Was Bob Thomas in Louisiana? I was a Lederle rep in Texas and I remember that name. What is he doing these days?
Lederle Labs: any reps from the Cyanamid days still around?
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Was Bob Thomas in Louisiana? I was a Lederle rep in Texas and I remember that name. What is he doing these days?
Yes in Baton Rouge area...he's been retired for at least 5 years. Bob would be a great manager in any area of medical sales. He was so could at looking at a situation,developing a plan,and devising the simplest strategy for success.
Bob would succeed in device,disposables,capital equipment,diagnostic,or any other space in the hospital environment
I have enjoyed this thread as I began my pharmaceutical career in 1984 with Lederle selling Minocin, Asendin, Loxitane, Aristocort, Cyclocort, Pipracil, our generic line, vitamins, and methotrexate. I left Lederle after 3 years and have spent the last 28 years with Merck. However, my fondest memories were with Lederle Laboratories. The products were not necessarily cutting edge but I thought the training and fellowship was unsurpassed. Merck had better products but the training, while good in that era, did not teach you how to sell as did Lederle's. If you sold you were a hero, if you didn't you were a goat. Easy to determine who got Gold Cup unlike today with awards given based on some nebulous attribute that only the DM or Region Manager determines. Thanks to Lederle and American Cyanamid for giving me the opportunity to participate in an industry that had a great run.
Jim McNamara, Woody Brown, Walter Barron, Anne Hendrix, Vasco Pickett, and many others.
Jim McNamara, Woody Brown, Walter Barron, Anne Hendrix, Vasco Pickett, and many others.
Just want to keep this thread going. I know not many old timers even look at these things, but it is kind of fun to see if some are still around. If you stay in contact with anyone, have them jump on tell what doing now.
I worked 29 years in northeast and currently living in Florida and Panama. Pretty nice retirement. The health benefit package from Wyeth / Pfizer was and is fantastic. We don't know how lucky we are.
I worked 29 years in northeast and currently living in Florida and Panama. Pretty nice retirement. The health benefit package from Wyeth / Pfizer was and is fantastic. We don't know how lucky we are.
Retired after 40 years in the industry. My first 15 were with Lederle. Great times. Every meeting was a party. Work hard, and play even harder. Completely customer focused, before the term existed. You really had an opportunity to sell. Great people. Jim Tobin was the best. Bill Currie could have been a Senator. Russ Twedt, Don Samuelson, Mel Wararck, Ernie Bickerstaff, Linda Broun, Jerry Roof, Jim McNamara were great people. There were a few clowns, like Sander Flaum, who should have been locked up long ago. I get a small pension from those 15 years, which helps. The last 21 years were with Immunex and Amgen. Immunex was incredible, you ran your own business. Immunex also provided me with the means to get in on the ground floor of something that turned out well. They also paid for my move out of California to the Southeast. Amgen was fun at the beginning, but has turned into a North Korean work camp. So when they offered me the package, I said yes.
I do think it is funny that Toys R Us is now operating out of the "Big House." It is not One Cyanamid Plaza anymore.
I do think it is funny that Toys R Us is now operating out of the "Big House." It is not One Cyanamid Plaza anymore.
I was true blue Wyeth-Women's Health Care Div specifically. All of my management were Lederle. I had mad respect for them and they were my intro to pharma. It was all about family (the district family), being an entrepreneur with your territory, being early (on time was late) and respect. Wyeth was the first and last company I was with (5 yrs) that actually trained reps at home office. After that I went through about 4-5 companies over my 15 yr career in pharma and only 2 week trainings, never a HO visit. Wyeth trained you for 2 yrs with stages of training that lasted 2-3 weeks at a time at HO. You felt engrained in the culture of the company and vested it in. We were given share options and stock in the company.
I figure many Lederle aren't on here bc face it, the internet is not their generation. They are on paper, writing letters, making phone calls…not on the net…and def. not on CafePharm.There somewhere building real relationships….
I was with Wyeth for 20 years in the pediatric division. We went thru several changes as far as product focus (some cross promotion with adult meds) but we basically concentrated on our core audience. We built our relationships from the ground up as we were mostly new reps (some reps came over in a reorganization in 1989 into the new pediatric division) and this paid off handsomely when we merged with Lederlee and became the "vaccine specialists" in the office. The pediatricians really appreciated us, we were free to sell back then, lots of reprints etc etc, not like today where big blue has basically tied the reps hands.
I went thru all the stages of training and availed myself of any opportunities to take additional courses in order to increase my knowledge base which absolutely helped me with "selling" in the office.
I agree with you totally, Wyeth and Lederlee gave us ownership of our products thru the great education opportunities, the excellent mentoring that our managers provided us and that helped us to succeed ( I am a three time president awards winner).
