Novartis Oncology is toxic

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Wow, looks like your cage got a little rattled, that happens when you get OLD and CRUSTY like yourself!! We can sell anything and win, unlike Zometa. Heard Prolia is kicking your butts already. All my offices don't even know who their Zometa rep is, but they know who their Prolia, Afinitor, and Sandostatin reps are. You haven't seen one script of Somatuline come out of oncology offices, and they have compendia!! Now that is results, can't say the same for Prolia, they are going to eat your lunch because all Onc 1's and 2's are old, crusty, lazy, and complainers. The old school of selling worked when you never had any competition, now look, you can't competitive sell in this environment, you keep saying its all about relationships, yeah right, only when you can take them out to dinner. Its an even playing field now and only the strong and competitive survive. Enjoy your relationships and your soft selling as Prolia chomps away at Zometa!! Old reps suck!!
 






Anonymous said:
Wow, looks like your cage got a little rattled, that happens when you get OLD and CRUSTY like yourself!! We can sell anything and win, unlike Zometa. Heard Prolia is kicking your butts already. All my offices don't even know who their Zometa rep is, but they know who their Prolia, Afinitor, and Sandostatin reps are. You haven't seen one script of Somatuline come out of oncology offices, and they have compendia!! Now that is results, can't say the same for Prolia, they are going to eat your lunch because all Onc 1's and 2's are old, crusty, lazy, and complainers. The old school of selling worked when you never had any competition, now look, you can't competitive sell in this environment, you keep saying its all about relationships, yeah right, only when you can take them out to dinner. Its an even playing field now and only the strong and competitive survive. Enjoy your relationships and your soft selling as Prolia chomps away at Zometa!! Old reps suck!!
Click to expand...

You remind me of the young bull that wants to run in and fuck one in a heard of cows vs the old bull that wants to walk in and fuck them all. You're too young to comprehend that concept. You'll last 5 years max with this company. I'm about to get my 5th weeks vacation and my 401k + pension is worth $1.5 million. Keep talking big shooter, I can take a package tomorrow and live on a golf course the rest of my life
 






With Femara highlighted as part of the reason for the cutbacks,
how long before the axe falls on Oncology?

Novartis axing 1,400 US sales jobs due to product changes
Marc Iskowitz
November 30 2010
Effective January 1, Novartis will reduce its US field force by 1,400 positions, the firm said, as it braces for patent expiries and shifts resources for product launches.

The layoffs, expected to cost about $85 million according to a company statement, will come in the General Medicines field force. The restructuring does not affect oncology or the Sandoz generics unit, spokesperson Julie Masow told MM&M.

Novartis said its business is changing due to pending patent expirations and pipeline products, new launches expected within primary care and growth within specialty care. The Swiss firm is losing Femara (cancer) in 2011, Diovan (hypertension) in 2012 and Gleevec (cancer) in 2015 to generics.

Recent launches have included Gilenya, the first oral disease-modifying drug for multiple sclerosis, which won approval in September and launched last month. Also this year, Sandoz released a difficult-to-copy version of antithrombotic Lovenox. Pipeline products are in various stages of development.

“[Novartis] has a robust pipeline and the future growth potential for our organization remains strong,” said Andy Wyss, head of Novartis Pharma North America and president of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. The changes “will enable us to focus our resources on key launch products and capture opportunities in both primary care and specialty medicines.”

Fellow Swiss pharma Roche recently detailed plans to cut 4,800 jobs, with another 1,500 positions being either transferred or outsourced to third parties.
 












Yes, it does look like oncologys turn is coming soon.
Of course, we have seen forced (or encouraged) retirements, vacant territories and questionable terminations. But that is only the beginning.
Stay tuned kids!
 












This thread has been quiet lately.

Is it because we are all running scared or is it the stress and meaningless busy work
that's being piled on.

How about those new ASCO guidelines for bone?

It's not just about bisphosphonates any more.
 












Its true, home office here, notice you haven't heard from the new Hem director? By June 30th you will have new managers, new products, new territories, new iPads. This is all good, you all will be upgraded and selling portfolio vs tripping all over yourselves out there. Looks like about 5 sales forces, down from 8. This is good and minimal displacement (less that 10 reps per region). You will all be fine if you are good, if not, there is a reason why you don't have a spot? This is what you asked for and we listened!! Good luck and the future is bright!!
 






Anonymous said:
This thread has been quiet lately.

Is it because we are all running scared or is it the stress and meaningless busy work
that's being piled on.

How about those new ASCO guidelines for bone?

It's not just about bisphosphonates any more.
Click to expand...

No it's more like most of us in the oncology division actually appreciate our jobs and are not a bunch of whinny bitches that just make shit up like so many others on this board.

Here's another reason I like working for this company. You'll notice this is an actual article from a 3rd party source.

http://www.fool.com/investing/international/2011/02/24/is-novartis-the-perfect-stock.aspx
 












Anonymous said:
Its true, home office here, notice you haven't heard from the new Hem director? By June 30th you will have new managers, new products, new territories, new iPads. This is all good, you all will be upgraded and selling portfolio vs tripping all over yourselves out there. Looks like about 5 sales forces, down from 8. This is good and minimal displacement (less that 10 reps per region). You will all be fine if you are good, if not, there is a reason why you don't have a spot? This is what you asked for and we listened!! Good luck and the future is bright!!
Click to expand...

Home office here...........what a joke just another Rep sitting around trying to figure out what will happen instead of doing their damn job ! There is no way if this is what was going to happen that it would be telegraphed this far in advance. Dont listen to this CRAP........
 






