Merck Vaccines is a train wreck

After reading the recent org changes, it's official, MV has hit a new low. Hard to comprehend that CM is leading the US Comm business.! And her leadership team is bunch of incompetents without a clue about the vaccines business. MV has lost so many good leaders over the years and the bleeding just continues. No wonder sales are in the tank for Z and G! I have lost what little faith I had in this troubled division.

 

Weintraub in NY and Darlene in NE = incompetence with little talent to improve.

 

Once the flood gates opened and ushh came crashing into MVD back since 2005, these waves after waves of incompetent pharma leadership in vaccines was bound to happen. It will get worse before it gets better. Sorry to deliver the sad news. Just dial it down and sit back to watch the continued chaos.

 

Merck is a train wreck.

 

The competition made out quite well from it, either from direct hires of MVD personnel, or incoherent policies that gave hard earned business over tho them on a silver or gold platter.

 

Morale at HQ is terrible, people are demoralized. And the recent headcount reductions in Marketing is just piling on.

 

It all comes back to having tablet people run a VACCINE division. This was the worst move I have seen in all my years at Merck. It has taken a few years for the implosion but we helped many of the other real vaccine companies better themselves with MVD folks.

 

With Colleen M and Jan N now leading the MV US Comm business, we have a clueless duo who will no doubt take things from bad to worse. No one is left on this leadership team who has any respect by the field or HQ teams.

 

We have had the Three Stooges and now we have the Clueless Duo. Merck Vaccines can't catch a break.

 

What is Mike Lombardo springing?

 

GSK and Novartis have plenty of solid ex-MVD folks that they are grateful to have.

 

Since Vaccines is a "priority" area for Merck, it is shocking who is now leadership positions. As a stockholder I am appalled! Makes me think Adam and Ken are asleep at the wheel as well. That said, I am confident that once the reality of this year's awful performance is more widely known and understood, there will be changes.

 

We can only hope! No way this leadership team is sustainable. Colleen M is a laughing stock.

 

Yes, there will be more changes. Cuts & Reorganize the field, leaving upper management alone.

Oh wait, that's been the strategy the past 8 years!
No accountability above the rep level, it's all our fault, thank you sir, may I have another......

 

Don't forget leadership made it pretty clear at the May annual meeting in Chicago that they recognize the culture is toxic and it's the reps fault the culture is toxic so the reps better fix it. Upper management is divine and can't do any wrong. What a joke!

We have been restructured yet again and assigned new customers yet again within 2 1/2 years of the last restructuring but this time they did it in the middle of the year and right before back to school season. We have to learn new customers right before the peak of back to school and the fall adult vaccination season. What were they thinking? This is definitely a dial it down year.

 

Because MV senior leadership are threatened by people with knowledge and experience, most have left the division or moved to roles where they will be valued and appreciated. As a result, those who remain are the a-- kissers. Good luck with that!

 

There's some truth to that! One big problem is that we are so limited in what we can say or do in the field. Company is so afraid to make one wrong move. There's no thinking outside of the box. And that's what marketing a product like Zostavax really needs. Some new ideas. Not a worthless teleconference with canned questions from the audience. It was so obvious, both the question and the answer were 100% scripted. And rehashed what we've already been beaten down with. The strategy slides were basic concepts that we all know.

 

The leaders of the marketing team need to be fired. This product has been out for about 9 years and we keep giving the same old tired messages and resources which still don't work. Providers don't want to carry it because they are afraid to lose money and patients don't want to pay for it because they think it's too expensive. Pharmacists can't sell it because they are not salespeople. What a mess.

 

That is why the women in leadership positions should a least be QUALIFIED to lead, it is where the word tokens come from. Shame on you Dr G. Equality yes, but not incompetence.

 

So true...