It's official! Cardio Care is toast!

They are doing some housekeeping prior to the announcement: Virtually zero openings in sales with AbbVie. They know that this is a one way door. Willing to bet that very few ever get hired back in. There will be alot more reps from other franchises canned this year and they can't screw around with rehiring if they want to get the headcount numbers down enough.

 

If you're stressed out by speculation, you might want to avoid Cafe Pharma. The facts are that my RM told my district on last Friday's conference call that JD said there would be no expansion of the Metabolic Team, and that both Niaspan and TriLipix face LOE in the near future. As a result, the Cardio Care team would be "released". The RM said the date of the release had not been given, but that until the announcement is made it is businesscas usual.

 

AbbVie Said to Fire Heart Sales Force as Generics Compete
By Drew Armstrong - Apr 16, 2013
AbbVie Inc. (ABBV), the drugmaker split off from Abbott Laboratories (ABT) this year, will fire its sales force for heart drugs as the medicines lose patent protection and face generic competition, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The firings total in the “mid-hundreds” and are a mix of AbbVie employees and contract workers, said the person, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak about the issue.

AbbVie is shifting its focus from primary care, such as drugs that treat a patient’s cholesterol, stroke or diabetes, to so-called specialty medications in areas of unmet health needs, Chief Financial Officer William Chase said in January. With the cardiology drugs losing patent protection, the North Chicago, Illinois-based company no longer needs a large sales force to advertise them to doctors.

Chase in January called 2013 and 2014 “a time of transition for AbbVie, as our lipid franchise experiences the entry of generics.”

Among those drugs is TriCor, a cholesterol medication that began facing generic competition in November and sold an estimated $1.37 billion last year. Also known as Trilipix, it was AbbVie’s second-biggest drug in 2012. Niaspan, an extended- release version of a drug to raise HDL or “good” cholesterol, also will face copycats this year. It sold $976 million in 2012.

Chase in January estimated that sales of the two drugs will fall by more than half this year.

Adelle Infante, an AbbVie spokeswoman, declined to comment on the firings.

Generic Competition

“TriCor began facing generic competition in late 2012 and several other products in our cardiovascular franchise will lose patent exclusivity in 2013,” she said yesterday in an e-mail.

The company’s biggest product remains Humira, an injection to treat the inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis. The medicine sold $7.93 billion last year.

AbbVie’s experimental drug pipeline suffered a setback last year when its partner, Reata Pharmaceuticals Inc., discontinued development of a drug for chronic kidney disease. The company’s top candidate in late-stage testing is a treatment for the viral liver infection hepatitis C, which may compete with a product in development by Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD) This year, AbbVie suspended trials of an experimental leukemia and lymphoma medicine after two patients died.

AbbVie split from Abbott Laboratories on Jan. 1, leaving the parent company with the original business’s medical device, infant nutrition, generic drugs and diagnostics units. Since the split, AbbVie’s shares have gained 21 percent and Abbott Park, Illinois-based Abbott’s have gained 15 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story: Drew Armstrong in New York at darmstrong17@bloomberg.net

 

Hey, all. Saw the Bloomberg story. Trying to confirm for the Chicago Tribune. If anyone has verifiable information, please message me at pfrost@tribune.com or call 312-527-8074. We're not comfortable running on the Bloomberg info until someone can confirm.

Thanks,

Peter Frost
Chicago Tribune

 

you need to be more worried about abbott marketing tricor and trilipix towards diabetic patients.

 

If you really want to do an interesting story exposing this company and its firing practices just look up the threads OEC investigations and PIPS. This company has been investigating people for no other reason than their managers don't like them for years. These people are flown to a special room in Chicago and questioned and bullied till they confess to something. They are not allowed to have any legal representation. The questioning, threatening, and isolation goes on for hours until the person breaks down and confesses to something. This sounds a little like the spanish inquisition, but this company is carrying this out in modern times.
This company has been using thes tactics and the OEC to secretly downsize so they don't have to pay employee benefits like layoff packages. This company has been using these investigation tactics for years to scare current employees so they shut there mouths about what goes on around here. Why don't you talk to some former employees about this and get a real story.

