Eliquis Struggles!

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N0FV0F320130725?feedType=RSS&irpc=43

 

This is just mind blowing "The company failed to realize how much investment is needed to launch a drug" Are you serious? Wait, aren't these the "best" minds with their MBA's and elite disease state/marketing knowledge - I am just speechless. . . .

Ian, who is accountable for this and other past failures? (Exubera, Toviaz, etc......)
The sales force continues to be laid off and downsized and will heads now roll in NY for this complete failure of launch planning???

What do the DBM's say: "You only get ONE chance to say your new" and then the shelf life is over.

At this point, I would rather have the head of the Geico commercials running the Asset teams

 

Eliquis costing more in launch spend than revenue made. What a dump.

 

Pfizer your business model is long broke. You bought your way to #1 and then cut your way down. You lay off people who actually had some access, shifted others to new territories like they were so many pawns in a chess game, drove other talent away who knew they could do better. You and other big pharma were greedy in the 90's and early 2000's and paid for it with a CIA, and now everyone is dumbed down to the point of being useless. No other company will come to the "great mighty marketing machine" you once were after screwing up the Eliquis launch with long outdated practices, and research seems to be in a long swoon.

Big pharma will not rise again until something really dramatic happens - like bankruptcy to shed everything and everyone you owe (ala GM, the airlines, etc) and a new way of developing and marketing new entities. You can continue to sit on your cash reserves, maybe even buy a few promising molecules (Onyx?) and pay the executives to buy back shares, reduce expenses (more bloodshed), Eliquis may be the straw that finallly breaks the camel's back.

For those of you still employed in the field force - don't worry too much, it's unlikely that Pfizer will change much unless someone comes up with a really great plan and so far that's not happened even though they saw this coming for years. They will sit back and watch Lilly and Merck and AZ and see if they can come up with something better as long as the analysts still rate PFE a buy.

 

Bitter? Pfizer didn't screw up the E launch. What could they've done better with the indication we have. The initial launch isn't the problem.

And your comment on bankruptcy, what the hell are you talking about? Pfizer is sitting on billions in cash, stock is trading near a multi-year high, still has tremendous revenue and has tremendous assets. You didn't think this idea thru.

E and Xel are definitely hurting our reputation and our projections, but not even close to throwing in the towel. If you need to know what situations call for bankruptcy, look at Detroit or Stockton.

 

The 3 top products of Pfizer that are supposed to replace the lost revenue of lipitor ALL have problems. Pfizer can only delay the inevitable revenue issues that will arise. When that happens it will be reflected in the stock price. Companies can and do hype up and/or even fabricate the value of their products to prop up stock values, but time is not on their side and eventually the truth gets uncovered. Trust me they are s___ in their pants in the home office to keep things under raps for as long as possible to the street.

 

I would love to help, but they put me in Cluster 3. I know all of my area Cardiologists, I was a CHR for 15 years and a lot of them were fellows when I started. Back in the day I took them out for dinner and drinks, they are all friends of mine and would write Eliquis over P and X all day, just because its me and I can just ask them. I still see a lot of them socially as our kids pretty much grew up together.

But, Pfizer in all of its wisdom thinks that all of the relationship capital I've built up isn't worth a pisshole drilled in a snowbank. I spend my days far, far away from all of these Cardiologists and EP's I know so well, selling Toviaz and Viagra to a bunch of Urologists I know nothing about. Meanwhile, they have 2 DSR's trying to sell Eliquis to my old customers who can't even find the offices they work in. Both have mastered the political game of schmoozing and butt kissing, and this is undoubtedly why they were placed where they are, the "future of Pfizer". Their sense of grandiosity is nauseating, but there is no way out of this one. They have been exposed as the frauds that they are.

It could have been different and had a much more favorable outcome, but the people at the top are so grossly incompetent that they fail to see even the most basic tenets of salesmanship

 

Wasnt too long ago that many people in the field and in HQ were pinning their hopes on Eliquis as THE drug that would put us back on the right path. When are we gonna learn? We will not be able to replicate our past glory days of 1990-2004. We put a serious hurt on our competition back then. BUT, during those days we promoted only sycophants to positions of sales and marketing leadership. For that we've paid dearly.

What a sad company we've become.....

