON

PETARE, Venezuela -- Julio Rodriguez was on a sales call at a clinic in this slum overlooking Caracas recently when he heard four gunshots go off nearby.

It was business as usual for Mr. Rodriguez. As a representative in Venezuela for U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., his sales route takes him through one of Latin America's most dangerous neighborhoods. To avoid attracting attention, he wears a polo shirt with a red logo, the color worn by supporters of President Hugo Chávez.

Mr. Rodriguez is part of a strategic shift in the $770 billion pharmaceutical industry to target the working poor in the developing world.

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When Mr. Rodriguez started knocking on clinic doors in late 2007, Petare's doctors were surprised to see a drug-company sales rep in a slum. The first question many asked was how he managed to reach their offices without getting his expensive samples ripped off, Mr. Rodriguez says. (The answer: He changes his route every day and sometimes carries a rolling bag, other times, a shoulder bag.) The second question he usually fielded had to do with the price of Pfizer's drugs.

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Mr. Rodriguez's main approach in persuading Petare's doctors to prescribe Pfizer drugs is to emphasize the brand's quality over generics. He tells doctors that Norvasc, Pfizer's hypertension medicine, for example, stays in patients' blood for 56 hours, making it more reliable for older patients who might forget to take their medicines.

Generic drugs, says Mr. Rodriguez, can't guarantee the same longevity.

Mr. Rodriguez's main approach in persuading Petare's doctors to prescribe Pfizer drugs is to emphasize the brand's quality over generics. He tells doctors that Norvasc, Pfizer's hypertension medicine, for example, stays in patients' blood for 56 hours, making it more reliable for older patients who might forget to take their medicines. Generic drugs, says Mr. Rodriguez, can't guarantee the same longevity.

Mr. Rodriguez visits between eight and 10 of Petare's roughly 560 doctors a day. One group he says he's had less success with are Cuban doctors who staff the several dozen government-run clinics -- part of an oil-for-medicines swap between oil-rich Venezuela and the Castro regime.

Mr. Rodriguez says he courted them for a year by passing them Pfizer-branded prescription pads, free samples and educational materials through the gates outside their buildings. At first skeptical, some doctors finally agreed to talk to him, says Mr. Rodriguez. He says he's now able to call on 17 of Petare's roughly 40 Cuban-staffed clinics.

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