The future in our industry is contract sales reps

I hope everyone here's been banking their paychecks and cutting expenses. All the CEOs in our industry are acknowledging that the future of pharma/biotech sales is with contract sales reps. Who wants to guess when cobi starts using them? Only a few of us know the answer.

 

Using contract sales reps for older drugs like procrit, doxil, and remicade would actually make sense. But why would a company like centocor ortho biotech ever do anything that would make sense?!

 

The future of the field-based rep will be more of a medical-liason type (RN, NP, PA, PharmD, or PhD) working in conjunction with contracting teams. There will be fewer and fewer reps each year. There's not a lot of selling in this industry anymore as legal has stepped in and put a stop to it. The Physician Payment Sunshine Act kicks in 2012 which means no more lunches, speakers, etc. There's really no role for sales reps anymore except busy nonsense paperwork. Sales in pharma/biotech is a dying profession.

 

Pharmaceutical and Biotech Jobs Keep Disappearing
By MELLY ALAZRAKI
Posted 7:45 PM 11/04/10 Economy, Health Care

Just a day after the Federal Reserve announced a second round of bond buying to fight the high unemployment rate, the Labor Department says that initial jobless claims have jumped in the past week. The pharmaceutical and biotech industries certainly haven't helped: In the past few days, several companies have announced some 1,000 job cuts combined, and that's after Abbott Laboratories (ABT) in September announced it would cut 3,000 jobs over the next two years.

The biggest of the reductions this week came from Biogen Idec (BIIB), a Weston, Mass.-based biotech company that makes multiple-sclerosis treatments Tysabri and Avonex. The company on Wednesday released a restructuring plan that will slash 13% of its workforce, or nearly 650 employees, in an effort to save $300 million annually. The company intends to focus on developing neurology treatments, based on its expertise in this area from its multiple-sclerosis work, and to end its research in cardiovascular medicine.

Biogen will close its facilities in San Diego, Waltham, Mass., and Wellesley, Mass., relocating some of its personnel to other offices in Weston, Mass., Cambridge, Mass., and Research Triangle Park, N.C. Biogen also plans to get rid of its oncology and rheumatology sales force for Rituxan, a drug prescribed for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and rheumatoid arthritis, and transfer the selling rights to its partner, Roche's Genentech.

More Cuts Coming

Also on Wednesday, clinical research company Charles River Laboratories (CRL) said it would cut 4% of its staff, or about 300 positions, after reporting disappointing third-quarter earnings on lower sales. Charles River already cut 300 jobs earlier this year. It will now close a leased office, where it performed preclinical services, in Laval, Quebec, and will consolidate its discovery and imaging services division in Michigan with a larger facility in North Carolina.

And small French biotech company NicOx (NICXF) warned in its earnings announcement Wednesday that it will halve its workforce at its headquarters, indicating that at least 30 jobs will be lost. The company said it would close its U.S. headquarters shortly after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected NicOx's anti-inflammatory drug, naproxcinod, in July. The job loss isn't restricted to the U.S., either. NicOx also said it is considering restructuring its research center in Italy.

Meanwhile, Acceleron Pharma, a privately held Cambridge biotech company developing new therapies to treat musculoskeletal, metabolic, and cancer-related diseases, cut 57 employees, or roughly 40% of its workforce, late last month, The Boston Globe reported.


See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/99yqI4

 

Contract Sales Organizations, PDI-like companies are the wave of the future for big pharma and biotech. Saves the companies a ton of dough: no car, no gas, no insurance on auto or health and no retirement. This effectively shields pharma companies from potential lawsuits across the board, and saves them HUNDREDS of millions of dollars per year, like it or not. If you don't see this very visible writing on the wall - and are not rapidly anticipating its arrival - you are mentally slow. Yes, ride it out for as long as you can, but do SOMEthing to blunt the inevitable effects.

 

Wrong.

