Here is the deal. ZDs and RDs didnt know a thing. This was executive leadership all the way and they were the ones involved in discussions. JS probably knew and Im sure he passed it on to Mike.
Now here is the reality. Part of the deal was to take all dedicated Xiidra employees. With that Novartis takes responsibility to all severance costs, retention bonuses etc. This is where (we want the everyone) came from . It was part of the deal negotiated by Takeda. What Novartis did with us after bringing us on was solely up to Novartis. Did Novartis say they wanted to learn about the state of the busines the strategy, what worked and didn't work so they would keep the wheels on for a little while? That is debatable depending on who you talk to. Rumor is that is what they were saying. Mostly everyone was blind-sided with the quick decision to gut most of Shire/Takeda away from the product. They barely even asked the teams (marketing, sales and training) for any advice. Novartis was basically like "we are all set, thanks but no thanks". Lets see how they do? Medicare bids are already in so they wont be able to make a good bid until 2021. No PArx, no Ask iiRis will definitely shake up what the sales team had put in place over the past 2 years. Add in mainly a new sales team with no OD presence and I see 2020 being a very slow year for them. They are banking on getting Medicare in 2021 and thats no guarantee because generic cyclosporine will eventually show up. Medicare doesn't want to pay for dry eye anyways and I think they will step all branded dry eye products.
In summary, if anyone new it was JS. Stop crapping on the ZDs and RDs like they knew because no one knew.