The autumn PSMG meeting was attended by more than 50 senior pharmaceutical sales managers, who enjoyed a day of informative presentations and lively interactions.

During his introduction, David Garmon-Jones announced that he was stepping down from his role of Chairman, which he has held for five years. He introduced Kerry Stove, National Sales Manager for A. Menarini Pharma UK SRL, who has been appointed Chairman Elect by the committee. Kerry’s appointment will be ratified at the AGM at the start of the January meeting. David also pointed out that there will be a number of spaces on the committee next year, and invited nominations from members for an election at the AGM.

Nina Felton, Country Principal for Consulting and Services at IMS, kicked off the presentations for the day. Her thought-provoking talk focused on research into how pharmaceutical companies are (or should be) adapting their sales force models in response to the current and future changes in their environment. An article based on her presentation can be found on page 10 of PSM.

Jill Matthews, Head of Primary Care Development at NHS East Midlands, was next to present on the new NHS and the planned developments to service and system. In particular, she led discussions on some of the organisational and system reforms that are currently taking place. An article covering the key points of her talk can be found on page 8 of PSM.

Just before lunch there was a brief presentation from Rowena Dean, Chief Executive of the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home, one of the PSMG’s charities for 2006. Further information on the charity and the PSMG donation can be found on our Charities page.

The afternoon began with a lively and forthright presentation from Andrew Morris OBE, Chief Executive of Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. During his session, Andrew outlined his experiences of the first twelve months of running the only Acute Hospital Foundation Trust in Kent, Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire.

Finally, Martin Anderson, Director of NHS Policy & Partnerships at the ABPI, gave a valuable insight into the ABPI/NHS outreach programme that has recently been introduced to seek new and better ways for the industry and the NHS to work on joint projects. An article based on his talk can be found on page 18 of PSM.

The meeting was kindly sponsored by Dendrite, eVantage, IHS and Medisis.

As a PSMG member, you are entitled to attend four such meetings a year for a fee of only £450. The PSMG is currently inviting membership applications from senior sales managers.

The first meeting of 2007 will be held at Warren House in Kingston on 30th January.