 

Don't you know by now that relationships don't matter anymore! Our regional managers told us at our DSR meeting it's now all about the "Challenger Sale" and that relationships don't lead to any more sales; anybody can build a relationship, but you have to have positive tension on the 1st meet & greet for you to be truly a successful pf rep - yeah right!!!

I too had the same scenario, IHR, TSR and DSR for 14+ years along with my DBM for 20+ years which sold Norvasc, Lipitor & Caduet to all of the area Cards. However, the powers to be thought they should switch us over to cluster 3 and start all new with Toviaz and Viagra. Oh well, screw em, they know now how tough Cardiology is and I bet they wish they were back in their old spots.

 

Remember when, "Toviaz is the future of Primary Care"? Or,"Where Toviaz goes Pfizer goes"? Well....where is Toviaz again?

 

Think about it: we were hedging our bets on a me-too drug for overactive bladder. How the mighty have fallen.

 

And also the overwhelming success of Caduet.

Two different disease states wrapped up into one pill. Brilliant

 

Toviaz commercials will blockade the profit leakage.

 

Our reputations have BEEN hurt, my friend. Our flotsam has been on the street for 4-7 years now. Everyone now knows that we aint shyte. I liked it in the 90s when we were the source of corporate envy. Now, everyone knows that we aint shyte. Many of my friends that are still left in the industry have great stories about Pfizer cast-offs that have come into their companies and try to implement "the Pfizer way".
What a joke we are.

 

You should be ashamed of yourselves!!! Janssen reps are the laziest, most pathetic reps and they're kicking your butt!!

 

Here here! i was laid off when I lead my area in scripts of a particular drug that has since sunk down to nothing b/c the all-knowing PFE moved everybody around. Years later they said "we really screwed up with ______" yeah no kidding Einstein. I hope PFE suffers even more till they get to rock bottom like an alcoholic out of control. Maybe then will the geniuses wake the hell up.

 

No one cares about Pristiq.

 

That depressed doll does.

 

Change the process/systems at Pfizer and Eliquis will take off in the next 12 months. I'm an SHR in Cluster 2 and totally believe in this drug.

The barriers we have:

our hands are tied due to the CIA
there is a so called alliance. Really! DBM's and above don't communicate with their BMS counterparts and aren't on the same page. We are suppose to be an Alliance. Instead, we compete for time and now "activity". Seriously?
Our incentives aren't aligned... come on.
Pfizer is right sized while BMS is overkill
PHR's have added Card's to their TCL's and making it an occupancy violation in Cardiology. Why in the world do you want to tell PHR's to add Card's to their TCL when there is a BMS and Pfizer rep already calling on them? Pfizer Management is making the wrong decision here. Did management not hear our customers when they said, "less reps"?
Reach and Frequency doesn't drive prescriptions these day's. This is old school mentality driven by a contractual agreement with BMS.
Rep's don't need micro management. Empower the rep to "OWN iT". Read your Voice Survey and then execute an action plan to allow your reps to "OWN iT".
This drug should NOT have been launched in Primary care until the DVT indication was approved. The brand team really screwed up on this and now field sales is to blame...of course. When will we ever hear "accountability above"?
Eliquis sales goals for Sem 2 in Cardiology are completely screwed up. The brand team is trying to make up for their Sem 1 mistake. Let's demotivate those who worked their behinds off in Sem 1. Then again...it doesn't matter because Reps have a TBO goal. Interesting!

The Eliquis brand and the management team are all on a $$ goal. Reps are on an activity driven goal. TBO's V's dollar goal.

Lets do something really spectacular at Pfizer for this brand. Monday morning, Ian will announce to all shareholders that we have done away with dollar goals and adopted TBO's.

I love this drug. It's the system that is failing us.

SHR
Cluster 2

 

Above post is dead on especially with management. It is amazing how INTEGRITY goes right out the door with Pfizer management when it comes to working with BMS. It's also amazing when your manager directs you in a certain way and they denies it later not just one time, but a number of times. Lastly, I thought we weren't supposed to compare head to head. Once again, when management starts to feel the pressure they direct you to cross the line in a subtle way. Bottom line it is still crossing the line. Pfizer management took our ability to sell away years ago. I guess they just don't realize it.