Few industries can inspire the entrepreneurial spirit quite like the pharma industry. And nobody knows this better than Daryl Erickson, president of Medical Communications Group Inc. His rewarding 12-year career in pharmaceutical sales provided the inspiration for a successful service to the pharma industry, and to practicing physicians.

Erickson’s 30-year association with healthcare started in the early ‘70s, when the aspiring high school teacher was introduced to the world of pharma by a relative. He laughs as he recalls a job interview with a woman at a placement agency who suggested, “You’re a Libra and Libras make excellent pharma reps.” In 1973, he was hired by Horner Pharmaceuticals as a sales rep with a territory covering Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula. With a starting salary of $7,400 and a 1972 Plymouth station wagon as a company car, Erickson was euphoric. “Back then, for a guy who was driving a Volkswagen Beetle to university—that was huge!”
By 1977, Erickson was heading up the Sales and Training Department in Horner’s head office in Montreal, with a plan to head back to Ontario in two years. By 1982, however, it was clear he wouldn’t be returning when Abbott came calling with an offer that he couldn’t refuse. “I learned to love Quebec and I’ve been here ever since,” he chuckles.

After two years at Abbott, and at the age of 40, Erickson tired of the corporate life and struck out on his own. Married and with two children at the time, he admits the move was “scary,” but in 1985 started Direct Access Communications. It was a “virtual” sales force concept consisting of nurses who provided product information and updates to physicians via telephone. A year later, Erickson would use his background and experiences in pharma to define a new business concept, one that would address glaring problems in pharmaceutical sampling.

As a rep, Erickson noted that unused and expired samples were spilling out of doctors supply cabinets. It was the catalyst for Erickson’s next business venture in 1986, Physicians’ Hotline, which streamlined the process of disseminating samples and educational materials by providing samples to physicians on demand.
The process, which required physicians to sign up for a six-month program, then call and order samples from a catalogue by phone was “a tough sell.” But he credits many friends and colleagues in the industry for helping him on his way. He’s particularly grateful to his former boss at Horner who heartily endorsed the idea, awarding him three of the company’s products as well as use of their entire doctor database. The kindness of the gesture still overwhelms him.

The defining moment for the fledgling company occurred in a late-afternoon meeting with Janssen-Ortho, however. “I had six or seven products but I knew I had to have at least 12 to make it viable,” Erickson says, and his hopes were pinned on snagging one of Ortho’s key contraceptive products. To his delight, however, the team awarded Erickson four of their oral contraceptives. He clearly remembers “calmly saying thanks, walking to the car, rolling up the windows,” and unable to contain his excitement, “I slugged the dashboard, and cracked it in half.”

Today, the Physicians’ Hotline catalogue features 190 insertions and ships around 6,000 orders a month on the program. “It’s always a thrill to hear pharmaceutical reps tell me that they see the Physicians’ Hotline book on doctor’s desks all the time when they’re making calls.”