Representatives of British pharmaceuticals giant GSK have stopped visiting family doctors in the Netherlands because they are ‘less open’ to information about drugs, the Financieele Dagblad said on Monday.

GSK Nederland director Daan Gijbels told the paper that the decision to stop the visits is ‘painful’ and that he fears it will be more difficult to get new and more effective products to patients.

‘Society has become more negative about the pharmaceuticals industry,’ he said. ‘This means the doctors visits were no longer effective.’ On average, GSK reps visited seven to eight doctors a week.

The Dutch family doctors association NHG said it welcomed the decision and that it had been advising doctors for some time to refuse visits by sales reps.