 

Biogen just had a massive layoff on their rheum & onc reps. These experienced and tenured biotech reps would be the perfect fit for cobi. There are no biotech jobs available so these reps will work for contract sales organizations after exhausting all efforts to land a full-time biotech position. It would be in jnj's best interest to sign on with a contract organization that specializes in biotech reps and get these hard-working reps at a great rate for the specific time period that they are needed in the field. JnJ is wasting so much money having full-time biotech reps doing nothing while they wait for potential drugs to launch. There is no access anymore and reps don't even try to see doctors and instead just fake calls and the company turns a blind eye to it all. Reps instead meet each other for breakfast or lunch or just stay home or else work their second job on jnj's dime instead. Eliminate 75% of the current field sales force at cobi and recruit contract sales reps as needed and the company will finally be in a better position to deal with the evolution of the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

 

Puleeeze! We get it. You own a Rent-A-Rep company. You want business. You are being laughed at at the front door so in desperation you turn to CP. You are on every company board spouting the same garbage. If what you said were even close to true why would I waste money even hiring a contract force? They fake calls all the time. They only care about the paycheck. Most importantly, if there is no access, then even a rent-a-rep at 1/2 price is too expensive. I should put all my money in DTC. BTW your posts are tired and boring you are not fooling anybody.

 

You are right, even contract sales reps are a waste of money since there's no access to customers anymore. But they are a significant cost savings in every area compared to your over-salaried, over-compensated, and over-benefitted lazy asses at centocor ortho biotech. Contract sales reps are a step in the right direction in replacing your useless positions, you putz.

 

Hey moron...I don't think you get it. You can honestly say that companies can afford to continue to do business in the current sales model. These jobs are drying up fast. There is no way companies can continue to do business like this. Please do yourself a favor and get your head out of the sand. Contract reps are the reality and mainstay of the future.

 

Academic teram just got across the board raises.

 

And Biogen Idec and Genentech reps are all getting laid off. This company has no clue.

 

So Spot on. Game Over!!!

 

Every year starting in October, my manager directs several of the favorite trusted reps to go to certain nice restaurants and food gift shops and put a couple of hundred dollars down every week or so at noon and enter the receipt as a lunch inservice and make up phony sign-in sheets to be expensed. Before you know it, the company has shelled out a couple of grand in "in-services" which we expense and our district has a great holiday party at a top restaurant in a private room with plenty of booze. We each also get really expensive gift baskets as holiday gifts from our manager. Of course my manager approves every "in-service receipt" without a problem. With all the money J&J has, COBI is so freaking cheap with the lousy budget they give us for a lame district breakfast or lunch. My manager is the greatest and knows how to work the system to take care of the reps. If this company ever called offices to verify in-service dates, attendees, or receipts it would be a disaster because we'd all lose our jobs.

 

Yeah but he doesn't have Gribs to cover for him anymore, so watch out.

 

You think your manager is the only one doing this? ALL my managers at ortho biotech, centocor, and now cobi have been doing the very same thing for years. And not only for the holidays, but all year round. The reason reps are stealing so much from the company on their expenses for their own personal and family benefit is because they see their managers doing it and getting away with it. And reps making up fake doctor calls cause there is no access or work to do anymore? My managers have always faked field days and reports for years. The managers from centorcor and ortho biotech are even more corrupt than the reps, but when their are layoffs none of them are touched and remain the managers for the same group of reps for years. So all the corruption goes on and is covered by middle and upper management for their favorite pet reps. If people only knew what's been going on around here.

 

It's gone and still going on within all divisions of centocor and ortho biotech for years and will continue to do so. No one is held accountable. All the rules in the field only apply to those who are targeted that they want to fire. Every other manager and rep gets away with murder in the field and will continue to do so. The truth will be exposed soon enough if everyone isn't treated the same. I can't believe what some pet reps have gotten away with by their managers through the years and to this day. It makes me sick. People are not being treated fairly and there is blatant discrimination by management and human resources. People will be exposed soon enough for their crimes.

 

What a sad legacy Gribs and Lori left behind. BTW, have you seen the video of them on Youtube of them performing drunk at the Stelara launch. Hilarious and repulsive at the same time.

 

Saw it. That must be why we no longer have open bar at sales meetings.

 

The current model for promoting drugs in unsustainable. Paying sales people six fugures, plus benefits, cars, gas, expenses to bring lunches to offices, and/or give thirty econd soundbites is incredibly wasteful. We all know that access is horrible, so really what are they paying us for. The bottomline is that with technology, mor efficient means of product promotions will become more and more prevalent, and doctors will increasingly ask "what am I getting out of this". The reality is that beyond the launch phase of a drug, the drug rep really brings very little value to an office. Thats just the truth! This profession is a dying one, and if you are under the age of fifty, you had better have a plan "B", because you are going to need it. You had also better ne saving your bloated salaries, because we are likely the most overpaid profession in the world. There is no job that a drug rep can build on. As we lose our jobs, and we all will, 99% of us will be no better than a new college grad.