October 1973

Discussion in 'Winthrop Laboratories' started by Walking Eagle, Dec 14, 2006 at 7:50 PM.

  1. Walking Eagle

    Walking Eagle Active Member

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    Anyone out there who attended the September/October class at 90 park? Seven men and the first seven women hired for the sales force. S Webb--are you there?????
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Halloween in NYC, snow in Rensselaer and the beautiful drive to and from, walking all over Manhattan, The BEDFORD and the transfer to the East Gate. Good people, good training, good times. Where are the infamous 14???
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    The East Gate Towers.... I would run every morning past the UN... heady stuff for a kid from Buffalo..... 1975-76..Breon
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Ah, Breon. It is like a dream in another life. I wish I could remember all of the people. There were SO many good ones. When I joined in '77 there were 89 reps... IN THE NATION. :)

    I worked with and met some really good people (and some bad, as well (Herb Smith comes to mind)). For the most part, they were good. Since we were small we always met at fabulous hotels, like the Sanford Court in San Fran on Nob Hill (several times). Ranked as one of the top hotels in the country back in the late 70's - early 80's. Go to NY for any kind of training, and EVERY night was a fabulous restaurant. Steak and lobster, awesome appetizers, Broadway shows, etc.

    Today, even if they wanted to, companies are SO big they cannot even think of this kind of extravagence in treating their reps. It was a special time I will always remember. What is truely amazing is to remember that in the late 70's early 80's Breon was the #1 respiratory company in the nation! Bronkosol had a 98% market share in the hospitals and IPPB machines were the common treatment in Resp. Therapy. (Kinda scary now, forcing air into the lungs like that, but it was progressive and cutting edge). Of course for years, we were constantly trying to find ways to say Bronkometer, Bronkosol and Bronkodyl (it was micropulverized!! whatever that meant). and then Bronkephrin (sp?). No new product development was our downfall.

    Sorry to ramble, but that was a much better time in the age of pharmaceutical sales. 10 1/2 years at Sterling for me. 1977-1988
     
  5. Walking Eagle

    Walking Eagle Active Member

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    Did you know Rich P. from San Antonio?????
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    1972-1984 for me.... Remember meeting at the Essex House right across for Central Park... spent one night into the wee small hours talking to Peter Gimbel about his first dive on the Andrea Doria days after she sank off Nantaucket in 1956...he had marvelous photos... those where the days of meeting early in the morning on Sunday for the NY Times...discuusion and great novealox and bagels at the stage deli. all those products and Dr. Tom Petty as our spokesperson.... and Art catalani's Pall Malls... what ever happened to Howard Mosesson???
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Definitely remember the Pall Malls. Always knew how long Art was planning to talk by how many of the unfiltered Pall Malls he had lined up on the front table. Tragically, but not suprisingly, he eventually died of lung cancer. I remember that Tom Petty had more jokes in his mind than anyone I ever knew, but the bow tie all of the time was a little goofy. He definitely had national respect when he talked. I tried to Google Howard, but couldn't remember exactly how to spell his name. If I recall, after Kodak bought out the company, he went to another large pharma company in NY as a marketing VP or something (?) I think Dan Peters hung around for a long time, but that is like a blur in my memories. What was the guy's name who was the creative concept guy. Jack something. MERV - Mobile Educational Research Vehicle was his idea. Drive an RV to conventions and park it in our display space. RV was loaded with (at that time) state of the art computers to let docs review educational info. So primitave in today's world, but cutting edge technology at the time. Wow, lots of memories. How about Harry Schoff (sp?) President after Art. Then he married a sales rep who became like "first lady" of Sterling and they moved into a condo about a block from 90 Park. Can't remember her name. She was really nice, but it was extremely strange. enough for now.
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I think it was spelled Schaff or Schiff and you are right he was one weird dude. How about the Breon Spirometer??? Made money each time you sold one... what was it?? 50-100 bucks and how about selling the bone replaceemnt stuff to the endodontists.... what the hell was the name of that.

    Breon and then Winthrop..... 1972-1984
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I was with Breon 1977 to 1981. I saw Howard Moseson at a Bar Mitvah in NY about 15 years ago. He looked good. He had started his own business and was promotional items to pharmaceutical companies. I'm sure a lot has happened in 15 years.
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    That "stuff" was Periograph! Turned out to be a real flop. I also sold spirometers...FEV1, FEF 25-75, FVC...
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    That "stuff" was Periograph! Turned out to be a real flop. I also sold spirometers...FEV1, FEF 25-75, FVC...

