Pfizer had great R&D a few decades ago. When my dad worked here, I saw that there was alot of pride in how much the company invested in R&D. They had a lot of class-leading meds, and had a few "detail men" that related well to docs in their offices and in hospitals, and office staff. Back then, one rep covered large territories and were responsible for covering hospitals, nursing homes and retail pharmacies
A few years before I got here, I was told that the industry had changed, and Pfizer and Merck led that change by hiring armies of what I heard called "Ken and Barbies" to replace one rep in each of the two sales divisions. I started with PD after working in a hospital lab for 2 years after graduation, and there were several Pfizer divisions by that time. I ended up here when PD was acquired. By then, the company was nothing like the one that I had seen and heard about growing up. In my region, Pfizer's district and regional managers were just plain awful. A lot of Pfizer reps were either Ken and Barbies or ex-military officers, and the managers acted like they had discovered Lipitor and Viagra and did the research to bring them to market. Many of my PD colleagues and managers bolted for Novartis, BMS and Novartis, with a sprinkling to AZ or Glaxo
I'm guessing that the home office and R&D hired alot of Ken and Barbies, too because between piss-poor R&D results, and how our stock has tracked since Bill Steere left decades ago, we just cant seem to get it together!!
