• Thurs news: Novartis not joining weight loss race. Pharma marketing and climate change. Roche flu treatment trial. Cercle’s fund raise for women’s health. ICER looks at GSK COPD drugs. See more on our front page

CV Team Grabbing Ankles as we bend over to carry more water

Anonymous

Guest
Time to vent. Janssen CV Team continues to get screwed! We launch a non inferior drug to market leadership while Inst. makes tons of $$$$ on hospital stocking of which they really did nothing but show up at the end of the 1/4 and get paid. Two years later with Xa DDD sluggish, now it is time for CV to bend over, grab ankles and pick up the DDD bucket to deliver the business. Realize WE are one team ahead of Factory Forecast however which segment is driving that....does not even matter. The CV Sales Leaders that have put up the volume and paid the bills are now shaken down the rank report to play the old MKT Share game. Hey you folks that produce 100 Trx's a week mean very little and those that put out 20 and turn it to 40 are the true leaders, YEA RIGHT! But it gets better, now Inst. has picked up our CV Retail targets, really? Inst. does not want to do that work. They do not care about retail as it is well below them on top of that they have no Manged Care expertise...hell most have to be told to call on Case Mangers at the hospital and the Case Mangers still call the CV Reps when they need something. Who got all the BAA's signed, who got the BIF's rolling in the office, CV. Corporate knows these tactics drive business, so the folks that paved the way are dinged on Vol. going to Mkt. Share and now we split the business we created with the parasites know as Chris Stump's incompetent hedge-men.
SO CV gets more IC responsibility with DDD and will pick up Invokana in 2014. SO CV will cover the same territory of 2 Inst. Reps, 6 Apix. Reps and 6 Dabi Reps. CV has no samples, no pt education, very few of the MC cards. On top of that RBD's are allowed to work two jobs. Your people are dying on the vine for resources to keep the ball rolling while we get spread thinner than a crepe. DM's are covering huge territories and mostly doing the right thing while RBD's are watching game film and delegating responsibilities they should own to their stepping stones.
In the end all great stuff. The more they give CV, the more of an opportunity we have to shine! You don't hearing CV Mangers begging to ride with Inst. Reps but the Inst. Managers continue to ride with CV, wonder why. Its is surprising how Apix. has not kicked our ass yet because most of my CV folks are not motivated, waiting for changes and tired of the lip service from above. Leaderships continued quarterly changes at the expense of CV is a JOKE..in fact this entire place is a Joke!
 

<



I could not agree more. Also how does a company force rank a team that has done nothing but produce. Force ranking is a downsizing tool at best. We are at the beginning of the life cycle.

Cardiologist do not treat diabetes because there is no money in it for them.

Very sick of watching others take credit for my work. Unless of course there could be a paradaxa or apixiban intrusion then of course it is the Cardio reps issue...

Parasite is an accurate description.

Perhaps you guys would like to see us with a BMS or Pfizer badge?

What happens when a QD edoxaban is approved for Afib. Dosing without food.

Be very careful Janssen on how you treat us in these upcoming calibrations.
 




Someone didn't do their basic grade school homework. Can anyone please list a diabetes drug and/or company who has successfully introduced a diabetes drug into the cardiology space and done well? Plenty have tried and FAILED MISERABLY. You cannot motivate a Card to treat diabetes. THEY DON'T WANT TO AND THEY DON'T NEED TO! Invokana will not even grow 1.5% in the CV space. You will see. But someone in the home office championed the idea and everyone slapped him/her on the back about what a great idea this will be. What a genius s/he is. lol.
 




You are right about Invokanna and Cardiology. Home off let us know when you have that successful cardio launch data of a cardio drug. It doesn't exist.... Ask any Novo Nordics rep...
 




I'm a "lowly" retail rep. My territory is high volume, but more specifically high volume in the DVT/PE indication. 90% of my scripts are from this indication. Eliquis is already making inroads especially since the #1 cardiologist signed on to be a speaker with Eliquis

With that being said, no disrespect to the CV team, but why is Home Office having our CV reps sell Invokana when after 2 years we don't even have a dominant grasp on the NVAF indication?

