Old timer stories

Discussion in 'GlaxoSmithKline' started by Anonymous, Jan 26, 2015 at 8:33 PM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Tell us some good stories from the glory days, everything is restricted these days....let's here some experiences!
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    I began working in the industry ten years ago, when it was easy, easy to bribe docs to use your drug, easy to make money, easy to do whatever you wanted to do. The stories I could tell you... For example:I didn't give a shit how smart or stupid a doctor was. I was given a territory that belonged to me in which to sell my product, and within that territory there were smart doctors, there were good doctors, and there were honest doctors, but the ones that I made a much better than average living on were the busy doctors that didn't give two shits about their patients -- and wanted something from me. On the books we all followed the rules; we had usual and appropriate expenses to do our job, but the reality was that we did what we had to do to sell our drug. Thursday was a usual night out for me with Dr. What he lacked in medical knowledge was more than made up for by his street smarts. He knew how to play the game and we did well by each other. He wrote tons of prescriptions and in return I gave him tons of samples that I later learned he sold to patients, and other perks.On paper we were having a round table discussion on some medical topic with a bunch of doctors, but in reality it was a night out with Dr who brought along his brother, his barber, his accountant, and a few of his other buddies. Including. the $1,000 fee for Dr ( for a talk that he, understandably, never gave) the night cost me almost $2,000 dollars -- well worth it because the following week I counted over 30 new prescriptions for my product. Oh I didn't tell you, but most big pharmaceutical companies purchase a list from a company that monitors doctor's prescriptions. It tells them exactly how many prescriptions a doctor writes for each product. If you think this sounds crazy, the next week he told me to go to his favorite restaurant, leave my credit card there , and he would take care of the rest – which he did by running up a tab for another two grand. Dont think for a moment the big shot doctors werent whores too; don’t be naive. Some of these assholes are bigger whores than Dr and they make a shit-load more money for their services. I get a call from my manager, Dr a big time professor of Medicine, who was part of the FDA board that approved our drug, is coming to town to give talks to the doctors in the area. At $3,000 dollars a night and another $3,000 to give a talk in the local hospitals each day, this elite doctor can take home $30,000 dollars in a week’s time. Hey, Dr just got a thousand bucks once or twice a month and free meals for himself and his buddies.I've taken docs to strip clubs,. Who hasnt? But I found a nice long massage, with happy ending, was far more cost effective, and I enjoyed it much more as well. Again, the people that run these places are not stupid, they accept American Express and the services aren’t billed to Mrs. Wong's massage palace. They usually have some kind of restaurant Doing Business As name. Anyway, as you can see. I've got so many I could write about but the one that always comes to mind is the following
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Hey hey hey........old gray hair here, right in RTP.......retired a few years and excited to toss out some great true tales from 4 decades.....

    BUT, with your grammar, I doubt that you are pharma material kid.......evidently very poor skills, especially in English. " LET'S HERE..... " ? Really ? 'Nuff said. Go back to your video games.
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    You're an idiot, we have autocorrect that commonly misspells words....go f@&& yourself you pos. Glad you can point out something that autocorrect changes! You f$&@ yourself you azzclown!
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    in the "good old days" I didn't have to spend 5 hours on an expense report
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    gray hair back......to the long essay above : you no doubt, have been fired and have a big chip on your shoulder !

    to the other post : I started with paper expense reports every 2 weeks, then with a million changes, ended up with the computer......the first couple of years was easier, but then they started making it complicated.....even 7-8 years ago. I really think they do these changes to #1 justify some depts. and jobs, and #2 to weed some reps out who complain.
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Translation: Let's see a bunch of "has-been" reps tell us a bunch of lies.
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Same gray hair here......would be great to chat with you over a beer, but that's impossible.....honestly, almost 40 years in sales and 3 mergers.....and I do have stories to tell !
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Lies? Oh, no Bucko, these aint lies. What we did earned our company untold billions of dollars.
    Let's put it this way. There's a reason that we got the biggest fine in industry history. But the whole drug industry was corrupt. The Pfizer reps used to use "personal" Viagra samples to get docs to write Lipitor, Zithromax, WHATEVER! Look up Jamie Ready's book on what the industry was like 20 years ago. The fake dinner programs….the dinner & a show "speaker programs" where doctor would take their spouse and 2 kids to see some traveling off Broadway show…the boating and beer trips with medical residents and teaching fellows….the hot female reps sexing up doctors, and the handsome male reps sexing up numerous office staffs to get access to the doctors….the abuse of samples…the faked and duplicated receipts that bought CD and DVD players…the reps that rarely worked because their manager bought off some pharmacist that would "load" drug for them….the off-label promotion that was encouraged by our superiors…we did it ALL!

    How about the payola that KOLs STILL receive to tout their sponsors' drugs and push the drugs' supposed benefits to the unknowing general public? I read an article over the weekend where some new obesity working group cranked out a press release boldly stating that "pills for obesity" should be part of all treatment regimens for diabetes in obese people. Really? A $20 a day pill or injection that MAY help a 200 pound woman lose 15-18 pounds?? The last line of the article stated that the authors and the working group members had "numerous relevant financial conflicts". Ya THINK??
    How about the guy that we paid under the table to shill Paxil for youth and teens, and to push for establishing treatment guidelines (in our favor)?

