Archimedes ?

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Anonymous said:
If only there were more jobs available, over half of us in the field would leave. No one expects this ship to be floating past June anyway.

Agree with all of the above about our fearless and greedy CEO, but also put a lot of blame on the idiots in Marketing. Mike "where'd I park my camel" Matin not only has a failing plan, but did more to demotivate our sales team at launch than should be possible. He has a real genius team as well - none of whom could ever get a marketing job at a real company. One of my long time customers attended speaker training right after launch as a favor. Matin-marketing and Dr.Raji from MLSs ran the show. He said it was the worst and most unprofessional program he had ever attended. He said Matin was rude and insulting, not to mention full of s&it. If not for our past relationship, he would ban Archimedes from his office. He wrote one script as a favor, but will not speak due to credibility concerns after meeting our leaders. There is very little insurance coverage, so nothing selling and not worth trying anymore except when my manager rides along. It's not so bad hanging out until the ship hits the bank and using my days to find another job. My wife uses my company car for car pools since I only need it on the days when my Manager comes to town. I go park in the hospital lots and grab some carryout meals to keep the expense report looking active, but this drug will not sell and not damaging my own credibility with my Doctors anymore.

If you have a job, please don't leave one to come here. If you don't have one, it beats nothing, but just know that it will only last for a couple of months. Writing on the wall - our VP of Sales left and not replacing her position.
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Sounds like what everyone did at Ilex and Enzon under Bucky's reign of terror. And look where it got all those people. All gone! Thanks for the update on Bucky the Pirate - the cancer of Pharma!
 












Anonymous said:
If only there were more jobs available, over half of us in the field would leave. No one expects this ship to be floating past June anyway.

Agree with all of the above about our fearless and greedy CEO, but also put a lot of blame on the idiots in Marketing. Mike "where'd I park my camel" Matin not only has a failing plan, but did more to demotivate our sales team at launch than should be possible. He has a real genius team as well - none of whom could ever get a marketing job at a real company. One of my long time customers attended speaker training right after launch as a favor. Matin-marketing and Dr.Raji from MLSs ran the show. He said it was the worst and most unprofessional program he had ever attended. He said Matin was rude and insulting, not to mention full of s&it. If not for our past relationship, he would ban Archimedes from his office. He wrote one script as a favor, but will not speak due to credibility concerns after meeting our leaders. There is very little insurance coverage, so nothing selling and not worth trying anymore except when my manager rides along. It's not so bad hanging out until the ship hits the bank and using my days to find another job. My wife uses my company car for car pools since I only need it on the days when my Manager comes to town. I go park in the hospital lots and grab some carryout meals to keep the expense report looking active, but this drug will not sell and not damaging my own credibility with my Doctors anymore.

If you have a job, please don't leave one to come here. If you don't have one, it beats nothing, but just know that it will only last for a couple of months. Writing on the wall - our VP of Sales left and not replacing her position.
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It's terrible that anyone should feel this way about their role, but sadly your prediction for Lazanda is correct, and this will ultimately force a sale of the business, or rather the few assets worth anything, principally the delivery system IP and a few legacy brands marketed in Europe.

You only have to look to ProStrakan for your fentanyl market potential, all the data necessary to guide a no-go decision for the US launch were there years ago. There was simply NO sensible rationale for a built (as opposed to out-licensed) US launch for this product, and the crazy thing is Warburg knew this from ProStrakan.

It's now a case of damage limitation for the investors, who remember in the case of Warburgs are managing other peoples money and will feel the pain of this. The Archimedes debacle is a credibility issue for them, and also very embarrasing for Novo as this was their first major investment, at least in their case they are burning cash from profits at Novo-Nordisk that the tax man would have otherwise, rather than private investors hard earned dollars. There's also the cash put in by the NJ economic development fund. They're going to be upset too.

As dire as the job market is, this is one collapse it really will not look good to be around, when it happens it will happen suddenly, there will be no notice periods or other cushions but plenty of casualties, most of whom do not deserve it. There has been so much mismanagement that you may even see lawsuits emerge, a lot of money has been spent with nothing to show for it, and someone has to be held to account for that.

For those of you (and there are evidently many) with an axe to grind with the CEO, this should be the last dance, you can't cross Ichan, Warburg P, Novo and NJ State funding and retain any professional credibility.
 






Indeed stay away. They are making everyone come into the home office for 2 days of Matin training. Shouldnt sales be runuing a training mtg?? Felt like I was back in primary care. Do this...do that...say this...don't say that. Very motivating. Not sure when the new competitor is coming to market, but shuld be soon and can't imagine what training will get rolled out if it does better than this no trick pony.
 






Anonymous said:
Indeed stay away. They are making everyone come into the home office for 2 days of Matin training. Shouldnt sales be runuing a training mtg?? Felt like I was back in primary care. Do this...do that...say this...don't say that. Very motivating. Not sure when the new competitor is coming to market, but shuld be soon and can't imagine what training will get rolled out if it does better than this no trick pony.[/

Mmmmm yes, sales management should be involved. Oh hang on, there is no sales management. Think we're running with a vacancy there. 2 days out of the field? Enjoy it, relax, eat the food, drink the drink. Our treat. Don't blame marketing, all they've done wrong is take a pay check for pushing a product they don't believe in, and have seen the market research confirming their position. As pharma marketers go they are about average... like the rest of you drones that are unhappy and know you are flogging a dead horse but do it anyway to pay the bills because you are trapped and think you have no choice.