Let Institutional do what they do, CV do what they do and let retail reps sell to ENDOs because lets be honest there was a MAJOR blunder letting Lifescan launch the drug to doctors they don't even know (they actually sell to staff not the doctors before the Invokana launch)
 




You are right that this place is a joke! Institutional reps can't even be institutional reps anymore because they are denied access in their hospitals. They're still supposed to report daily calls though so they have to make them up. These reps are supposed to collaborate with CV too but can't get into offices because they have no samples. They're still supposed to report daily calls though so again they have to make most of them up. They're supposed to get Invokana into their hospitals but this isn't even a hospital drug. Management doesn't want to accept this as fact so they believe increasing pressure on reps will somehow magically make this drug appear on hospital formularies. It makes no sense for CV reps to be selling it too but somehow management thinks multiple reps calling on the same doctors with the same drugs creates more sales. Nothing can be further from the truth, especially in the marketplace that exists now. With so many reps doing the same thing and with the same result the docs are sick of us and closing down access in offices. Why doesn't management fix this mess? We have a lot of good reps who are fed up and just going through the motions to keep their jobs until the end of the year. Too bad because this is a good company with good products.
 








CV training on the SGLT-2 is not about selling to cardiolgy, people. It's about salesforce restructuring.

That rant about leadership? Got that one right...
You hit the nail right on the head!

It isn't about CV selling Invokana to cardiology, it is all about retail, CV, and institution all having the same portfolio. Makes the restructuring easier. One team. That is the future, with a lot less people.
 




I'm a "lowly" retail rep. My territory is high volume, but more specifically high volume in the DVT/PE indication. 90% of my scripts are from this indication. Eliquis is already making inroads especially since the #1 cardiologist signed on to be a speaker with Eliquis

With that being said, no disrespect to the CV team, but why is Home Office having our CV reps sell Invokana when after 2 years we don't even have a dominant grasp on the NVAF indication?

Let Institutional do what they do, CV do what they do and let retail reps sell to ENDOs because lets be honest there was a MAJOR blunder letting Lifescan launch the drug to doctors they don't even know (they actually sell to staff not the doctors before the Invokana launch)

Maybe because Retail has generated ZERO demand for INVOKANA, and all of your DVT/PE volume is the refill coming out of the hospital from the Institutional team. CV can probably sell more INVOKANA to Cardiology than you can to the entire PC universe.
 




Dudes! My Remicade sales paid for your kid's braces and college tuition. My sales in GI helped pay for your mortgage. So stop your complaining and whining. JBI carries you, dudes, and don't you forget it.
 




wow.......such venom. Unlike you, no-one on CV is trying to suggest that tenured Janssen reps (Institution and Retail) have not played a role in the company's success. Our frustration is primarily with Leadership, NOT Institution and Retail. They have have their own frustrations, and I'm sure legitimate ones. The OP started with "Time to Vent", that's what they were doing, so take your venom elsewhere and stop trying to pit us against each other. The dysfunction that has occurred between our teams has been a result of Leadership providing poor direction or no direction. The only positive thing that occurred with Surge, is that now that we are more appropriately focused on the same goal, collaboration has improved. Leadership is delusional. Stop showing us how ahead of forecast we are, even an adjusted forecast when its not translating to our IC. The Brand is busy playing musical chairs with all the promotions that have occurred since the launch of Xarelto. How many Field Sales promotions have occurred?? Oh and now we're supposed to be happy when they announce that "they have heard us" and are increasing samples, speaker funds, and field funds. It's October, why not wait a little longer??? Leadership.......any interest in being proactive rather than reactive. Please tell us, are you in this to win it??? The only Harvard Business Review article that will be written about Xarelto, is how Janssen took a huge opportunity and blew it!!!!
 