The stock options and stock incentives made me feel that I was in "partnership" with the company and every selling day of my career was approached by me as an opportunity to push our organization higher and to try to achieve more for it.
Wyeth was my only selling experience in pharma, but boy did it provide me with a great career!!
Good luck to those individuals starting out in pharma today, way way different.
It is a shame what they have done to this profession. And you wonder why the general public hates reps and doctors/hospitals close their accounts to industry and become no see.
This "stuff" was not around when I was in the industry. It has made a great profession into a joke. We talked science with the doctors and relied on them to consider our info and make choices for their patients. I can see that that's out the window now. Pharma reps today are a pale imitation of what was once a great job for many of us!
I remember once getting reprimanded by a DM for stating that I thought my job was to educate and he said my job was to sell. Sell with education was the way I approached the job with high level of professionalism. Then the industry began to unravel in the early 90s. Merck put two reps to cover the same area with cardiovascular rep and musculoskeletal rep then everybody started adding reps until territories where you may not see another rep for weeks were overrun and you were bumping into another one several times a day. I had to leave areas of my territory on occasion because there were so many on a given day. Companies also were not real picky, or perhaps they were, in hiring young attractive females with little knowledge and background in the business. All of these thing contributed to being "locked out" of offices. I once was proud to be a part of the industry but now when asked what I did before I retired I say something vague and move on. I never want to be referred to as "drug rep".
On the other hand I was able to retire before age 60 and enjoy the benefits provided by Pfizer. For that I am thankful.
On the other hand I was able to retire before age 60 and enjoy the benefits provided by Pfizer. For that I am thankful.
There was a Vaccine DM who said he loved to hire ex-cheerleaders and ex female athletes. He may have been in a minority but we had them too. That division in general was known for hiring a lot of females (attractive ones also). Not saying they were bad reps-just saying.... Once other companies started expanding and specializing we followed along like everyone else. One thing for sure-anyone reading this post I'm sure tells their kids/grandkids to steer clear of Pharma now. It's a shame but it's good advice!
There was DM that I trained as a territory rep who hired only girls that would sleep with him. That was toward the end when I was leaving, but it just shows how power, even at that lowly level, corrupts. I have no idea what happened to all those high flying executive wannabes.
Good to see some of the names I remember. Started with Lederle in 64 and retired in 94. Great company and wonderful people. Hard work and good people won me 5 or 6 Gold Cups. I'm still in touch with Clem Edmonds, Elmer Evans and Dave Jenkins, all wonderful people who helped me be successful along with a lot of other people. Too bad about what has happened to our profession but life moves on. I was lucky to have been in the industry at a good time. My best to everyone.
Dad died and is buried at fort Sam Houston military cemetery. Thanks to his many friends jaypotken@bellsouth.net
Sorry to learn of Frank Otken's passing. My condolences to his family. I worked for Lederle from 1988-1992 and was in the Ft. Worth District with him. He was a legend in Lubbock.
I have enjoyed reading the postings from former Lederle reps. Yes, those were the days! I, too, remember the MASH theme for the Rheumatrex launch / Pipracil re-launch. What a fun time--as was the Suprax launch in Orlando a few years later. Remember how some doctors were still unsure about qd dosing for an antibiotic? LOL!!
I have enjoyed reading the postings from former Lederle reps. Yes, those were the days! I, too, remember the MASH theme for the Rheumatrex launch / Pipracil re-launch. What a fun time--as was the Suprax launch in Orlando a few years later. Remember how some doctors were still unsure about qd dosing for an antibiotic? LOL!!
Old Lederle guy here. We aren't dead yet.
Those were the days. Got any of those pipermints laying around? Pseudomonas Ariginoso baby. Zosyn was the best.
I was a Lederle rep in Birmingham, but trained in New Orleans, where I was hired. I was with Lederle from 1965 -1968. My name is C. W. Lartigue and I can be reached at 504-885-2698. It was a great job with happy memories. I left to go into business for myself. I would welcome contact from any Lederle people I knew then. My email is cwliv@bellsouth.net.
First post on CP! First job was with Lederle in Okla City 1986. Those names on the first post really bring back memories- I met Brent Clarkson in Enid and Danny Marley in Lawton to ride along with and see what they thought of me...and Mark Smith, hiring manager- plus John Goodwin, Dwayne Schultz, Dwight McCoy, I have now been in pharma 32 years. I can’t believe the changes and all the layoffs. When I tell people we had 8-10 name brand drugs, immunizations, generics (antibiotic deals and BI-MONTHLY SPECIALS!) with direct sales and PINKS to file! Crazy! And Penny Lackey in Dallas taking our orders!! Now GSK 26 years. Hello to everyone!