Anonymous said:
Home office here...........what a joke just another Rep sitting around trying to figure out what will happen instead of doing their damn job ! There is no way if this is what was going to happen that it would be telegraphed this far in advance. Dont listen to this CRAP........
Click to expand...

That's right! Bury your head in the sand and wait to find out......
 
























Anonymous said:
Its true, home office here, notice you haven't heard from the new Hem director? By June 30th you will have new managers, new products, new territories, new iPads. This is all good, you all will be upgraded and selling portfolio vs tripping all over yourselves out there. Looks like about 5 sales forces, down from 8. This is good and minimal displacement (less that 10 reps per region). You will all be fine if you are good, if not, there is a reason why you don't have a spot? This is what you asked for and we listened!! Good luck and the future is bright!!
Click to expand...

This poster seems to have had it about right. Maybe not all at once but some this summer/fall and the rest next year. We probably won't need as many FLM's so watch your six as they will be looking for your job!
 






yes, novartis oncology is toxic
bunch of miserable and lost followers...especially in 'leadership'
so sad that people live this way. afraid to speak up. working like dogs for not even a thank you. fear of being fired. stabbing each other in the back.

and many think this is the place to be at Novartis.

you'll be lucky if you get a package. find happiness somewhere else.
 






The unrest in Oncology is on the rise.
Notice the increased frequency of NOBU posts here on CP.
In addition morale in the field is VERY low.
Maybe we will start leaving on our own before he axe falls.
Of course, that is what Uncle NO wants!
 






Part of the problem here is the ruthless approach to Novartis Oncology drug pricing. Oncology patients feel as though they have little choice. Either die of their disease or be held hostage by the Big Pharma approach to pricing.

The article below better explains how the costs of therapy are determined.

In this, as with so many things, Novartis Oncology follows the herd as long as it results in more Swi$$ francs being sent to Basel!



Ending drug companies' addiction to price rises
Photo
Thu, May 12 2011

By Deena Beasley and Ben Hirschler

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Drug companies are dosing up on price increases to prop up stagnant sales, but will soon need to break that addiction as more medicines face generic competition.

Industry executives -- notably on the pharmacy management and specialty drugs side -- told the Reuters Health Summit this week that prices for some drugs have been sharply increased because manufacturers need to make up for a lack of new products and the loss of patent protection on older medicines.

"Prices were just shoved up every year to make more money and meet earnings, to be blunt," Shire (SHP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Angus Russell said.

He was referring to so-called mass market drugs used to treat common conditions like high blood pressure, rather than the specialty products for rare genetic diseases that are Shire's hallmark.

Payments for two-thirds of the 15 best-selling drugs in the United States rose by double-digit percentage rates last year, according to an analysis of medical claims data by Thomson Reuters MarketScan.

"The industry has been in volume decline for three years -- it's been propped up on price," said Tim van Biesen, head of Bain & Co's healthcare practice. "You have to ask how long that can continue."

He forecast that worldwide sales for the top 25 pharmaceutical companies will be flat for the next five years.

"This is the only industry in the world that has never had to go down the experience curve in cost," van Biesen said, pointing out that prices for electronics always drop as new technology comes on the market.

According to MarketScan, paid claims for Pfizer's (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Lipitor, which will go off patent in November, rose 11.4 percent last year, compared with 5 percent annually in the previous five years. Drugs with price rises in the mid-teens included: cholesterol drug Crestor made by AstraZeneca (AZN.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz); blood-clot preventer Plavix sold by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Sanofi (SASY.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz); and asthma treatment Singulair, from Merck & Co. (MRK.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz)

"As their branded drugs approach the patent cliff, there has always been the tendency to see increased pricing toward the end, just to get the last dollar out of every drug before they lose brand protection," said David Snow, chief executive officer at Medco Health Solutions (MHS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), one of the nation's largest managers of prescription drug benefits.

PREMIUM PRICES

When it comes to ground-breaking new medicines, premium pricing is still the order of the day. The trouble for companies like Pfizer, Merck and Sanofi is that they are not producing enough breakthrough treatments.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NOVN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) set an average annual U.S. price for Gilenya, the first oral treatment for multiple sclerosis, of $48,000 last October -- a hefty premium to the price charged for older medicines, which must be injected.

Novartis was able to justify that price, given the new drug's effectiveness and the fact that it frees patients from injections. But the premium pricing has since been followed by steep price rises for some of the older injectable products.

Drugmakers say the limited lifetime of their brand-name medicines -- they will eventually be supplanted by low-cost generics -- and high development costs mean they need to bring in as much revenue as possible before patents expire.

Medco's Snow said other costs, including the 10-year $80 billion excise tax that will be assessed on brand pharmaceutical companies under last year's U.S. healthcare reform law, are also taken into account.

"If you think for a second they are just going to take their bottom line, hand it over in taxes to the government and not consider it a cost of doing business, then people don't understand how business works," he said. "So it does not surprise me we've seen an acceleration in price increases to make up -- to pay for those taxes."

Drug companies typically offer hefty discounts and rebates to insurers and government payers, making list prices virtually useless as a tool for tracking drug sales.

"We really don't have good transparency on pricing in the United States market," said AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan, while noting that it is one of the few markets where companies can freely raise prices.

Bain's van Biesen said pharmaceutical companies -- barring a major innovation leap -- are facing several years of stagnant growth.

"We have observed some really high price increases being taken by other companies in the U.S. ... which I just find absolutely incredible," GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) CEO Andrew Witty said on a recent conference call.

"We think it is probably not the right moment for people to be taking crazy price increases. We think ultimately that is going to come back to bite."

(Reporting by Deena Beasley and Ben Hirschler; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Matthew Lewis)

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