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The Pharmalot Blog reported today that AstraZeneca offered all of it sales representatives—numbering 5,000-6,000—a buyout option. However, AstraZeneca prefers to avoid the term buyout and instead instructed its reps to ’self identify’ whether or not they want a package to leave the company. According to the post, an AstraZeneca spokesman declined to discuss how many reps it would like to shed, but did provide this statement:

“AstraZeneca is making changes to our sales force, which will be managed first by looking at vacancies and offering field sales employees the opportunity to self-identify whether they are interested in leaving the company. We will know the full scope of the changes in the coming weeks.”

Like many other pharma companies, AstraZeneca will lose $11.1 billion in patented-protected revenue by the end of 2012 and face stiff generic competition.

Pharma sales reps, like R&D scientists, have been facing tough times over the past three years or so. In the late 1990s, pharma companies hired massive numbers of reps, only to realize several years later, that increasing the number of reps didn’t necessarily translate into increase drug sales. The economic downturn, coupled with projected loss of revenues due to patent expiry of blockbuster drugs over the next few years, provided pharma with an opportunity to downsize. Finally, the growing use of web-based strategies to educate physicians, contract sales forces and a diminishing number of products led to the demise of the pharma rep as we know it.

My recommendation to downsized reps is to get some biotechnology training or device/diagnostic training and to try and leverage previous experience into sales jobs at biotechnology and devices companies. Both industries have enormous growth potential and the transition from pharma to them shouldn’t be all that onerous.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!

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Eli Lilly & Co announced today that it is eliminating another 5,500 jobs or roughly 14% of its global workforce over the next two years. This would reduce to size of Lilly’s worldwide workforce from 40,500 to 35,000 by 2011. In addition to the job cuts, the company is reorganizing itself into 5 business units and hopes to save about $1.0 billion in annual costs.

These newly announced job cuts come after the company eliminated 4,000 sales representative jobs this past August and restructured its sale force. Also, prior to the recent cuts, Lilly launched the Lilly Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative or PD² a new program to ostensibly strengthen relationships with academic institutions to speed drug discovery and thereby reduce its reliance on internal drug discovery efforts to keep its pipeline full.

Unlike other major pharmaceutical companies that conducted massive layoffs over the past two years, Lilly was content, until the past few months, to lay off small numbers of employees and offer others retirement packages. Unfortunately, the loss of patent protection on several of its blockbuster drugs coupled with generic encroachment on several brands and impending health care reform, forced Lilly to take more draconian action.

Layoffs have been something of rarity in the life sciences sector over the past eight months or so, but this is usually the time that marks the beginning of the corporate “layoff season.” Don’t be surprised if other large life sciences companies announce similar layoffs in the coming months. Luckily, the economy seems to be improving and there are signs that hiring is beginning to ramp up in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and devices industries.

Speaking of pink slips, those of you who have been downsized or find yourself out of a life sciences job may be interested in a new organization called Pink Slip mixers. According to a description on the group’s website:

“Our Pink Slip Mixers are about hundreds of professional, mid- to upper-level executives who are (might be) victims of the "economic downturn" of 2008. Our parties are about banding together, networking and bonding with the recently "Pinked". We will share our experiences of why we were let off, what companies are hiring, and the "buzz words" that specific hiring managers want to hear. Aside from the usual imbibing, commiseration and fun that every pink slip party brings, headhunters, direct-hire companies, and recruiting firms will also on-hand to learn a little bit more about what you do. Maybe you'll meet a new contact, or find a new job!” 

Sounds like these mixers might be good networking opportunities and a place to kick back and commiserate with others who are no longer gainfully employed. I am planning to attend a Pink Slip Mixer when one is organized in the NYC metropolitan area. Like many of you, I lost my full time contract copywriting job over a year ago!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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Sepracor shareholders may be able to sleep better at night without the aid of the company’s top selling insomnia drug Lunesta after agreeing to be purchased on Thursday by Dainippon Sunmitomo Pharma of Japan. Dainippon will pay $2.6 billion for the rights to Lunesta and other drugs in Sepracor’s pipeline. 