    These aren't lies. These activities (and much worse) brought us the push-back that brought us all the Sunshine Act, and the AMA-PhRMA agreements.
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Spot on brother! How many respiratory Docs at NJMC in Denver have mountain ski chalets thanks to payoffs we gave them for decades!! All the preceptorships, and crap papers that came out of there. Shotgun willies during the aaaai convention every year. It was billed as a hotel on AMEX. All a sham!
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Billed as the Barvaria Inn. To be more precise.
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    NYC rep here. In the 90s, Scorers strip joint was Mobbed up to the hilt and THE #1 after-dinner program "restaurant" of choice for many of my docs. The funniest was when I caught some HQ types in there getting rowdy! I only had a few years under my belt, so they didn't recognize me. They were acting like frat brothers!

    I also remember coming out of Peter Lugers (cash only!!) with 3 docs, and saw about 6 idiot Pfizer reps hogging a table with one older odd man out. I walked by a couple times, finally caught my competitors eye (we were relatively "cool", didn't hate each other. He WAS an idiot, though). We chatted for a sec, and I introduced myself to the table. Yep, I shoulda known. Some big league Psych from one of Manhattans biggest teaching hospitals. And a bunch of reps.

    Man, those were the DAYS!
     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Old prematurely grey hair here, when I started we bought lunch for the entire office then a policy was adopted where each attendee needed a CID so we didn't do lunches anymore then that policy was revised and now we do again. Been here 4 years
     
  14. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    The only post made so far that is true.
     
  15. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Stone age, before the wheel, before your parents were born, when there were only 2 continents and 20 hours only in they day..Expense report was weekly, filled it out on Saturday morning, along with company provided checks which you made out directly to yourself for the expenses...

    Doc actually 'paid' for your lunch....NEVER brought a meal into the office,NEVER! maybe some chocolates/candy for a 'nice' nurse or receptionist...trading samples out of trunks with the other reps in town

    - NO Signature accountability for samples, No sign here crap..doc asking you to leave samples next door at the local pharmacy, after dropping'em off , the pharmacist telling you to help yourself to some cigs, sunscreen (worked on the coast), film - that stuff you had to put in those camera things before cellphones..twisting wholesalers' arms to double order your product for sales contest (with knowledge they could return'em next month)---raise your rep hand when was last time you called on a wholesaler or even know what that is?

    Carrying the whole company line up, everything from skin creams to oncology, You were the company..thought a 6 -7 week call rotation was a bit much...sitting in docs office drinking coffee, smoking a cig and discussing whatever..District meeting: you and the 11 other reps covering the WHOLE state got together for big steak dinner, lots of drinks and 30 minutes of "guys keep up the good work"..You felt crowded if you knew there was another rep in town (or your side of it)..It was simple ...you saw the docs..DOCs Rx'd, pt got it filled across street for $3 (you confirmed this by skimming thru pt files at the drug store -- go back and read part about sample drops there)..Great job
     
  16. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Besides the almost unlimited samples we received with no real accountability, we were able to order 5 stock bottles per month of drugs like Tagamet and Dyazide for physicians and pharmacists. I had a local independent pharmacist that dealt samples with nearly every drug rep in town (I saw his secret leger book). You could go into the store, preferably on a weekend, do your shopping and put the total on your account. He didn't really care how long it took for you to pay it off in goods. He had a large department store type of pharmacy, like what CVS and others have become today. What he didn't have on his shelves you could order from a catalog. Got my first computer there (Atari 800). Just recently trashed a 25 inch Sony Trinitron TV that I had since about 1982. Got my first VCR from him, in the days when they cost close to a $1,000. Also my first microwave, which was probably about $600 back then. No, it wasn't right, but it was the way of the industry 30-35 years ago. At least in my geography.
     
  17. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Independent pharmacist. Now THEREs an oxymoron for ya! Yes, I started with another company in the late 80s, and we had to spend a lot of time with our retail pharmacists: taking returns, finding out which doc is writing what drug, etc. Because I had oral and IV antibiotics, and a lot of other oral meds, we were required to start each day in the hospital (OR lounge, ICU, ER, doctors lounge) and end up in the retail pharmacy. I walked around with a detail bag full of clinicals that I'd either gotten from one of my district colleagues, or found on my own in the medical li-berry. I'd be either fired or banned from my hospitals for doing any one of those "mandatory" tasks today.
     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Back in the day I new where every pay phone in my territory was. Voicemail was the preferred means of non urgent communication and we had a requirement to check it at least three times per day! The best were located in the Medical Office buildings that were a small closet that gave you privacy. Also had one that was a drive-up, the phone was placed at car window heigh! Very frustrating having to Waite for someone to finish their call on the only phone in a building! About mid90's company gave us pagers, now that was progress!
     
  19. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Right on.....we knew where every pay phone was....preferably near a rest room, or we would find a drive- up phone........I hated pagers, but in our region we could take or leave them....most of us hated to wear something that new, and with many calls all the time !

    As far as the former post, with trading samples......some did that , but they were crooked in my opinion....many were caught....that's not right and never was ! That was what I consider embezzlement, but some did not realize that.....the company did not give us valuable samples or stock bottles for that purpose.
     
  20. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Started with SK&F in 80's. It was a great life. A lot of the above is true. Made it through all the mergers. Times changed. I VRIF'd from GSK in 2010. I wish the best to all of you.