Brovana Reps take on Aptiom Reps - The Good and the Bad

The ones I interact with SUCK! Completely unmotivated and defeated. THey suck the life right out of me when I speak with either one of them. Geeze, if they are that down on the drug how can they promote it. The are pissed about everything. The bucket thing. The lack of good data to promote the drug (I have to agree with them on that one!). They claim they were lied to about the product when they decided to come here from their other company (they both came from the same company). I think all they do is meet in the city and go shopping and have lunch. We need to either get some new Aptiom reps, fire the ones we do have or smack them down with some major accountability for sales demands. Letting it go on like this can't happen. What's with their RBM"s? Why aren't they cracking the whip on them?

 

I'd have to say that the Aptiom reps all seem to know their days are numbered. The PIP situation has done little to help. Most seem to be unmotivated and not even engaged. A lot are complaining. Is it just me or do they all seem to hate their RBM's? Extremely dysfunctional. No wonder Aptiom is doing so poorly. Couple that with Managed Care team that that could not care less about the product and BOOM! that's what is going on here. Where did they get these Aptiom reps from? A contract sales company?

 

I would not be so quicktojudge whwn you do not have all of the facts:

we were not told in inerviews that Aptiom was licensed to Sunovion and is not a Sunovion drug

we were not told that the difference between generic Trileptal and Aptiom is a meaningless 10%

we were not advised that there would be no contracting by managed markets and nomanaged markets support - good luck selling any drug under those circumstances

Inital marketing materials were terrible - none even referenced that Aptiom was a new drug, great way to launch a drug

Initial target lists included retired, moved and deceased physicians.

Numbers were terrible, mail order was not properly calculated and no ones numbers were accurate and RustyThomas was let go

Area Sales Director for East , nice guy, was terminated 2 months into launch

The bucket system took away any motivation that may have been left.

The analysis of metrics has been rediculous, calls per day, speaker programs, webcasts

Inexpreienced management who are unable to provide direction, many have not managed at all or during a launch

Aptiom is a bad, unnecessary product. Investiagtors from the clinical trials do not even write for this drug. Speakers for Aptiom do not prescribe.

Yes there are some bad reps. There are some in every salesforce. But,lets get the fact staright. You are arriving very late in the game.

 

So then, all the posters are correct that this drug will die before the end of the year?

 

only if DSP takes a look at the balance sheet. Paying 100k plus salaries for reps, honorariums for dinner programs, lunches every day, renting the Cowboys stadium for a national meeting for minimal scripts per week. Also flat growth for new scripts in many territories despite the fact that it has not even been 1 yr since launch.

The minmal benefits over generic trilpetal are exceeded by poor managed care. Physicians do not want to complete prior auths or do step edits. The cash price is approx 600. per month.

even if we start to contract physicians perceptions of cost and access are already set, nice work

Keppra, generic w tablets, IV and oral solution, Trileptal generic, Vimpat IV, tablets w better managed care and a 5 year head start and other generic options for physicians. If you were a physician would you prescribe Aptiom?

While the drug should not have been brought to market, mishandling the launch finished this drug. Then promoting Brad Sippy was the icing on the cake.

 

Someone put a blood pressure cuff on GMan in August and ask him how many prescriptions the Brovana team has generated. An act of pure desperation. Did anyone ask why no past or present company was ever successful wih primary care?

 

Mr G-Man does not need a blood pressure cuff! He is superman aka HERO!

 

And don't let his size fool you. He packs a mighty punch for someone his size. Much like "Mighty Mouse!" If you're too young to remember that superhero, ask your parents.

 

Here I come to save the day...

 

dumb, desperate move. consider the possibility of success if you took the Aptiom reps, whose experince is almost entirely CNS, and had them call on family practice physicians promoting Brovana. The customers that the Brovana reps will be calling on only refill the scripts written by neurologists. There are few scripts to start with and growth has been flat, NRXs are hard to come by.

Epileptologists not prescribing Aptiom= general neurologists not prescribing Aptiom = family practice physicians not prescribing

 

OR...Aptiom reps are just shitty at selling. Specialty Markets took a product expected to do $50 Million and are closing in on $200 Million. Try harder at life.

 

Yes. Yes. YES! If any of you have reached out to your Aptiom rep partners you know they are done. They've given up and have toxic attitudes. I don't think they are even trying anymore. Just faking calls and angry. I've been here for almost 7 years and can't believe they let these Aptiom reps get away with what they are getting away with. Our sales team would have weeded out all the slackers and PIP'd them or flat out fired them. I don't know how they can allow this to go on.

 

I can't blame the Aptiom reps. Yes. They have given up. Most are probably faking calls. Many are looking to leave or if they aren't they are just laying back and collecting the big base salaries they got for coming here. But you have to admit that it is a horrible product with really no managed care work being done on it. The account director in my area even let us on the Latuda side know that she will be doing nothing for Aptiom this year. We asked her if she was being pulled into a lot of Aptiom stuff and she said she has been directed to do no contracting and rarely if ever interacts with the Aptiom field sales team. I'm happy she can devote all her time to Latuda, but it seems to me the Aptiom people sure got a raw deal. When you get no support from your managed markets team and they have no problem letting you know that well then motivation can easily go down the tubes.

That's usually the first sign that there will be chopping to come in your sales force.

Good luck my Aptiom brothers and sisters.

 

Aptiom reps are shamelessly LAZY. The two I deal with don't even try to hide how little they work. I can't believe they still have jobs here.

 

You appear to be constipated. Good luck with that!

 

Very easy to insult the Aptiom reps. Try selling the drug for 30 days and check back.

The Aptiom reps were sold a pack of lies and not provided with most normal resources during the past year

The 2 people primarilly responsible for the launch of Aption, Fanale and Sippy have been promoted. So it is obviuos that Sunovion does not believe in results or accountability.

Managed care is horrendous. Very difficult in a situation where many competitive drugs are generic. Also a refusal to contract while competitors have contracted.

Aptiom is not a Sunovion product. It is licensed by Bial on a contract. No one in the interviews was advised of this.

By the way, the launch is not a total failure. Launch mode ended a long time ago. The drug is a failure and has a very, very limited market (in most cases less than 10% of neurologists wrote even 1 presctiption in the first year.

 

And that is why for all the reasons stated above we will not have jobs come fall. Think about it. My RBM doesn't even care anymore. On field days he shows up at 10 am to work with me and is gone as soon as lunch is over. It's hard for me to work hard when my manager has already given up. There is no way they can continue to pay us base salarys of 6 figures and gross only $45 million a year. Remember, we only keep a fraction of that gross as this is a liscensed product. Japan will soon know that this drug will never break even and we will all be out of jobs soon after that.

 

Brovanna mgrs will blow Aptiom mgrs out of the water. Much higher skill level and better qualified. Apt mgrs are more PCP skill set level.

 

Troll alert

 

You may have more credibilty if you knew how to spell Brovana and Aptiom