How Did Astellas Go So Quickly From Rising Star to Irrelevant in Pharma?

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Anonymous

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This was once an up-and-coming company, but in the past few years we've completely lost our way. No new products, other than launching a few dogs, and other companies are making exciting deals for the future. With all the M & A activity going on, Astellas is never in the picture or even mentioned! We are on the outside looking in and no one at HQ seems to give a shit.
How did we get so far off-track? Sure we make money, but it is getting more difficult to sell products with 90%+ ms without going off-label and there is no hope for anything in our pipeline. Hope something changes soon or it's time to go!
 

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Where are you going to go? There is no need for pharma reps anymore. Generics, me-too drugs, access issues, managed care pricing, are all driving utilization. The people left standing will be oncology specialty reps and managed care people with existing and needed relationships.

The company is filled with good-ol-boys who take care of each other, bring in buddies who need work to pay the bills, and create job justification activities, while making big money and retirement incentives. I left this company and industry 18 months ago and couldn't be happier!! The adjustment created uncertainty, but taking your career into your own hands and handling the transition with an open mind was what is needed for you too!!

You must be totally bored with your job and stressed on the lack of productivity you offer your mind everyday?! You will either ride it out to the disaster it will be and make good money along the way, or have a vision, make a plan, and take your life and career back. It is all up to you!
 




Great points! All I do in the field is avoid management to stay alive and live pay-day to pay-day. Most of my customers don't even see Reps, so I focus on the staff and do as many programs as my mgr requires. I'm in place to win Summit Club this year, but feel guilty accepting the recognition. It's a sad situation.
 








This is the sad and grim reality of what happens when we get a bunch of bozo's from J&J and other big pharma companies that come in with their old dusty binders of bullshit and nonsense and eventually overtake the place with all of their outdated ideas and strategies. Anybody in the field sales divisions who doesn't have a resume out on the streets is fuckin crazy this place is doomed!!! Thanks Jim, Steve and the rest of the muppets!!
 




Marketing said Astagraf XL didn't even bring in $1.5 m in sales this past year...how fuckin pathetic is that! Worse than Sumavel DP!! Just a matter of time until a over paid consultant tells senior management to cut the sales force!
 




Anonymous said:
This was once an up-and-coming company, but in the past few years we've completely lost our way. No new products, other than launching a few dogs, and other companies are making exciting deals for the future. With all the M & A activity going on, Astellas is never in the picture or even mentioned! We are on the outside looking in and no one at HQ seems to give a shit.
How did we get so far off-track? Sure we make money, but it is getting more difficult to sell products with 90%+ ms without going off-label and there is no hope for anything in our pipeline. Hope something changes soon or it's time to go!
Click to expand...

Sabus
 








Anonymous said:
This was once an up-and-coming company, but in the past few years we've completely lost our way. No new products, other than launching a few dogs, and other companies are making exciting deals for the future. With all the M & A activity going on, Astellas is never in the picture or even mentioned! We are on the outside looking in and no one at HQ seems to give a shit.
How did we get so far off-track? Sure we make money, but it is getting more difficult to sell products with 90%+ ms without going off-label and there is no hope for anything in our pipeline. Hope something changes soon or it's time to go!
Click to expand...

The very LAST thing we want to do is merge with another company. You wanna talk about losing your way, look no further than Pfizer. GSK, Merck, Lilly, Novartis, J&J, Pfizer...you can have those lumbering bureaucracies where nothing gets done. If you're going to stay in pharma, I'll take a smaller company like Astellas all day compared to those bumbling dogs who can't get out of their own way and are run by consultants and lawyers. The real issue is pharma has changed. Managed care rules over docs their generics mandate, Obamacare will allow the government to crawl further up our industry's ass and lawyers are more important than R&D. All things considered, Astellas is doing fine.
 








Anonymous said:
The very LAST thing we want to do is merge with another company. You wanna talk about losing your way, look no further than Pfizer. GSK, Merck, Lilly, Novartis, J&J, Pfizer...you can have those lumbering bureaucracies where nothing gets done. If you're going to stay in pharma, I'll take a smaller company like Astellas all day compared to those bumbling dogs who can't get out of their own way and are run by consultants and lawyers. The real issue is pharma has changed. Managed care rules over docs their generics mandate, Obamacare will allow the government to crawl further up our industry's ass and lawyers are more important than R&D. All things considered, Astellas is doing fine.
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This is the exact attitude that makes this place SUCK! We aren't even close to those companies in products or revenue, so it's a ridiculous comparison. Yet we hire all their rejects...Pfizer, J & J, Sanofi, Abbott. How about Biogen Idec, Gilead, Celgene, Genetech, even Medivation...we aren't close to these up and coming companies either! They have a company strategy with positive future direction and we don't know where the hell we're going. But we do have the Guiding Coalition, maybe they'll save this sinking ship?
 












The demise started a few years ago when we realized there was no pipeline. Deals made on Vibativ and SDP showed our arrogance. Now strong employees are leaving for attractive growth opportunities and we backfill with big Pharma drones.
 




Actually the problems at Astellas run pretty deep and are driven by a culture of irresponsibility led by upper management. I was hired a few years ago for a home office position and I'm shocked on a daily basis on how this company operates. A tone of "make profit at any cost" is set at the top with no discipline or accountability to basic industry regulations and if you challenge the mob mentality, you're labeled as a "barrier". It's only a matter of time before this entire company runs off the rails. Only senior management will be surprised because the party will be over, everyone else can see the problems clearly.
 




Anonymous said:
Actually the problems at Astellas run pretty deep and are driven by a culture of irresponsibility led by upper management. I was hired a few years ago for a home office position and I'm shocked on a daily basis on how this company operates. A tone of "make profit at any cost" is set at the top with no discipline or accountability to basic industry regulations and if you challenge the mob mentality, you're labeled as a "barrier". It's only a matter of time before this entire company runs off the rails. Only senior management will be surprised because the party will be over, everyone else can see the problems clearly.
Click to expand...

Stop being such a barrier
 




HR and legal team are useless, the culture has been set by them to protect their roles which an not be justified. Very racist culture, it would be very easy for EEOC to take a hard look and see who is getting hired in Astellas and who is getting promoted and who holds a high level position. From the other hand that is a Japanese culture that has been implemented by North Shore folks from Chicago. Astellas get ready for a major lawsuit.
 












Anonymous said:
HR and legal team are useless, the culture has been set by them to protect their roles which an not be justified. Very racist culture, it would be very easy for EEOC to take a hard look and see who is getting hired in Astellas and who is getting promoted and who holds a high level position. From the other hand that is a Japanese culture that has been implemented by North Shore folks from Chicago. Astellas get ready for a major lawsuit.
Click to expand...

This is the one knock on APUS I'll never understand. Did you even read the "diversity" email we got last month? Were you there for racial sensitivity training in SF a few yrs ago? Have you spoken w/ some of our RSMs? APUS falls all over themselves to promote minority candidates but like everything else lately they can't even do that right. We have many talented people from all ethnic backgrounds and they manage to promote some of the worst possible choices.
 




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