Well done for keeping Bucky and his cleaner fish in their jobs. Rather than moaning, do something to change it.
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Anonymous said:
It's terrible that anyone should feel this way about their role, but sadly your prediction for Lazanda is correct, and this will ultimately force a sale of the business, or rather the few assets worth anything, principally the delivery system IP and a few legacy brands marketed in Europe.

You only have to look to ProStrakan for your fentanyl market potential, all the data necessary to guide a no-go decision for the US launch were there years ago. There was simply NO sensible rationale for a built (as opposed to out-licensed) US launch for this product, and the crazy thing is Warburg knew this from ProStrakan.

It's now a case of damage limitation for the investors, who remember in the case of Warburgs are managing other peoples money and will feel the pain of this. The Archimedes debacle is a credibility issue for them, and also very embarrasing for Novo as this was their first major investment, at least in their case they are burning cash from profits at Novo-Nordisk that the tax man would have otherwise, rather than private investors hard earned dollars. There's also the cash put in by the NJ economic development fund. They're going to be upset too.

As dire as the job market is, this is one collapse it really will not look good to be around, when it happens it will happen suddenly, there will be no notice periods or other cushions but plenty of casualties, most of whom do not deserve it. There has been so much mismanagement that you may even see lawsuits emerge, a lot of money has been spent with nothing to show for it, and someone has to be held to account for that.

For those of you (and there are evidently many) with an axe to grind with the CEO, this should be the last dance, you can't cross Ichan, Warburg P, Novo and NJ State funding and retain any professional credibility.
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?
 












This place is a mess. Matin is a condescending jerk. Thinks he has this great 'style' to him but he is just a very confused smoke screen of a marketing VP. Loser!
The rest of the management group does not know what they are doing either. They talk a big story but are so disconnected from the physician that they are losing at an epic rate. They overpay the management team and are bleeding cash. They say they now need to show physicians who to use the product on and why. REALLY? Do they think Doc's are absolute idiots? Exec team says doc's know the drug will work but just can't find the patients that need it. Need to educate the doc's and change their habits....blah, blah...
Isn't that what they hired the salesforce for? Isn't this what they hammered us on in our interviews? Are they really paying this much for reps that do not know how to change the 'habits' of conscientious physicians?
They have no clue how to REALLY sell but will tell you how anyway. Especially that Matin, what a pretentious TOOL!
Good luck all......unfortunately, you will not have much to put on resume as sales are not going to be something to brag about!!!!!!!!
BTW....Stacy Chump needs to get the stick out of her behind!!!!!
 












Anonymous said:
how's the strategy marketing to oncologists working out?
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An observation from across the pond is that it was an avoidably poor decision to build a US organisation for this brand. It's not capable of becoming big enough to sustain that kind of infrastructure. It would have made more sense to out-license to a company with reps already in the right offices as second detail alongside a long acting painkiller to cover all the bases.

At the moment the EU organisation is funding Archimedes' survival, US is an almighty loss leader with no evidence for this being likely to change. It's a ball and chain that unless cut free will drag down the whole business.

Someone needs to make the tough call here, out-license Lazanda in the US and pull back to the EU where there is growth, optimism, some talented leaders and other products to balance the portfolio. Over five years the business could then recover from this failed US launch, post some profits (remember them?) and perhaps even become an attractive acquisition target.
 






So it would appear that Novo needs to make a determination as to whether they are ready to admit to a bad investment. Not easy to admit defeat. Hopefully the Novo BOD has the fortitude to take a loss every now and then.

Regarding Matin, who knows, he may be next up on the chooping block?? Likely wishful thinking, but as with the lottery, it never hurts to dream!
 






Anonymous said:
An observation from across the pond is that it was an avoidably poor decision to build a US organisation for this brand. It's not capable of becoming big enough to sustain that kind of infrastructure. It would have made more sense to out-license to a company with reps already in the right offices as second detail alongside a long acting painkiller to cover all the bases.

At the moment the EU organisation is funding Archimedes' survival, US is an almighty loss leader with no evidence for this being likely to change. It's a ball and chain that unless cut free will drag down the whole business.

Someone needs to make the tough call here, out-license Lazanda in the US and pull back to the EU where there is growth, optimism, some talented leaders and other products to balance the portfolio. Over five years the business could then recover from this failed US launch, post some profits (remember them?) and perhaps even become an attractive acquisition target.
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Who would touch any IR fentanyl with the REMS it has? Not sure they would get many takers on an out-license deal. I wonder how the other IR fentanyls are doing.
 






Anonymous said:
So it would appear that Novo needs to make a determination as to whether they are ready to admit to a bad investment. Not easy to admit defeat. Hopefully the Novo BOD has the fortitude to take a loss every now and then.

Regarding Matin, who knows, he may be next up on the chooping block?? Likely wishful thinking, but as with the lottery, it never hurts to dream!
Click to expand...

That makes the assumption that he had the decision on strategy which would be surprising with a notorious autocrat at the helm. Never nice to see someone scapegoated.

I say decapitation is the best medicine here. New CEO, stick in a few seasoned non execs with one as chairman and strip out a few of the more subservient exec VPs whilst your at it. 'I was only following orders' is not acceptable in 2012. Excessive deference and 1980's business culture (and attire!) has a lot to do with the problems at Archimedes.
 






























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