 

Was part of the last CSS downsizing and folks the job market out here is NOT pretty! FORGET about re-hire unless you have connections. "Displaced Employee" status...what a joke. Better get health insurance options nailed down ($700/month cost to you on high deductible health plan) and pension issues resolved. After you have been "restructured" out and all the phone calls to HR have lessened, HR can be your friend in dealing with benefits. Make your career plans now...easier to "find a job while you have one".

 

Whoa, Baby! Sounds like you got nailed. But HR isn't stupid, neither is Global Security. I bet deep down in your heart you know what you did was wrong.

 

Can only hope that MR is one of the ones that goes, although I doubt it. He would sell his mother to get ahead. Left that division two years ago for another part of Abbott. Best thing that I ever did. The division is run poorly and has zero loyalty to anything except the almighty dollar. True leaders also got out to other parts of Abbott (think Vascular). I just want the Abbvie stock price to continue to rise to the point of where I can sell my options, RSUs and change my 401K.

 

I spoke with a Lilly rep out in the field yesterday. Their big cutback happened last Friday, and I assumed he had kept his position. Turns out he WAS severed, but the actual separation won't take place for a few months.
If Lilly can give their "released" employees a date for their last day of work, why can't Abbvie? Instead, the Cardio Care franchise is completing LERN modules and attending conf calls to discuss best practices.

 

It's not just some members of the CC salesforce that are in denial, it's leadership as well. Why else conduct "business as usual" con calls to discuss HA utilization and Andro Restoration kits?

 

Well your wish is granted. But good luck finding another job that pays even half as much....

 

What? Now we are supposed to do something just because Lilly does it? You have exceptional leadership skills, I can tell that already.
Why don't you just trot over to Lilly yourself and see how you like it....

 

Now, now, cool your jets. Remember the AbbVie/Abbott way. First they will have to schedule meetings to discuss the dates. Since 50 % of middle managment and upper management will be out on vacation dates and the other 50% will be out "sick" the first possible date when everyone will be present will probably be in a month or so. Then they will have to order lots of Panera, Coca Cola, Potato Chips and chocolate chip cookies to eat when they are bobbing their heads up and down to anything said at the meeting whether it makes sense or not. Then a memo will need to be drafted and then sent from dept to department to dept to dept to the next dept for approval signoff which will take another 3 or 4 weeks. Then someone will catch a mistake in the memo so a new memo will need to be drafted. Then that will be sent dept to dept for a few weeks. ETA of date , oops, date you get kicked to the curb..OOpsy. So Sorry.

 

No moron, it's the principle behind the story. Why make an announcement to the Cardio Care salesforce if there are no details provided? We had a recent Town Hall where it was made clear there was no future for the franchise. The "leadership" you blabbed about is absent in this whole sorry mess, from a company that constantly touts its desire to be "transparent". At least some pharma companies have the integrity to be upfront with their employees. You need to work on your reading comprehension.

 

I FIND THE USE OF THE WORD "FIRE" INTERESTING.... CHECK OUT YOUR EMPLOYEE AGREEMENTS. ABBVIE HAS NO REQUIREMENT TO PAY ANY SEVERANCE. THIS LAYOFF WILL BE UNLIKE ANY OTHER BEFORE, BOTH IN MAGNITUDE AND TERMINATION. WITH THE CV DRUGS SLIDING INTO THE GENERIC KINGDOM LIKE AN AVALANCHE, THE COMPANY WILL WANT TO PRESERVE AS MUCH CASH AS POSSIBLE. YOU DON'T WORK FOR ABBOTT NOW. ALTHOUGH IF YOU'RE ELIGIBLE FOR RETIREMENT, THAT'S SAFE, BUT SEVERANCE WILL BE BASED ON TENURE WITH ABBVIE.

 

No, Mr. Capitalization Freak, the severance will not be based on your time with AbbVie, unless, of course, you were not with Abbott before....
Just STFU if you don't know what you are talking about.

 

"Leadership skills"? To be a freaking drug rep? Dude, you have been listening to company propaganda for way too long.

 

Your caps lock is on.

 

I'm guessing all the prep work has been done, the package signed off on, and the actual RIF awaiting an already-set date for implementation. It's not as if the LOE for Niaspan and TriLipix just snuck up on the Company.