This is the third deal in the last two year involving the purchase of American pharmaceutical companies by Japanese drug makers seeking to aggressively expand their reach into the US drug markets. Last year, Takeda Pharmaceutical purchased Cambridge, MA-based Millenium Pharmaceuticals for $8.8 billion and Eisai brought MGI Pharma of Minnesota for $3.9 billion. 

Sepracor, a specialty pharmaceutical company founded in 1984 focused on strategy of developing single isomers or chiral drugs and active metabolites of top selling drugs with the goal of developing a pipeline of proprietary pharmaceutical products. The company’s most successful product is Lunesta, a prescription sleep aid that had sales of almost $500 million in 2008.

Last January, the company layed off 20% of its workforce (350 sales reps, plus 410 contract sales reps) as Lunesta sales slumped because of competition from generic versions of Ambien and branded Ambien CR and revenue losses from its Xopenex COPD franchise. It isn’t clear whether or not more Sepracor will shed more jobs after the Dainippon deal closes sometime next year. 

Stay tuned for updates!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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There was another article in today’s New York Times lamenting the marketing practices utilized by drug companies to inform physicians about their products. While these practices may be troubling to legislators and the American public, everybody who works in the life sciences industry including regulatory agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) understands the “rules of the game” and how it is played. However,

over the past three years, there has been a full frontal assault on direct-to-consumer advertising and marketing and sales practices used by drug makers to hawk their products to physicians and the American public. This has largely been an over reaction to the lack of regulatory oversight of drug manufacturers during the Bush administration. The new regulations have severely limited what sales representatives can offer physicians e.g. gifts and free lunches and dinners, for more face time to sell their products. Consequently, the only means left available to drug makers to reach large numbers of physicians is marketing through medical education.

This is how it works. Companies annually budget monies to pay highly recognized physicians aka key opinion leaders (KOLs) to give lectures to physicians that might influence their prescribing habits. These lectures often take the form of informational seminars that focus on treatment options for certain therapeutic indications which often times subliminally highlight the advantages of the sponsor’s product over its competitors. Not surprisingly, the effectiveness and success of these programs is usually directly proportional to the sums of money invested in them. For example, in 2004, Forrest Laboratories (the subject of the NY Times article) planned on spending “$34.7 million to pay 2000 physicians to deliver 15,000 marketing lectures about Lexapro (an antidepressant) to their peers in one year.” The investment appears to have paid off; sales Lexapro reached $2.3 billion in 2008 even though a lower cost generic version of the drug is available. And, while the Forrest investment in medical education may appear to be a large one, it pales in comparison to the sums invested in medical education programs by much larger companies like Pfizer, Merck and others.

While certain members of Congress may be “shocked and outraged,” these practices are sanctioned by FDA. And, as long as drug makers are compliant and adhere to the rules they shouldn’t be faulted or penalized for their efforts. The point that I am trying to make is that drug makers, like all other for-profit entities, must maximize sales to generate sufficient profits remain in business. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to legislators or the American public for that matter, that drug makers use all legally available means to maximize the sale of their products. If Congress doesn’t like what drug makers are doing, then they ought to stop complaining and legislate changes to the rules. Put simply, it’s time for Congress to “put up or shut up.”

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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Pharmaceutical sales representatives, along with R&D scientists have been the largest casualties of recent downsizing that has been sweeping the life sciences industry. Increasing regulatory scrutiny, decreasing numbers of new drug approvals and an increasing reliance on e-based technologies to sell drugs have almost rendered the traditional pharma rep obsolete. Flavia Villela, a blogger and former pharma rep has written an interesting article about her impressions about the next generation of pharmaceutical sales representatives.

A New Era of Pharmaceutical Sales Professionals

By Flavia Villela

I have been participating and sharing my thoughts in discussions about pharmaceutical sales professionals related to performance and customer satisfaction. I am also actively participating in discussions about creation of “pharmaceutical sales certification” program. My goals are to share ideas, experiences and provide insights into improving the quality and performance of qualified pharmaceutical sales professionals who will be able to effectively establish rapport with health care providers consistent with pharmaceutical industry expectations and requirement.

