Vertex Tops Merck in Early Hep C Drug Launch

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Anonymous said:
What bothers me the most are the pathetically low numbers of RX, both Merck and Vertex. We've been reading for years about the "warehoused" patients. Where are they?
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A couple of years ago, S-P was projecting that within the first 6 months, the number of newly enrolled patients would get above 2000/wk. There seems to be a ways to go to get to that number.
 






Anonymous said:
What bothers me the most are the pathetically low numbers of RX, both Merck and Vertex. We've been reading for years about the "warehoused" patients. Where are they?
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Both companies need to do a better job of getting education out to the real treaters- nurses, etc. There needs to be less pushing and more educating and assisting. Once we feel comfortable in the office we will begin treating.
 






Anonymous said:
A couple of years ago, S-P was projecting that within the first 6 months, the number of newly enrolled patients would get above 2000/wk. There seems to be a ways to go to get to that number.
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That number is not unrealistic. Remember, these products are BRAND new on the market. The patient warehousing was real. With outreach programs, and doc office followup you are corect, the merck drug may reach 1 billion per year, Vertex will hit 5 Billion per year.
 






Anonymous said:
A couple of years ago, S-P was projecting that within the first 6 months, the number of newly enrolled patients would get above 2000/wk. There seems to be a ways to go to get to that number.
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Well this points out the difference between having a potentially fatal disease and having a consumer urge. If Victrelis had been a new model of iPhone, the numbers would be billions.
 


















Anonymous said:
I just heard that layoffs will hit our team as well because HQ is so disappointed with our results. I will start looking asap.
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* HCV Market Share - VRTX's Incivek TRx and NRx are 1,552 and 1,140, wk/wk
increase of +13.7% and +8.1%, respectively. MRK's Victrelis TRx and NRX
are 371 and 292, wk/wk decrease of -3.9% and -1.7%, respectively. The
market share based on weekly TRx is: Incivek 80.7% and Victrelis 19.3%.
 












I agree. With the wonderful job QA has done and all the screwed up things that happens to patients after they take our stuff. I can't understand why it's so hard to move our product. NEWSFLASH: They are better than us in every way. They have better R&D, marketing, QA and manufacturing. We should just go into the illegal drug business and get people hooked. The only issue the drug lords have better QA than we do.
 






























Vertex's drug is kicking Mercks Ass. You guys have twice the # of sales reps, you co-promote the product with Roche and you are getting beat badly in this marketplace. I love it!

Dont blame it on managed care either because both drugs are at Parity in just about every single managed care plan, state medicaid and med-D

Vertex Rocks!
 












Anonymous said:
Merck is lucky to be selling dollar one of that inferior stuff. Pity the poor patients who must settle for it.
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No need to pity those poor patients. They will get cured at the same rate as those on Veretx, albeit with a longer course of therapy and with a more convoluted dosing regime. Before either of these drugs were approved, they had far less hope. Never before have two needed drugs that are so close in their relative performance been launched almost sumultaneously. This is a sales and marketing challenge if ever there was one.
 






Anonymous said:
Vertex's drug is kicking Mercks Ass. You guys have twice the # of sales reps, you co-promote the product with Roche and you are getting beat badly in this marketplace. I love it!

Dont blame it on managed care either because both drugs are at Parity in just about every single managed care plan, state medicaid and med-D

Vertex Rocks!
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is it really at parity on all plans? I'm shocked. We couldn't get preferential tier placement on any of them?
 






Anonymous said:
No need to pity those poor patients. They will get cured at the same rate as those on Veretx, albeit with a longer course of therapy and with a more convoluted dosing regime. Before either of these drugs were approved, they had far less hope. Never before have two needed drugs that are so close in their relative performance been launched almost sumultaneously. This is a sales and marketing challenge if ever there was one.
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Pity only the patient's patience with Merck's convoluted dosing regimen, as long as outcomes are the same. Indeed a sales and marketing challenge with price determining the ultimate winner. Otherwise, who'd want to put up with Victrelis?
 






Anonymous said:
And the pain continues:
http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/vertexs-incivek-could-top-1b-year-analyst-says/2011-08-19

"the drug has gone on to outsell Merck's ($MRK) new hepatitis C treatment Victrelis at a 4-to-1 margin."


What are our salespeople doing? Know wonder there are layoffs all around. They're given the first in class, a better drug and they can only capture 25% of the market?

fire them all.
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First of all we have only 20% of the market, not 25%. Secondly, while technically, we were first in class, for all practicle purposes the 1-2 week headstart that we had is negligible. Thirdly, if our drug was so superior, why did ALL analysts expect things to turnaout just as they have. Beside we have a 66% SVR, they have 80%+, we have a complicated PI, they dont; how can you say that we are superior. Sales reps only have an impact when the science is not a clear differentiator, that is not the case here.
 






Anonymous said:
Worse when one considers the relative profit margins. What are the numbers for PegIntron versus Pegasys since the launch? How much real help has Roche been?
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Roche is not paid to sell your drug, we are paid to mention a few points, and we get paid only on message recall, not sales. This is not an issue, as I also mention the Vertex drug. I actively work with the merck rep, and the vertex rep in lunches etc. A monkey could see that the merck drug is inferior, and neither I nor most of my coo leagues will destroy our credibilty by trying to vouch for it. You merck reps are on your own.
 






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