    Breon/Winthrop from 1977 to 1986
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Where????? I was Upstate NY
     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    It was Harry Schoff ... came over from J&J Intl and his wife was a Breon rep. Can't complain about the guy ... when he took over in 1986, he did a survey of our wage scale and some of us got some prety good raises. I think my base jumped something like 35% that year. His son worked for us (in imaging) first in the home office and then in territory in Florida.

    Lots of old names and old memories; by the way, Bob Byrd passed away a couple years ago. Gordon Mitchell, who used to be in Waco, died about seven or eight years ago as well. I talked to Harry Ochsenbein, who was my boss for four or five years a few weeks ago. He had bypass about a year or two ago, but is doing well and living in Huntsville, Texas.

    I started with Breon in late 1982 and started changing business cards after that, all in San Antonio. I remember the Spirometer, Bronkosol Unijet, Breonesin, Marcaine, and Tornolate (which I am glad didn't come on board until after the Winthrop combination, because I can still picture the meeting where we all would be fired based on that dog products' rotten sales).

    Went to Winthrop-Breon, Winthrop, Sanofi Winthrop, Nycomed, Nycomed Amersham and Amersham Health before the GE buyout which ended my career in 2005.

    I remember a sales meeting in 2001 when they went to the Amersham Health name ... one of the home office honchos was telling us we were getting a new name but don't worry, nothing changes. He then turned to me and asked how long I had been with the company (19 years) and how many name changes had I gone through (8 or 9) and how it would be neat to have a framed picture of all my old business cards. I asked him how many blank spaces I should leave at the bottom for new changes.

    GE has pretty well run the company into the ground. Wouldn't be suprised if they dumped it.
     
  14. #14 Walking Eagle, Apr 23, 2008 at 11:58 PM
    Last edited: Apr 3, 2009 at 9:37 PM
    Walking Eagle

    Walking Eagle Active Member

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    It is truly sad to see a company that was a research innovator in so many fields (Radiopaques, local anesthetics, analgesics, vasopressors for emergency and surgery, the first quinolone in the world, topical anti-infectives, cardiovascular, seizure, sulfa drugs, tranquilizers, asthma, malaria, and on and on...) and the corporation that it was a huge part of(Sterling: Lehn&Finck, Glenwood, Breon, Winthrop, Pittman-Moore, Sterling-Winthrop Research Institute, and maybe some I have forgotten) be sold off and picked apart to the point that few of the parts even exist anymore......
     
  15. #15 Walking Eagle, May 17, 2011 at 2:28 AM
    Last edited: May 17, 2011 at 2:30 AM
    Walking Eagle

    Walking Eagle Active Member

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    Was Al Pawelek still working with Winthrop in San Antonio when you were there? How about Pam Herndon and Clint Williams in Houston? Harry O hired me in 73 then promoted to Hospital rep in 74 and moved out of the district. Worst mistake in my career. Didn't know how good I had it.
     
  16. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I actually started with Breon end of 1982; Al retired mid 83 (he passed away a couple years ago) and when Winthrop and Breon combined, I got much of his territory (we brought in a new rep into San Antonio and split it in half). Worked for Harry O for about five years; one of the best bosses I ever had (although I will say I did get another good boss later in my career before GE took over the business and ruined it; I left in 2005). Got a Christmas Card from Harry; I need to drive over to Huntsville and pay him a visit one of these days.

    I worked with Clint Williams as a diagnostic imaging rep in the early to mid 90's until he retired. I saw him a year or two later but have lost touch with him. Pam's name doesn't ring a bell.

    Of course, I knew Jan and Jack Jenkins (they've both retired; Jack moved to Vegas with the company ... in all the years I was with the company, the only way Jack and I got into the same district was for him to move from Houston to Las Vegas). Bill Hickman was our regional manager in Seattle until he left the company; I used to work with him about once a year because I worked Corpus Christi and his momma lived in Kingsville.
     
  17. Walking Eagle

    Walking Eagle Active Member

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    Please send a private message. CC was my territory for a couple of years early on.... Sorry to hear about Al. Strange old duck but also very interesting. Used to run into him at North Star Mall in SA after he retired and would sit and talk for a while. Hickman and I were promoted to Hospital Rep about the same time. Lost track of him when I left the company. Need to call Harry--been several years since I met him and Mary for lunch at Landry's when he was still in Houston.
     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    for some reason, I can't register on this site ... will get back to you with an email address.

    JT
     
  19. Walking Eagle

    Walking Eagle Active Member

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    Called Harry last week. He and Mary are getting along pretty good. H is 79!
     
  20. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    What are your initials? My mother knew someone from Breon @ same time frame. Thanks!