So you think you are safe working here?

Think again!! Big Pharma will be affected in a big way by the current situation:

Many companies across America have closed their doors currently, only God knows for how long!

With no revenue coming in, how long do you think they will pay health care premiums for workers sitting at home? It’s easy to stop paying wages, but once you cut off paying health care premiums the game elevates to another level...

Once these companies stop paying health care premiums, what do you think insurance companies are going to do when the revenue does not come in? Do you think they will pay for branded anti-psychotics, or force prescribers to resort to generics? The insurance companies will either demand huge price concessions from big pharma, or go purely generic whenever possible.

Either way, it will hurt big pharma, and affect every job in pharma sooner or later. There will be no room for financial excess, anything that can be cut will be cut. Don’t be surprised if your salary will be cut, or your job eliminated. Drug reps are very expensive for companies, especially when you have two reps per territory, and no data to prove that two reps sell more than one.

By now, even the dumbest CEO starts to question the necessity for that. And once these companies learn how to operate in this environment, they will never go back to the old ways. Add to that the fact that many docs have at least temporarily closed their offices to reps, they may find out that life is actually better without the nuisances of having a rep visit them. So, if you are a DM or rep, it might be wise to save a little bit more money, you may need it later on, when your salary has been cut or you have been laid off.

Nobody knows when this virus is going to peak. And don’t trust the infection rate posted by China!!! Do you really think they are telling us the truth? Some people inside China have said it is much worse than the government reports!! Of course it is, just as China has been stealing America’s secrets and technology for years!!

 

Talks about putting home office people on furlough .... field will be next.....

 

I’ll take a package and quietly go away

 

Most of us gladly would if it was a good package

 

What’s the deal with hiring? I’m in the middle of the interview process and was expecting a video interview by now to replace the f2f. Are any new reps being hired in your district?

 

No, we are currently not hiring, we have bigger issues to worry about...

 

Now if that happens, things will get very dicey, very fast. Pharma companies always brag about how cash they have on hand. My guess is they could easily keep paying for 6 months to a year and not even miss it. The damn overpaid CEO’S of the companies should stop taking a salary for the duration!!!

 

They will take care of themselves first, rest assured! Which one of them doesn’t have a sense of entitlement? Our company is no different!

 

Sit by the phone for today. If you haven’t heard anything from a manager or HR, move on...

 

As it should be...How much non-productive busy work can you do day after day? And the last thing a Doctor wants to see or hear is a drug rep especially during these times with absolutely nothing new to offer...Not only do we have a health crisis on hand, but also a financial crisis...As soon as one pharma company will be laying off reps, others will follow...it’s inevitable....

 

Are you an idiot or do you not listen to current events? Yes, a video interview does not expose you to Coronavirus but we are not working, have no idea when a training class would even start if we do resume selling, and you’ll eventually need to interact face to face in this process, most likely involving air travel.
I think this can wait. I shouldn’t have to spell this out to you, do I?

 

Dude, you are something else...looks like you have not eaten the intelligence with a soup spoon. Now climb out from underneath the rock you have been living under and watch the news!

 

thank you for communicating with me. As a job seeker, I’m seeing my friends from allergan get jobs at other companies (not abbvie) in the midst of all this. In addition, I’m seeing another big pharma recruiter posting for jobs that I am currently working with so I try not to make assumptions before asking. Head of recruiting companies on my linkedin are boasting about clients that are still hiring and raving about their clients getting xyz raise in the midst of this so I have to ask each company I’m considering individually because it seems to vary at this point.

I had an interview 2 weeks ago face to face with a regional and district manager and they said training will most likely be virtual at the end of march, but they still hired someone last week. Forgive me for asking a boneheaded question.

 

Interesting post. I bought a new car from a dealership a few weeks ago. I called the dealership yesterday to find out whether or not they are open. Turns out they are closed until sometime in May, management layed off all salespeople without pay and cancelled their health insurance as the dealership will not pay the employees premiums during these times. I called my salesman and he said he is now in a real bind, because he can’t afford a branded drug for his wife. His wife called her doctor who prescribed a generic drug instead for which he is now paying cash. Multiply this scenario a few million times across America and you will see the impact on pharma companies, including Otsuka. It will hurt Otsuka financially, and with companies contacting Drs electronically now, our providers will be inundated and irritated by spam. When we get back out in the field, don’t expect to be welcomed with open arms....Fortunately, our valued managers, directors and execs at the home office are shielded from the repercussions of the idiotic directives they are forcing on us.

