He broke the “doctor’s offices are buckets of money” story, with repercussions this afternoon within AstraZeneca.
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Another reason that I don’t talk to pharma sales reps. They in reality, as does every predator toward prey, regard us with absolute contempt.
I have been a rep for 10 years so I know there is no place for compassion. The favorite saying at Pfizer is “if you want to do good join the peace corp”. I hope no one mistakes phama managers as the conduits for good. I started out thinking we were all about doing the right thing and was quickly disabused of that notion. I think the AZ fiasco is just the tip, people with diseases are cash machines make no mistake about it.
Gee. Sales 101. The same is true of EVERY sales position in any industry. Ever wonder how a counselor for a cosmetic surgeon or dentist must see every client? Make the sale, make money. The easy job is the one where you have the best product. It sells itself and you get the commission anyway.
Don’t think the pharmacy benefits managers are any different. Doctors are inundated with calls to switch patients to the preferred medicine without any clinical knowledge of the patient based on the deal the PBM has cut with the drug company. If a patient wants to do switch in my practice, they must make an appointment where they wil be given a sample, then make another appointment to assess the efficacy and tolerability of the new drug. Net cost: two doctor’s visits. I do not switch over the phone, this is why these medications are by prescription only.
I think any of this is news, or new, except to the naive.
Doctors who automatically switches patients over the phone over insurance issues are, at best, fools.
Nobody seems to notice what else Zube said:
“I heard early in the year at the Miami Breast Conference what letrozole as doing with their strategy. We should have changed our strategy with our core messages earlier in regards to selling against letrozole”.
However:
1) Anastrozole prescribing information has no mention of letrozole.
http://www.astrazeneca-us.com/pi/arimidex.pdf
2) Anastrozole core messages are against tamoxifen, not letrozole.
3) There are no approved selling pieces against letrozole.
4) Any comparisons to a competitor is against company policy without approved material and training.
5) Any oral statements made by AZ reps that minimize anastrozole side effects, ie cardiovascular death rates compared to letrozole, would be considered “misbranding” and put AZ at risk.
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