The vast majority of hospital/cvas reps can't sell this drug because they lack passion, commitment,, and tenacity. The Medicine Co. reps suck too. The nurse group is too pathetic to even comment on. AZ either needs to give up on Brilinta, or fire reps left and right, and start over again. Then management from the top down, and I mean the very top, all need to go. From what I've heard about the diabetes group, one would be hard pressed to vote which group is the most incompetent !
IC's will NEVER, NEVER accept Brilinta. Period. There is NO PRESSING MEDICAL NEED for Brilinta. There are way too many people involved with this drug. Now, we have the Nurse Brigade trying to be sales people! Just look at the psycho Nurse DM (former AZ DM!) in FL trying to mold his little bitches into a hospital sales force!
AZ, it's time to close the door on this fiasco. Cut your losses and pull it off the market.
With all the selling teams aimed at Brilinta I would think the company is looking at "prospective costs", changing action and putting more resources into Brilinta with the hopes of success down the road.
In economics a "sunk cost" is a retrospective (past) cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered.
The "sunk cost trap" occurs when leaders continue to follow the same path because they have already heavily invested in a product despite changes in the environment. Instead of cutting losses and making the decision that would give the best outcome going forward, they continue to plow ahead with the same strategies. Changing direction can also be seen as an admission of failure to management, or even signal failure to shareholders. Tricky situation really.
I don't know enough to say whether Brilinta has fallen into the category of a sunk cost trap yet. Time and revenues will tell.
You cannot "fake" it with an IPad. That little electronic device is tracking you everywhere and while, your manager does not get a report, I was told by higher ups that HR certainly does and looks at them. I get sitting in the lot, going through the screens like I'm making a call and then recording it. I hate doing it but with four of us, it is such overkill out there that no doc, office or dept needs to see us twice to three times a week. I actually had to take AZ off of my resume in order to get any hits. That ought to tell you what others think of this shithole.
There's a voice recorder in the thing. If you fake calls, be sure you don't make any noise at all or have the car radio on. The conclusion will be that you had your hand on the mic, or it was broken and that's why the call didn't record, or something.
But if you make a bonafide call and it records, you're suspicious. And if every time your manager is there the calls record, you're hosed.
They are watching and they are listening. The only way to stay safe is to do the work, mindless and robotic as it is.
Let's face it. The reps were not the problem. Dave was a nice guy who did not push anybody nor did he ever get his RSDs to collaborate and share what was happening as they all tried to figure this thing out. DSMs and reps were all pitted AGAINST each other the same as all other AZ sales forces. Force rank and get rid of the weaklings right away even if they are the best reps calling on Penn and Stanford and Johns H and you know the drill.
They got rid of most anybody who knew how to sell hospitals and only recently have they sought these folks out to counteract the troponin positive brand idiots. May god have mercy on us all.
Many I know open a call and start navigating through the detail screens in the waiting room, go back to the sample screen, get the quick signature from the doc who wasn't going to give time anyhoo, go back to the waiting room and close the call. Walla, appropriate screens are touched and recorded. Mischief managed.
One of the funniest things I've observed is reps talking to a doc during a lunch while perfunctorily touching the screens... with the screen facing themselves!
You are spot on. Everyone on my team did this exact same thing. I couldn't live with myself and wanted to do something meaningful with my life instead of this mind numbing job. It was very hard to give up all the $$ and bennies, but I am so much happier now and so glad I did.
Of course Dave was passive aggressive because MT is passive aggressive and he surrounds himself with clones. MT talks and acts tough but never confronts those he dislikes head on so they can possibly improve their performance according to his standards. Instead he uses his band of merry followers to attack without warning and take them out at his whim.Dave was not a 'nice' guy. He was a passive aggressive friend of MT, who unfortunately knew nothing of hospitals and nothing of leadership. He reacted to every period MT had. Your description of what you believe he was not good at, was exactly his job.
AZ got the launch they planned for. The sales milestones were hit. Formularies etc But the rxs weren't there, because the ignored the fundamentals. The totally ignored protocols. They ignored advice from those who had hospital experience. Then they put Dave in, because they thought it was a slam dunk. The CBL - EC - thought she knew more about hospitals than the NSD - because when she was a DSM in Canada she and her Hosp DSM worked together on Crestor.
A total cluster that was inevitable from the moment they started planning. Not the sales rep's fault in the slightest. This was planned to fail.
It is likely that AZ is holding out for positive outcomes from the long term clinical trial Parthenon which includes Euclid for PAD. Estimated enrollment is 11500 at 649 locations. Massive. Estimated primary completion date is October 2015 (final data collection date). The data is still a long ways out. Until that time AZ is all in.
