Being a tenured rep I have worked with many of the now upper management people who once were my colleagues. You know how they operated as reps, rules they broke, how far they pushed the envelope, how much they were willing to sacrifice you to achieve their goals. They were all very good at that. All would get an "A". None were that good as sales reps. May be they knew even then the best way was to move up quickly as they sucked at sales?
-
Tue news: Where do Harris and Trump stand on health policy? Medtronic renal denervation coverage. Canada less likely to have drug shortages? Wall Street wants CVS execution plan. Nektar manufacturing facility sale. See more on our front page
What the hell happened to us??
- Thread starter Anonymous
- Start date
-
- Tags
- None
The problem with Merck is that it went with the "diversity in talent" theme for a long time. There's never been any true cultural diversity at Merck. They tried to get over with that "diversity in talent" theme, not realizing that "diveristy in talent" for Merck meant talent in one particular race or gender....all white talented men or women.
you may have hit on something here. some of these people went from cutting corners in the field to oh, say, hiding data on vioxx. you never see "most ethical" lists in pharma do you? merck wouldn't even make the list. like putting a drunk in charge of the bar.
Clearly when Vagelos left and there was a change in the top executive and management at Merck, a change in ethics also occurred. A wink and a nod mentality prospered that created an environment of hostility and loss of focus on the values that Merck was known for. Sales got the jo "my hair's on fire" types who focused on achieving sales and meeting their objectives no matter the cost. This led Merck to forget George Merck's philosophy about the patient and then pay a fatal price when the VIOXX scandal broke and the company once known as most admired lost their stellar reputation. Nobody trusts Merck to this day for varied good reasons. Chalk it up to whatever, Merck is dead.
We are not dead. We are officially a second or third tiered company for sure.
I also agree with the posts that diversity for the sake of diversity truly hurt this company. I had the pleasure to experience this first hand from my district manager and region director. Needless to say, these two are no longer with the company. Apparently, the company did not honor them with the awards they thought they deserved. Double minority candidates. Go Merck.
Merck has turned into one giant, depressing scam machine. Better off dead.
Actually Squibb had Capoten years before BMS was formed. Merck was first with Mevacor, then Pravachol came out and Merck answered with Zocor, but Lipitor captured the market. Same story with Merck leading with Vioxx but Celebrex capturing it even before the recall. Merck might lead into a category but they fuck it up and lose major market share- how does this happen? Leadership is a ship of fools.
Really...thats not what I see. Seems the opposite.
I don't think you can forever lead a market in any business. We came out with Mevacor first and was a breakthrough. Someone else have more time to play with the molecule, enhance the efficacy, lower the AEs and come out with a better product. You can say it was absolutely stupid to ignore Lipitor as no big deal. I was in shock when Ms. Koerth told us this was a product of nothingness. I was sitting there, asking myself, with all the money and people at the HQ, this is all they are telling us? Ignore Lipitor? From Pfizer?
yeah when the market caught up with merck and lipitor came out it exposed the weakness of leadership at merck. merck was good at r&d but marketing and the exec. teams didn't know how to respond to a competitor. now they pay the price as they just repeat the same mistakes over and over. they've shot themselves in the foot so many times, merck's got no toes left.
Yeah, I'd have to say two of my favorites to get to launch and sell were Vasotec and Losec/Prilosec. All the rest have been mediocre at best.
Mevacor and Timoptic were fun too being first in class.
I was in shock whenever I had to listen to Ms. Koerth but the worst was Orlando when she ripped the sales force a new one over Lipitor. I'll never forget that fiasco. Instead of demonstrating true leadership with strategic ideas to give the sales force to use in response to Lipitor's advances, she ragged and ragged and ragged some more on the sales force, telling us essentially that we were incompetent. Truth be told, the incompetence belonged to management who did not have a single clue about how to counter Lipitor, so it was just a blame session aimed squarely at the rep. It was a spectacle to behold. What Merck let Koerth get away with before finally having to let her go was extremely disappointing. All Koerth could say was "implementation excellence" over and over when our problem was with what management had given the sales force to implement. Excelling at implementing shit still leaves one with shit, but Miek was too incompetent herself to know any different. She also excelled at destroying any faith I had left in the company. What a mistake she was.
I bet they were. Too bad they were a little before my time!
That is why, young man or young lady, Merck has its glorious moments with physicians in awe of all the breakthrough products coming out all within 1-2 year(s). The first expansion from one rep to two reps per territory was for a good reason when you introduced one new product, came back, then went away for another new product launch for a few years. It was expansion for a good reason.
Miek Koerth was one of the first hires from outside as a demonstration of Merck's attempt to get fresh ideas that way. I was in the meeting before that when she and others said to forget about Lipitor. I said to myself all these people work full time in researching about a competitor and they said so. The next meeting which you mentioned was when the same people, including Miek, told us we were bunch of incompetent asses. We executed what they said at the first meeting and told the docs to forget about this stupid triglyceride indication and its clinical irrelevance very well. We did what we were instructed to do very well.
Miek was not fired. She was quickly transferred from a region director job to West Point. A few years ago she re-surfaced and made the rounds to introduce that module on your computer called, "System of Opportunities" or something? The one they claimed we have exclusivity about which doc refers to who and who they socialize and hang with. I kept telling them we, after years on territory, already know that. But they kept saying this firm that came up with this report has something special. After a year of data the report is still shitty and has less than what I already know.
Your kidding I hope. If Koerth is still at Merck, that explains everything. I thought she went back to haunt Lilly again.