There are too many reps period, too many district managers with too small of a district on the retail side at least. The LifeScan people did/do not know what they are/were doing with endos with Invokana and the cv reps will proabably take that lead in January. The retail divison continues to be dumped upon and worked to the bone. Xarelto is driven by cardiologists, and the internists, etc. who get a Xarelto patient/s from a cardiologist will continue that script and not deter from the cardiologist. Many long-standing relationships were severed in this moronic launch and more will be in the future. Too many hands in the pudding. No one wants to acknowledge access is impossible yet they want more programs, teleconferences, speaker directs, etc. These people are in "big fantasy land" not to mention everything is "outsourced" to a total disaster. Long live Pharma!!!
 




There are too many reps period, too many district managers with too small of a district on the retail side at least. The LifeScan people did/do not know what they are/were doing with endos with Invokana and the cv reps will proabably take that lead in January. The retail divison continues to be dumped upon and worked to the bone. Xarelto is driven by cardiologists, and the internists, etc. who get a Xarelto patient/s from a cardiologist will continue that script and not deter from the cardiologist. Many long-standing relationships were severed in this moronic launch and more will be in the future. Too many hands in the pudding. No one wants to acknowledge access is impossible yet they want more programs, teleconferences, speaker directs, etc. These people are in "big fantasy land" not to mention everything is "outsourced" to a total disaster. Long live Pharma!!!

...and don't forget how many SGLT-2 webinars we all "schedule" and Marketing believes are essential to the business. BS!
 




You hit the nail right on the head!

It isn't about CV selling Invokana to cardiology, it is all about retail, CV, and institution all having the same portfolio. Makes the restructuring easier. One team. That is the future, with a lot less people.

I didn't think that "one team" was for retail too. I think it's just CV and Institution.

And it's "fewer" not "less" people in January. Keep it straight.

You will still need to count your 8 sample drops per day in retail for Invokana come January
 




To the OP. wow what a self important whiner you are.
I'm institutional. The one that carries the whole molecule. All indications plus Invokana.
CV carries... AFib. That's it. That's all they've ever had.
And it took them well over a year after AFib to get any traction.
So before you tell the rest of Janssen just how hard it is being you and how difficult your burden to save the company. Please remember Retail and Institution. Carrying and selling the whole portfolio. Not just a slice of the pie.
Now be thankful we didn't cut that sorry division when ACS didn't get approved the first time and start working
 




I am a former quintiles rep for retail who was kicked to the curb last December. Are they keeping the current Q reps, rolling them over, or is the retail contract ending in December? Just rolled over my 401K from Quintiles and had to forfeit the match because I wasn't there two years! Still don't understand how they made the decisions whom to let go and whom to keep. My numbers were great. Oh well....my new job is ok but I was really enjoying selling Xarelto. Best wishes to you all.
 








Think about it for a second- CV is leaderless (JW is now with Invokana), training on DVT and Invokana. That adds up to CV & Institution merging together reporting to Stump. They'll call on cardiology and DDD accounts just as Institution does now. Potentially the DCF crew will disappear and the newly formed team MAY pick up endocrinology in the process keeping "specialty" separate from Retail.

Ultimately there are no "better" reps simply because they're in one sales force or another. There are good and bad reps in every part of a company.
 




To the OP. wow what a self important whiner you are.
I'm institutional. The one that carries the whole molecule. All indications plus Invokana.
CV carries... AFib. That's it. That's all they've ever had.
And it took them well over a year after AFib to get any traction.
So before you tell the rest of Janssen just how hard it is being you and how difficult your burden to save the company. Please remember Retail and Institution. Carrying and selling the whole portfolio. Not just a slice of the pie.
Now be thankful we didn't cut that sorry division when ACS didn't get approved the first time and start working

Why would CV put so much energy into an indication that cards treat MAYBE 10% of the time? Of course we drove Afib, that's where the bulk of the lions share is. Institution continues to expect CV and Retail to do everything for them. Are you people capable of doing anything except hanging out in pharmacy departments?