Off Label Promotion of Latuda

Who is being held accountable for this? This is despicable. Marketing and Sales leadership - looking right at YOU! This stuff does not happen by accident, nor do reps just make this sh*t up. They were told that this was the only way to launch this product. I am ashamed to be part of this company. We need to be better than this.

 

Idiot. You don't even know if the BS letter true. Likely sent by a pissed off speaker or some lose Fanapt or Saphris rep

 

OP did not even mention the FDA warning letter. Open your eyes & scroll this board.

 

Bullsh...! Nice try

 

Look none of this is suprising. This drug was defeated before it was even launched. It was like the 9th atypical to launch, only 1 indication, no significant clinical data to speak off, NO formulary/3rd party coverage, etc. It was like going outside in the middle of a wind storm and trying to take a p!ss looking right into the wind gusts. Technically, you could argue the point that you just took a p!ss but really you did nothing more than make a mess of things. This anology sums up Laturda perfectly.

 

If (and I repeat IF) there was off label promotion, it was a lone rep NOT something coming down from above.

 

Never once has the company encouraged off label promotion of Latuda. If anything, they regularly threaten us with immediate termination if we do it. They also tell speakers that they may not promote off label use and threaten them too.
That being said, they also have many, many physicians that see zero schizophrenia marked as decile 10 physicians, and the quotas in no way reflect what could be gotten from schizophrenia usage only.
Can you say talking out of both sides of your mouth?

 

Nod, nod, wink, wink. That's how we do business around here.

 

Yes I do believe that he would do anything, and I mean anything to look good. The guy is the ultimate snake. Don't ever fall into the intellect trap. He is smart and cunning enough to push the off label and make it look like he didn't know. This is mostly on him and because of him.

 

Never once did he push off label use. He was trying to get the quotas lowered to a reasonable number so this wouldn't happen. He was also trying to the some actual bonus money for the salesforce. It was a constant fight with corporate who refused to give in. That's why he's gone.

 

I'm a Latuda rep and believe this post. If you don't think that Sunovion is pushing the reps to promote off label just check out the quotas for 2012. HUGE quotas increases in place, with no way to make the numbers without off-label rxs. Sunovion is too d&*m cheap to get even decent managed care coverage...just got back from the national POA meeting and the national push is increased call reach and frequency (oh by the way, this translates to we aren't going to help you with Medicaid coverage) we want you to bombard your docs with more sales calls.Yeah, I know...a manager will read this and say, "if it was easy they wouldn't need you ", save your breath. As a Latuda rep, I'm just tired of rolling the stone up the mountain, and Sunovion adding more "mountain" and threatening my job. The real shame here is, that Latuda is an excellent drug that is being withheld from needy (schizophrenia) patients due to the greed exhibited by Sunovion. IF we are suppose to sell where schizophrenia patients are treated, then why are we not covered by Medicaid.

 

"The real shame here is, that Latuda is an excellent drug that is being withheld from needy (schizophrenia) patients due to the greed exhibited by Sunovion."

Not really true. The drug has demonstrated efficacy and good safety profile in treating patients with schizophrenia. It has not demonstrated meaningful clinical advantage over other atypical antipsychotics and has a slightly worst side effect profile with significantly higher incidence of extrapyramidal side effects. It is an useful drug but is far from being better than any other approved treatment.

Psychiatrist at Columbia University, with long experience with lurasidone.

 

Ok so what's your point? Greedy is still an apt description for Sunovion, which leads to all types of poor decision making, such as off label marketing...

 

Yup. Totally agree. If they want us to sell within indication, then how about some coverage where those patients actually have their insurance... which is Medicaid. It amazes me that the company thinks we can pull through hundreds of prior auths with Medicaid a quarter and reach our goal. It's absurd. They are absolutely not telling us to sell off label, but they are forcing us to sell off label if we A) want to come even close to our goal, B) want to come even close to making our bonus and C) don't want to be threatened with a PIP or threatened with loss of job.
It's a shame the FDA can't simply look at that information and coach them on what would be appropriate behavior in terms of what should be expected of the salesforce based on the indication.

 

Dean Frame is the kingpin of forcing deceit.

 

Latuda rep here; doc I never said it was "better" than other atypicals, I said it was an excellent drug that is being withheld from a patient population. There are no head to head trials powered to show superiority, but Latuda does give you another option to try. Unfortunately Sunovion's lack of support with medicaid is denying needy patients the opportunity to try Latuda.

 

LOLOLOL, a psych at Columbia coming to Cafepharma....thats a good one. Nice try

 

If you do not promote off label. Why are starters in offices of private psych offices who don't see or treat schiz?

 

80% of my call list is private practice psychiatry who have 0 to a maximum of 2 schizophrenic patients each.

 

My advice for you to is get out of sales, goals are aggressive yes, but they are achievable without crossing the line. You may have to drag your arse out of bed before your usual 10:00am and actually get in front of a Dr. and communicate information to them about Latuda. And then really come out of your comfort zone and .....well ask for their patients with Schitzophrenia. I know its crazy to expect a sales person to well ....sell... but thats what they are asking. Now with that said, I'm not saying its going to be easy, the goals are high, but really, you can't get 10-20 trxs a week???????Maybe they just need to shut your territory down.