Firing the VP of Sales after two months and using him as a scapegoat for everything. We still don't have a NSD or a Sales Ops person. Reimbursement still sucks. Firing the Sales Ops person and never replacing them. Paying a third-party vendor that knows NOTHING about pharma sales continues to cause us problems. Management is to blame and not the third-party vendor because they do what the client wants. Forcing RSSs to use Opko Connect. There is STILL no transparency on how many scripts go into OC and die there. "HCP request" is always to blame for the closure. Where is the non-coverage column on the spreadsheet? Having someone (HF) who is "out of touch with reimbursement" in charge of reimbursement. Rayaldee is STILL not covered by Medicare (except in CA) even with the KDIGO guidelines. The Amgen days are long over. Hiring Dr. A for medical affairs. MSLs are leaving like a rats on a sinking ship. I am sure that NOT receiving a bonus had something to do with it too. Refusing to pay on PAP. Yes, OC is going to be busy in Q4. Why would reps care since there is no Foundation Support? Sending out a Survey that did not ask one question about OC / Reimbursement / Coverage / Bonus. The survey results did mention promotional opportunities. They hired 1 internal candidate for 2 openings. Lying about promotional opportunities. So much for hiring a Marketing Director and a Sales Ops Director. Maybe you should have asked Dr. Frost's permission before posting the jobs? Also, did you really think that an RSS / MSL would be qualified for these "promotional opportunities"? They gave away 1 RSM positon to a big pharma DM. Very insulting that the survey stated we wanted opportunities and they hired an external PCP DM. Inflated stock options. Thanks for nothing. Uncapped bonus. Only 2 RSSs have seen the "uncapped" part. WTF? "Grading curve" bonus. Bait-and-switch after the quarter closed and people STILL don't know how they got paid. Q4 (2016) and Q1 (2017) dinner programs tied to the RSS bonus and not having the budget to cover all the programs. The audacity of management blaming the RSS on low "physician" turnout. Who were the dumbasses that tied the RSS bonus to completing stupid programs? If you KNEW the market, you would know the Nephs don't do programs. Telling the sales force that there is no longer an "uncapped bonus" after you just hired 30 new RSSs. This gives the new hires time to keeping looking or going back to their old job. The Pioneer RSSs are more motivated than ever to find a new job since the "uncapped bonus is gone" plus the Q1 will be based on only NEW prescriptions. Telling the sales force the Q1 bonus is going to be based/paid on only NEW prescriptions. No pharma company only pays on new scripts. Who do you think encourages the MA to refile the new paperwork for the new year? Constantly making it harder to make money working for Opko. Management is to blame
Some leaked sheets, emails, etc would be great. Crush this company back to 2 or even 1. Be amazing for me.
Changing our medical benefits with only 1 month left in the year. Cancelling Domestic partner benefits and charging more for spouses to use Opko's Health insurance instead of their employer's insurance. WTF?? Cheap bastards.
After Dr Phil signed off on the benefits program for 2018, some said his heart grew 3 sizes that day. Now it's the size of a green pea. Did you know he recently changed the name above his locker room stall to read Ebeneezer, he takes great pride in that name because in Hebrew it's defined as the rock that helps, pea gravel is also known as small rocks.
Is it even legal to apply a surcharge if a spouse elects to not use their company health benefits? How could this ever be enforced? Opko does not have access to income tax records, how could the existence of a spouse’s health plan even be verified? And should we say thank you for allowing us to buy an Aflac policy?
Completely legal and almost all companies are doing it now. Last two of my companies and my wife’s company all have surcharges if you choose to use spouses insurance instead of your own.
My favorite is reimbursement. Does Harvey really think a $200 per month copayment use reasonable for Rayaldee? How dare he say we have 70% coverage. Coverage means that the patient can actually get the drug and still have money to pay for food.
My favorite is reimbursement. Does Harvey really think a $200 per month copayment use reasonable for Rayaldee? How dare he say we have 70% coverage. Coverage means that the patient can actually get the drug and still have money to pay for food.
Keeping the hub and all of their expenses instead of samples. WTF? TN's email didn't say anything about the fact the there is minimal reimbursement for Rayaldee. This is one reason that samples are important. Samples are a way to persuade patients to "try it before you buy it" and convince them that a $150.00 copay is better than a $20.00 bottle of nutritional Vitamin D. It helps a patient to offset the cost of their drug especially when there is no Foundation. How are you going to convince an office to do ALL the paperwork it requires to get a prescription filled when the company is too cheap to give the patient a sample? Obviously, the company doesn't believe in the drug. Why else would Frost cut out the samples (besides the fact that he has never run a branded pharmaceutical company)? Why should a physician spend time with the RSS (discussing the expensive Vitamin D drug) when there aren't any samples? Did TN look at the "Top 25" prescriber report and notice how many of these prescribers are "friends" of the company? Now that the company isn't doing speaker programs, how long do you think that will last? Did you really think a once-a-year "Advisory Board" at a Marriott is going to keep these KOLs on board? How fucking stupid are you? Oh wait, you came from the might Amgen and they didn't everything correct.
At least, we now have a decent Sales Ops Director (we all have a past history that is good or bad). MB has left the building so maybe OC will get better and do more than handle PAP (which the RSS don't get paid on). Maybe they will hire actual pharmacists to work there? The "capped bonus" is now up to $20K which is still low for a startup. Only 2 RSSs will make it so does it matter? The new Medicare reimbursement approvals are good news (finally). Although, the $300.00 copay is still an issue and Rayaldee is over priced. It is not a blockbuster Vitamin D drug. Reimbursement coverage is a huge hurdle for patients to get their prescription approved. A $300.00 per month copay will not help the prescription actually get filled which is ultimately the goal and affects the overall prescription numbers for the company. The company is down to 3 MSLs and no word on what their plan is or if they have a plan. Since the MSLs didn't get a bonus, who can blame them for leaving? JN's departure is devastating to the whole company. Her knowledge, contacts and Nephrology experience were vital to the company. SHE actually cared about everyone in the company. Do they really think they can spilt up her job and have the current management handle her tasks? They are already wearing 7 different hats and not being compensated for all the additional workload. THIS IS AN IDEAL PROMOTIONAL OPPORUTINITY that they are going to let pass them by. The sample fiasco was a nightmare and handled poorly. Still no word on when/if physicians will have samples for their patients. Samples are essential until reimbursement is seamless for the offices. Most patients will need Foundation support to pay their copay. The "spousal surcharge" is a bullshit fee for Dr.Frost and now most people in the company need a $1,200.000 raise in their yearly evaluation to offset the charge. Cheap company. How long will the new hires stay with the company when they realize that the bonuses are minimal after all of their hard work?
