• Thurs news: Lilly’s weight-loss drug prevents diabetes. Merck pays $588M for bispecific. Amgen speaks out about bone density issues with obesity drug. PTC gets gene therapy approval. JNJ’s 340B legal fight. See more on our front page

Fanapt Falls Flat! Link from the Street.com

Quote




Seems like in quite a few territories, the senior & better rep was let go. I know in my area, a real flaky and unstable rep stayed and the strong rep with experience and relationships left. Numbers are suffering after they let good people go - also in the Neuro force. It may be good fortune to be gone in the first wave of layoffs - so you guys can scoop up the jobs before the others.
 




Anonymous said:
Seems like in quite a few territories, the senior & better rep was let go. I know in my area, a real flaky and unstable rep stayed and the strong rep with experience and relationships left. Numbers are suffering after they let good people go - also in the Neuro force. It may be good fortune to be gone in the first wave of layoffs - so you guys can scoop up the jobs before the others.
Click to expand...

I think you make a very good point. I was laid off from Novartis just like some of the others in this thread but I was recently offered a new job. Yes, it is still big pharma, but it gives me a fresh start with a stronger portfolio of products. I was sad to not be retained, but when I look back at what I would be selling had I stayed (Fanapt, Exelon Patch, Stalevo, Comtan) I can't honestly say I would have been confident about the future.
 




Anonymous said:
Some of the Fanapt clinical investigators were based in St. Louis. They also became speakers for Fanapt. I know that some of those reps in the St. Louis metro area made some insane bonuses! Rumors I heard were 50K to 60K for the year.........maybe more?

Of course, there was quite a bit of off label prescribing going on as well.

I also agree with the other person who was talking about the validation process. It was a severe headache in my territory as well. I am still missing key physicians that I cannot call on.
Click to expand...

One of the reps was taken off the Fanapt sales force in the St. Louis territory due to off label prescribing.
 




What about the managers who new these type of promotions were going on? Or insisted reps keep calling with high frequency on physicians who all new have only 2 or 3 patients with schz in their entire practice. Isn't this off label promotion in some manner? This is the dirty little secret, you can't talk to this person or that but you must be making calls to these docs who essentially will only use off-label. All with the blessing and mandate of management.
 
















Anonymous said:
Same thing happened here in Texas. We had psychs in state hospitals that were board certified child psychs. However, they had taken jobs in state hospitals because of the shortage of general psychs or for whatever reason. The point is, they were treating adult patients in state hospitals 98% of the time. But because the primary board was child, we could not get them validated as customers. Now, you may say, well, you are getting the DDD business. True, but again, some of these sames psychs also worked the outpatient MHMR clinics treating adult patients. So we lost those scripts as well! The NP's and PA's were another major disaster from a validation standpoint, but that has already been noted.

A royal screw up by marketing, Novartis lawyers, etc. Let us call on the correct physicians, the NP's, the PA's, anyone who treats adult schizo ages 18-64. Defend us in court if you have to, but if we are ethically trying to do the right thing, can't your high priced lawyers defend us and win? If you don't think we can win, then why have the high priced lawyers?

Not to worry anymore. I was one of the highest ranked Fanapt reps in the nation. I worked my butt off and was passionate about Fanapt every day! I made a ton of bonus dollars even with the crappy validation system in place. I probably deserved even more bonus when you consider all the scripts I generated that never got tracked because of the validation system. So guess how Novartis rewarded me for all my hard work? I was laid off with 1399 other people.

Don't worry, there is a happy ending! (No giggles!) On Feb. 26 I will get my $40,000 dollar severance package! Plus, I already have a new job lined up! The company that hired me interviewed some of the psychs that I had called on and then decided to pay me an even higher base salary than I was making at Novartis! To top it off, the new territory I will be working is geographically smaller than my old Novartis territory!

Honestly, I am not bitter towards Novartis. I enjoyed working for Novartis, I liked my manager, and I liked my district members, plus I am making out like a bandit anyway. I just think it is so sad that companies don't do the RIGHT THING anymore to support their employees who are really trying.

I should have never been laid off in a million years. But I was. And I am sure an outside consulting firm, a computer, and a lawyer made that decision. But Novartis, YOU let it happen.
Click to expand...

You are so correct. Congratulations
 




















Anonymous said:
Same thing happened here in Texas. We had psychs in state hospitals that were board certified child psychs. However, they had taken jobs in state hospitals because of the shortage of general psychs or for whatever reason. The point is, they were treating adult patients in state hospitals 98% of the time. But because the primary board was child, we could not get them validated as customers. Now, you may say, well, you are getting the DDD business. True, but again, some of these sames psychs also worked the outpatient MHMR clinics treating adult patients. So we lost those scripts as well! The NP's and PA's were another major disaster from a validation standpoint, but that has already been noted.

A royal screw up by marketing, Novartis lawyers, etc. Let us call on the correct physicians, the NP's, the PA's, anyone who treats adult schizo ages 18-64. Defend us in court if you have to, but if we are ethically trying to do the right thing, can't your high priced lawyers defend us and win? If you don't think we can win, then why have the high priced lawyers?

Not to worry anymore. I was one of the highest ranked Fanapt reps in the nation. I worked my butt off and was passionate about Fanapt every day! I made a ton of bonus dollars even with the crappy validation system in place. I probably deserved even more bonus when you consider all the scripts I generated that never got tracked because of the validation system. So guess how Novartis rewarded me for all my hard work? I was laid off with 1399 other people.

Don't worry, there is a happy ending! (No giggles!) On Feb. 26 I will get my $40,000 dollar severance package! Plus, I already have a new job lined up! The company that hired me interviewed some of the psychs that I had called on and then decided to pay me an even higher base salary than I was making at Novartis! To top it off, the new territory I will be working is geographically smaller than my old Novartis territory!

Honestly, I am not bitter towards Novartis. I enjoyed working for Novartis, I liked my manager, and I liked my district members, plus I am making out like a bandit anyway. I just think it is so sad that companies don't do the RIGHT THING anymore to support their employees who are really trying.

I should have never been laid off in a million years. But I was. And I am sure an outside consulting firm, a computer, and a lawyer made that decision. But Novartis, YOU let it happen.
Click to expand...

Congratulations on your new job and your fat severance package! Sometimes I wish I was in your shoes. It really sucks being on the Fanapt team right now.
 












Insider rumor I am hearing. Fanapt will be sold back to Vanda or another small pharma company. One name I have heard is Victory Pharma. The Novartis Fanapt sales force and marketing team will be eliminated by the end of 2011.

This drug has been a major disappointment to upper management. They really thought it would do at least $500 million per year at maturity and they hoped for even more. The current projections are nowhere close to that.
 








Anonymous said:
Insider rumor I am hearing. Fanapt will be sold back to Vanda or another small pharma company. One name I have heard is Victory Pharma. The Novartis Fanapt sales force and marketing team will be eliminated by the end of 2011.

This drug has been a major disappointment to upper management. They really thought it would do at least $500 million per year at maturity and they hoped for even more. The current projections are nowhere close to that.
Click to expand...

The Fanapt budget for this year is $68 million. Now you know why this drug is a massive flop!
 








Top Bottom
Back
Quote