American Journal of Public Health Research, 2016, Vol. 4, No. 3, 88-92 Available online at http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajphr/4/3/2 © Science and Education Publishing DOI:10.12691/ajphr-4-3-2 Pharmaceutical Representatives' Opinion about Pharmacists' Drug Dispensing Practices in Romania and Factors that Influence them Laszlo-Zoltan Sztankovszky, Magdalena Iorga * , Vasile Astaratoae Behavioral Sciences, Department of Preventive Medicine and Interdisciplinarity, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Gr.T.Popa” Iasi, Romania *Corresponding author: magdaiorga@yahoo.com Abstract The objective of the research is to identify pharmaceutical representatives’ opinions on some practices of drug dispensing amongst community pharmacists in Romania. Material and methods: 70 pharmaceutical representatives working with different pharmaceutical companies in Romania answered questions regarding practices of drug dispensing. Different variables were taken into account: age, gender, type of education, and length of employment time. Collected data were analyzed with SPSS 17.0. Results: over 70% of the pharmaceutical representatives consider that pharmacists counsel the patient regarding other drug brand names and take into consideration patient financial contribution when dispensing a certain drug. Regarding the relationship of the pharmacist with doctor and rep, 65% of pharmaceutical representatives consider the relationship with the doctor, and 40% the relationship with the rep, important when dispensing a drug. No important differences were identified in relation to the gender or type of education. Conclusion: the study provides information regarding pharmaceutical representatives’ opinions on practices of drug dispensing. More than 2/3 of the reps consider that pharmacists are counseling the patient regarding a drug to a high level. Keywords: pharmaceutical representative, drug dispensing, pharmacist, practices Cite This Article: Laszlo-Zoltan Sztankovszky, Magdalena Iorga, and Vasile Astaratoae, “Pharmaceutical Representatives' Opinion about Pharmacists' Drug Dispensing Practices in Romania and Factors that Influence them.” American Journal of Public Health Research, vol. 4, no. 3 (2016): 88-92. doi: 10.12691/ajphr-4-3-2. 1. Introduction One of the most interesting terms used in the last years is “quality of life” (QoL). This multidisciplinary term is targeted by a lot research from different fields such as medicine, sociology, economy, psychology, philosophy or politics [1,2]. The term’s approaches are so diverse that it is difficult to identify the exact source of quality of life. If we take into consideration only the World Health Organization’s definition we can conclude that our physical and psychological well-being is determined by all aspects of our lives, including personality traits, family context, physical disease, spiritual aspects, economical status, moral principals etc. The quality of life becomes a result of all interactions between the spheres of our lives and it is a question whether those things that are said to measure the level of QoL are determined by us. A clear situation is the patient QoL. In order to assure it, healthcare and health policies must be constructed for the benefit of the patient alone. But in fact, the patient is only one of the beneficiaries in this broad process of recovery, other kinds of beneficiaries also include doctors, pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies. In the name of patient help, a lot of other stakeholders are receiving more and more profits. The tools used by the pharmaceutical companies focus on patients, doctors and pharmacists. Studies show that an increased number of visits to doctors and pharmacists are correlated with an increased rate of prescribing and dispensing. On the other hand, marketing campaigns on TV for drugs with no prescription are creating a demand for this or that drug or pharmaceutical product, so the patient can go and ask the pharmacist directly for that brand name. Marketing campaigns are directed at patients, pharmacists and doctors in order to increase the demand, especially for newer drugs. The patient’s motivation is to access a drug associated with his own perception about the effectiveness of it; pharmacists want to increase the profits, and doctors’ behaviour is motivated by the desire to please the patient [3,4,5]. But all stakeholders in fact influence their activities by reciprocity; studies show that doctors’ behaviour determines the increase of dispensing drugs or pharmacists’ counseling influences doctors’ prescribing behaviour [6]. Due to marketing campaigns, the patient becomes an expert and requests a specific drug [7,8,9] so doctors and pharmacists are ready to satisfy him. Many studies have proved that prescribing and dispensing drugs are not entirely objective and national policies were implemented in many countries in order to assure proper drug use focusing on patients’ needs and health [10,11,12] and different tools and practices are used