 

There might even be layoffs. Given the current state in the life cycle our products are in, we really don't need all those reps. Just look at the boards from other companies...everybody talks about the possibility of layoffs as more and more companies can't or won't pay exorbitant salaries to reps sitting at home doing busy work!
In the meantime, the number of cases across America is literally exploding faster than anywhere else in the world...we have surpassed Italy a few days ago, and some governors are considering closing their State borders to travel. The last thing the world needs right now is a drug rep going from office to office. This will take months to clear up. And like the individual on another post said: Some offices will never open to reps again...why should they?

 

I'm supposed to start a new job with another company in 3 weeks. ( decided pre-covid) Getting cold feet. How is anyone supposed to predict what's going to happen next? If they lay me off at the new company, theres isn't any severance! At least here, there's some serverance.. What do I do? But do we need two in a sleeve here?

 

unemployment benefits are almost equivalent to 70,000 gross pay with the stimulus package, I say go where you feel you can perform the best.

 

We never needed two blue and two red reps per territory. If our morons at the top haven't figured that out yet, they will very soon! I think it all depends on what the other company wants you to sell. Also, keep in mind, you may get a severance here, but you will join thousands of laid off reps competing for another bagel boy job! I would ask more questions of your future employer in order to make your decision. Don't burn any bridges either way yet! Just my two cents.

 

When we return to our regular work, we will find out very quickly that most providers will be legitimately busy for months, as they have to deal with a huge patient backlog. I expect to have less than 2-3 “honest calls” per week. This would be down from about 5-8 honest calls per week; an honest call defined as a 10-15 second regurgitation of rehash and or a stupid probing question. Don’t be surprised if your providers will be reevaluating their rep policy, focus for them will be on “productivity”, meaning time spent with patients, to make up for lost revenue. It sure will be interesting when we work with our DMs and see zero to one providers a day during field contacts, but report 6-9 calls when we are by ourselves. All the lying we do becomes a little bit more obvious now...

I am working part time for an Amazon DSP (Delivery Service Provider) Saturday and Sunday, delivering packages. It’s fun, pays $19.50 an hour, Amazon gave us a $2 raise until the end of April, and I have to say there is some job satisfaction delivering between 220 to 260 packages and envelopes per day, but it’s a push to get it done within 10 hours. We have a GPS in our vans, so the station manager at shipping facility knows at any given moment where we are and whether or not we are behind or ahead of schedule. I actually delivered a box to one of my providers, we ran into each other as she brought the garbage out. Of course she was surprised to see me, I told her not to say anything when I visit her office with my DM...I know it’s against company policy, but so what? Otsuka has no right to tell me what to do on the weekends...2 times during the week I also drive for Amazon Flex, it’s a flat rate ($25/hr) for 3-4 hours in the evenings and I use the company car for deliveries. There is a huge demand for drivers now, because nobody wants to go shopping. It’s physically demanding, boxes can weigh up to 50 pounds and need to be carried anywhere the customer wants them. It can get challenging when it’s a 3 story apartment building and the customer ordered 3 or 4 boxes of heavy cat litter and he expects them to be carried to the front door...I have lost 8 pounds so far, got bitten by a dog once, and fell twice on a drive way because I was carrying several packages at once. The only bad part of the job is the lack of washrooms wherever I am at. Restaurants and offices are closed, and I have reduced the intake of solid food because of it. We get two ten minute breaks and a half hour for lunch, which I never take, because the delivery pressure is so high that I would fall behind, if I were to take lunch or a break...Nevertheless, everybody appreciates me, which I can’t say as a drug rep!!

 

It’s not against policy to moonlight and as long as you record personal miles for your delivery, you’re not in violation with fleet either. Both jobs are outside of working hours.
Your job should not define you in that you’re gaining more satisfaction delivering packages than delivering Panera Bread and marketing material,
Doing the math, you gross $2400 per month. Even a full time version of this gig would not equal Otsuka’s pay but as long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters. An extra $30,000 per year never hurts.