As we all prepare to leave the z team- I have over 36k shares of vested stock options -that I need my SCUBA tank to recover - I have to say I am not ready for Vegas. - I am a terrible gambler and the loss hurts.. Almost as if we were cheated in some ways. For some of us here 5 + yrs - and others who sacrificed 1/2 pay and crazy work schedule. -trying to make this work.., I exit with little to no hope the stock will miraculously go up 400% to break even on my. " stake in the game". I wonder if Rh will lose what he worked for? oh wait yeah- he just sold out the sales team...and most of home office. RH - we are not Zogenix- we are expendable - as I guess, any sales team is. So sad and ironic to think -.we were this new, different pharm company, that we would joke ..we were building this company - just like - building an airplane while flying it...I was wrong and naive - Zgnx no more valued it's. Sales people then Merck Novartis gsk - RH is selling off pieces of that plane -and we are headed for a crash. ..And I drank the Kool Aid the flight attendant was serving. What I do value from this experience is the great people I met - some extraordinary and very talented sales reps with whom I wish nothing but the best at Pernix & beyond. I am gonna frame my stock option award statement and hang it in my office to remind me .... 36,000 times - to stop believing in companies, products and charismatic people like RH -who really are all the same. ... and put more belief in myself. - my advice to all my soon to be X zogenix team ...you do the same.
you are a total dumbass. I mean for real. Quit being a total pussy. No professional gives a shit about your emotional plea. Keep it real. Are you that naive? Wake up, kick yourself in your own ass, and find a job. stock options kept you committed to this shitbox? christ. did you miss the sales reports? the best territory in the country wasn't selling their own weight. and RH can't lead his way out of a paper bag... you would have been first off the boat in Normandy. or sent out in front of the tanks to scout land mines.
Interesting thought: what information should one rely on when making a big sacrifice for a company? If you made your decision in 2008/9, Zogenix was on the right track. Abuse deterrence was the rage, and it made sense. Pfizer paid over $3 bill for King and their abuse deterrence platform. FDA was on the abuse deterrence band wagon. At that time, it was probably logical to assume that payers would HAVE to reimburse this product. No one appreciated the resistance they would have to a branded hydrocodone, which would mean converting tons of patients from Vicodin to Zohydro and costing millions. When would that insight have been reasonable? 2010? 2012? 2014? I don't know. Tough for the average schmuck to figure these things out, but the lesson here is this. If your product has substantial generic competition, tough sell. If the product has an attribute payers don't care about (abuse deterrence), tough sell. If your product is a significant advance (eg, Sovaldi), you've got a shot, though even Sovaldi had to duke it out with Express Scripts. For most of us, these decisions are just a roll of the dice.
Yeah, it's a roll of the dice sometimes, but not others. There was so much negative information in the press about Zohydro over the last 2 years. I posted more than one thread about how states didn't want another Oxy, which (right or wrong) was a real perception. I posted about the people who were hired by Zogenix to do their expansion for the launch. All had histories of coming in and destroying what was around them. Finally, I looked at the people being hired and had HUGE red flags. Seriously, no pain experience?! I voiced my skepticism on many occasions as you have only one chance to launch a product (especially if your future is dependent on this single product and no pipeline) and you choose to do it with managers and reps who don't understand the pain market??? It was unbelievable to me. I said the stocks mean nothing and don't let that be a deal maker for you, so..... I'm not tooting my own horn, I just opened my eyes and had a non-bias look at what this company was. I thought it would be a place to make a salary for a year, and it was. You have to stop believing everything people in this industry tell you and do your own homework. The reason I was ahead of the curve on this job is because I have sold to pain doctors for years. I went out to my biggest customers from previous jobs and said, "Hey, take a look at this product that might be coming to market. The company may have interest in me. What are your thought about it?" Within a few days I had calls saying it was a good idea but states aren't going to cover it and it has really bad press. That was all I needed. At that point I decided I'd keep my current job and ride this one a few months. Look, I know it sucks to be stuck with stock, but I can't imagine you bought 36k in stock? You were given how much of that? I bought stock as well, but at $1.06 a share. Figured a penny stock would be fun to play. You have to now look at this stock a a serious long-term hold, which for most people is what the stock market is. Here is my opinion. Don't look at the stock, don't follow the stock and just check on it every 12 months. Then you will see small growth each time. If you keep looking at it daily it will only depress you cause nothing (drastically speaking) will be happening with it over the next 36 months.
The lesson is the pain space is dirty, filled with junkies, and every parking lot has two cars in it at all times that simply ferry rides to patients that work the system. Without a diagnostic - how can the bullshit be weeded out? It can't. So everyone in the system - doctors, pharmacists - become selectively subjective with good reason. The pain space is a circling of the drain. Who comes out of those offices more productive than when they went in? I apologize for the select few. But the pie has so many bad apples it makes generalizations way too easy. It's a nasty arena. I know it. So do you. If you choose to stay in pharma - interview for positions that market products with a diagnostic value associated with it.
