Staying with Lundbeck or for that matter staying in Pharma is like Riding a Dinosaur to the finish line of your career. Pharma Sales is almost dead and Lundbeck is a prime example of why Reps no longer bring value to the physicisn’s office. One product details by half a dozen reps Selling the same drug in the same territory giving multiple messages weekly is only one of many reasons to be embarrassed doing this job. Drs have no access due to payer restrictions but companies ignore this major problem. Pharma lobby and insurance lobby control healthcare along with the government. Selling implies there are two parties interested in some type of exchange. We don’t bring information, we don’t provide a viable service we are literally in The offices to pester the physicians into prescribing something that can’t be filled or cost a fortune when a generic works fine. I get everyone wants to draw a nice check but Pharma and drug reps are truly part of the healthcare problem not the solution. This industry is a Dinosaur and we are truly riding it to the finish line of our careers. Lundbeck is an example of everything fucked up in Pharma.
we all see more offices are closing to reps. As this access becomes worse there are 2 ways to go. Reduce head count and make territories bigger or just make the area white space and forget reps on mature late branded lifecycle. The industry is contracting for access every year. More offices are just saying "no" to allowing reps. The salesforce program and the expectations for calls is the real issue. Home office is run by 1990's people in sales who have no clue what the real territory is like anymore. Clueless
No that is not the problem, it is a symptom of a dying industry. Everything we and all other reps in Pharma complain about are issues associated with multiple self inflicted wounds by Pharma. It’s become bloated, outdated and run by individuals with big titles but no experience or point of reference to guide them. Again Lundbeck is a prime example of a useless company milking the system with molecules that have been tweaked to squeeze more money out of an empty government piggy bank. The answer is two fold- go back to a 1970’s model of Pharma- 5000 Reps total, huge territories, a bag full of products and you detail products not sell them. No quarterly bonus just an annual Christmas bonus, no stacked rankings, no sales contest,no big marketing circle jerk, and no more home Office campuses that are monuments to the CEO et al. Hire kids out of college for 40 K to be marketing reps and set up office displays and leave a sample or two if they for some reason can’t be shipped. The time of bringing product information to HCPs is long over, dropping samples is long over, feeding clinics is long over... Everything a provider needs is on their smart phone, information, ordering samples, you tube for demonstrations. I know no one wants to hear it but our work is over we are holding on to yesterday and it is costing the country billions because Pharma lobby is paying off the politicians to keep the party going. It’s time to ride our dinosaurs off into the tar pits of time- at least we can then become fossil fuel for the next generation but they won’t even need the fossil fuel because they will be in Tesla self driving electric cars- does that not tell us how outdated our jobs really are! Drink up in Vegas- enjoy the last vestiges of what it really means to be a Lundbeck Lion.
You are right. Sad truth. Sales reps are not needed and are cancers on our health system and society. Please self-deport.
Nice synopsis. You have to look no further that the presentation by Max on the "new MDD vis aid". It was pathetic listening to him try to sell a "new" important sales tool that was nothing more than the original vis aid reworked by putting graphs sideways and a few other very minor changes. How many times will Max and the gang rearrange the vis aid? Management has nothing, and I mean nothing, new to work with. We are actually going to approach this "new" detail piece as if it is a wonderful new tool to increase sales, that we've never seen before. These poor excuses for management still sing the same old song about "patient profiles", and "paint the patient type" for the docs. Now, these morons are targeting generics, drugs that are mandated by PBM's and insurance companies to be used well before brand name drugs are even considered. Yes, your comment about companies ignoring the #! problem of access is 100% on the mark. They want to act as if access is not an issue at all. This insanity can't go on forever at Lundbeck. We have no CEO. Our #2 man Staffan quit. Our head of compliance quit. There many other key people that have left as well. The training/marketing departments are on life support. Our next drug is 4 or more years away. We lose Onfi in October, and Xenazine and Sabril are soon to be gone. There is a new book about depression entitled "Lost Connections", that has caused a stir in the field of psychiatry, and shows how unnecessary drugs can be for a lot of patients in treating depression. It has turned the field upside down. Read it.
And to your point, if you have been around long enough- back when we were called detailmen- the bonus systems put out by Big Pharma did more to demotivate than motivate. How many times did you get pissed when you moved your market share from 40% -41% only to get creamed in both the rankings and the dollar payout by someone that went from 15% -20? It always amazed me, they can't track what is sold with any accuracy, some stores report, others don't. Mail order is a problem, multiple physician offices, ERs etc lack no trackability yet all home office types use this data to potentially ruin a person's career. My favorite was a DM that actually said the difference between winning an award and not was 3 prescriptions. Yea right.
Yes, until the early 1980’s it was unethical to pay put bonus by the major drug companies, Lilly, UpJohn, Merck, etc. an annual Christmas bonus and a greAt salary with a pension. No bullshit, just a great job in a respected industry- Now it’s just a lot of bullshit with everyone trying to look busy and useful and important! The industry has turned into a joke and made us jokes for doing this nonsense for money- but remember it’s all for the patients we help. Yea sure.
Lundbeck needs new drugs not more drug reps. The hiring of 175 Gamma reps to give our corporate partners their contractual # of details was a major mistake. Why didn’t they leave Alpha and Beta alone and hire an Inventiv force that they could have turned loose when things got tight. Charmaine Lykins left for Acadia- another big rat leaving the ship as it takes on more water. Egos had to be fed, big field forces to fill a Hall for roaring applause at meetings, ... no one learned from the blood baths of termination of field forces in the 1990s and early 21st century. Same management, same mistakes, no common sense and Lundbeck will be 2 almost empty floors in Deerfield or maybe they will move the home Office to Canada. Decisions here are obsolete reminders of the mistakes of this industry for the last thirty years, no more wiggle room or money to cover up ineptitude. Lundbeck was an opportunity lost.
Wait a minute, aren’t we still building the plane ? I see shiny new blue seats and the cockpit looks ready to go! Uh oh, I don’t see the wings!! WHERE ARE THE WINGS AND ENGINES? This ain’t good folks!