While often vilified, pharmaceutical sales reps play important and often pivotal roles in the healthcare industry.  For example, pharma reps often act as drug information consultants, facilitators of customer development, sources of reliable customer information, vehicles of promotion and liaisons between drug companies and their customers. Because of this, it is vitally important that sales reps be highly qualified professionals with broad skills and extensive knowledge of the healthcare industry. Also, increasing healthcare costs coupled with downward pricing pressures suggest that today’s sale reps must be highly efficient and cost effective.

Pharmaceutical Sales Professional: “The Old versus “New Model”

It is well established, that in the past, it was not uncommon for different sales reps from the same company to repeatedly call on a doctor for the same product. This primarily resulted from an over ambitious hiring trend that increased the number of sales reps but failed to increase the number and quality of drug sales. Consequently, over the past few years, pharmaceutical companies began laying off large numbers of sales employees despite the fact that generic drug sales were rapidly increasing and beginning to steal market share from branded products.

The poor performance of many of these reps could be directly attributed to a lack of qualifications.  Nevertheless, despite the massive layoffs, there are still thousands of unqualified sales reps who continue to work in the drug industry. For some reason, many pharmaceutical companies decided to retain employees who I call “old model reps” who simply drop off samples/reprints to healthcare providers and deliver a “canned” product message that they learned during sales force training. Many of these reps don’t engage their customers in detailed product discussions, mostly because they don’t really understand the products themselves. Further, many of these reps got into the business because they were attracted to the flexible hours, high salaries and bonuses, a company car and other benefits associated with pharmaceutical sales reps. More importantly, while many of these old model reps had strong sales backgrounds, they generally were lacking in an understanding of science and medicine. In other words, they really didn’t understand the products that they were trying to sell to customers. While this might have been acceptable for small molecule drugs, it certainly won’t suffice when it comes to biotechnology products which are inherently more complex in their mode of actions and use. To that end, I believe the so-called “new model” or next generation of sales representatives should be required to have a strong medical or scientific background e.g., such as a bachelor/masters in sciences, nursing or medically-related field to  provide a firm understanding of the inner workings of the healthcare industry. However, it is important to note, that “old model employees” who are willing to learn (and have the ability to grasp new medical concepts) should be retrained and encouraged to remain in the “new model” sales force. 

Despite the massive layoffs, many companies continue to hire “old model” employees. One candidate recently contacted me and shared with me his experiences with a medium-sized Japanese pharmaceutical company. The candidate is a medical professional, has a nursing degree and previous experience in the therapeutic area advertised with the sales position. His background and training enabled him to garner a face-to-face interview with a district manager of the company. Although the interview was seemingly going well, at one point during the meeting, the district manager told the candidate that he was overqualified for the position. In other words, he was either “too smart”, “too old” or too set in his ways to be hired.  Not surprisingly he didn’t get the job.

Shortly after being rejected, the candidate read about a new initiative being undertaken by the company to improve the quality of its sales force by focusing on scientific/medical backgrounds rather than prior sales experience or credential. While it isn’t clear why the candidate described above didn’t get a job with this particular company, his recent pharmaceutical sales job hunting experience isn’t unique—it is being repeated over and over again throughout the industry. This begs the question: why are so many drug manufacturers electing to retain “old model” sales reps—despite their apparent lack of scientific/medical qualifications—and willing to pass on seemingly well qualified candidates who apparently represent the “new model” sales rep that pharma says it wants?

What do you think?

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Eli Lilly & Co. is offering buyouts to 4,000 U.S. sales representatives to eliminate several hundred jobs and restructure its operations. Sales representatives will be offered four months' pay in addition to the typical Eli Lilly severance package, which ranges from two to 18 months' salary depending on seniority. The company had a total of 40,500 employees at the end of 2008.

Lilly’s best-selling drugs include Zyprexa for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Cymbalta for depression, Byetta for type 2 diabetes, and Evista for osteoporosis. The patent supporting Zyprexa, which bought in $4.7 billion in revenue last year, will expire in 2011. The patents on the company's next three top drugs —Cymbalta, Humalog insulin, and cancer drug Gemzar —are set to expire in 2013.

The restructuring is expected to start in mid-November and take effect in January.

