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I'm in like flint with no. 25. I've got the scars from both victories and defeats in formulary battles, medicaid, mco's, pbms, etc. It was bare knuckled stuff, and the victories reaped handsome rewards. I laugh when I think of these reps today trying to launch a Pepcid with Tagamet holding a 90% market share, or keeping Zocor going without getting steamrolled by atorva. These guys would go down in a formulary fight easier that Muhammad Ali's one round knockout of Sonny Liston in 1965
 






Anonymous said:
I'm in like flint with no. 25. I've got the scars from both victories and defeats in formulary battles, medicaid, mco's, pbms, etc. It was bare knuckled stuff, and the victories reaped handsome rewards. I laugh when I think of these reps today trying to launch a Pepcid with Tagamet holding a 90% market share, or keeping Zocor going without getting steamrolled by atorva. These guys would go down in a formulary fight easier that Muhammad Ali's one round knockout of Sonny Liston in 1965
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The newer younger reps never have experience like you. They have no idea what are "bare knuckle formulary battles". That is why all they are complaining is why Merck is not giving me a first-in-class product. They have never dealt with launching Pepcid nor to get Pepcid IV voted in as the preferred H2 when the world was very happy with Tagamet and Zantac.
 






Anonymous said:
The newer younger reps never have experience like you. They have no idea what are "bare knuckle formulary battles". That is why all they are complaining is why Merck is not giving me a first-in-class product. They have never dealt with launching Pepcid nor to get Pepcid IV voted in as the preferred H2 when the world was very happy with Tagamet and Zantac.
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Were not worthy, were not worthy... I love the old war stories from these retired dudes who think they have a clue with what the new pharma environment is like now.
 






Anonymous said:
Were not worthy, were not worthy... I love the old war stories from these retired dudes who think they have a clue with what the new pharma environment is like now.
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The recently retired reps knew what it was like, the transition to managed care, from handwritten notes to laptop very well. Without all those pseudo account executives running around, reps from a few decades back had to do more and learned more along the way. The current Merck has your job so narrowly defined that you have missed out on a lot of experiences such as formulary (hospital and managed care) battles, product launches, advocate identification and development, etc. A good tenured rep is just as aware of prior authorization, tiered systems, preferred versus non-preferred ad nauseum. In the past you were more responsible for the success in your territory and you were more accountable. Now with more people pretending to be doing something in your territory, it is easier to shift blame or feel helpless because you are not supposed to do this, call on that special customer, or knock on the door of a clinical pharmacist whom you have a much better relationship than those "specialized" Merck experts.
 












Anonymous said:
Were not worthy, were not worthy... I love the old war stories from these retired dudes who think they have a clue with what the new pharma environment is like now.
Click to expand...

I would admit this to you. About 15 years ago, about the time we had the influx of Ken and Barbie dolls, indeed there was a large number of older Merck reps retiring. We were, good or bad, moving into the electronic age. We got our first laptops. We had to learn how to use MS Word and Excel. Nothing with PowerPoint then. There was this group that, in their own mind, decided it was not worth it to learn a new trick. I think it was in their own mind that they were not capable. But those tenured reps that stayed were adaptive and computer savvy enough. My point is some older reps could not adapt while some are very capable in adjusting to changes. Managed care has been around for three decades now. Some states were more progressive while some were late adopters. My first call on a HMO was 30 years ago with formulary and product restrictions. It simply gets more complex these days. One thing is constant: there will always be decision makers in any organization.
 






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