Sales reps and R&D scientists have suffered the most during pharma’s recent three year downsizing binge. While many R&D jobs have been shipped overseas, pharma sales reps might consider a new career in biotechnology drug sales. Growth in biotechnology and personalized medicine drugs is expected to increase for the foreseeable future.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is trying to regain sole marketing rights to Remicade, its lucrative anti-TNF treatment for arthritis and psoriasis, because Schering Plough (SGP)—which has most of the marketing rights to the drug outside of the US—is being acquired by Merck. JNJ is seeking arbitration to determine whether or not Centocor, its subsidiary that manufactures Remicade and Simponi, can terminate a marketing agreement for the two drugs—based on terms stipulated in the original contract —if there is a “change of control” at SGP.

As you may recall, Merck was acutely aware of the terms of marketing agreement before it decided to purchase SGP and cleverly engineered the acquisition as a reverse merger— to prevent triggering provisions that could return Schering’s marketing rights for Remicade and Simponi to JNJ if their were leadership changes or a change of control at SGP. JNJ’s announcement contesting wasn’t unexpected after the Merck-Schering Plough deal was announced early last winter—sales of Remicade outside of the US topped $2.0 billion in last year. Simponi, Remicade’s highly touted successor (which recently received FDA approval), is also expected to reach blockbuster status after it reaches the market. 

The Merck-Schering deal left JNJ with few alternative or choices. The company could have counter offered to purchase SGP in its entirety or simply, as it did, invoke terms of the original agreement that would terminate SGP’s marketing rights if there was a “change of control” at the company. JNJ rightfully believes that a change of control will occur when Merck acquires SGP. According to a JNJ spokesperson “As its public statements make clear Merck is acquiring Schering Plough. The acquisition constitutes a change of control and trigger’s Centocor’s right to terminate.” It will be interesting to see how an arbitrator rules in the case.

While the loss of Remicade and Simponi isn’t likely to jeopardize the Merck-Schering Plough deal (according to Merck executives), it may affect the financial terms and overall benefit or upside of the acquisition. The expected completion of the deal is scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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Talk about a rough week. First, on Monday, Pfizer announced that it was acquiring Wyeth, a move that is expected to result in the loss of 8,000 to 10,000 jobs if the deal is approved. This was followed on Wednesday by an announcement from Abbott Laboratories indicating hat it was laying off about 200 sales representatives because of regulatory delays for its12 hour-formulation of its pain drug Vicodin. Finally, on Thursday, AstraZeneca announced that it will cut another 7,400 jobs worldwide by 2013 (bringing the total number of expected layoffs to 15,000). Also on Thursday, Sepracor, the maker of the sleeping pill Lunesta, announced that it will cut 20% of its permanent work force (530 jobs) and 410 contract sales representatives (even though the company announced a profit).

Suffice it to say it has been a tough week for pharmaceutical company employees. I hope that next week is better.

Until next time…

Good Luck and errrrrr Good Job Hunting????????

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Long rumored, Pfizer announced yesterday that it will eliminate another 800 research jobs outside of its six core therapeutic areas: cancer, pain, inflammation, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. The new cuts represent 5 to 8 percent of Pfizer’s approximately 10,000 researchers worldwide. According to a company spokesperson, the company will continue to evaluate its current staffing to make decisions that are consistent with its future goals. In short, expect more layoffs to occur in the near future.

Industry analysts expect additional cuts to occur in R&D and Pfizer’s dwindling sales force. To date, Pfizer has eliminated about 10,000 jobs, mostly in R&D and sales. Pfizer became the world’s largest pharmaceutical after going on a 12 year buying spree that began in 1996 after its acquisition of Warner Lambert, the company that developed the blockbuster anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor. The company currently employs about 85,000 people worldwide.

Wall Street rewarded Pfizer’s decision to layoff more scientists by pushing its stock share price up 1.3% yesterday. Rewarding a company for eliminating one of its most important and valuable assets has never made sense to me. But, then again, I am a scientist not an MBA-toting Wall Street analyst—what do I know?

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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For those of you who haven’t been able to keep up with the latest pharma layoffs, I came across an article in the Philadelphia Business Journal that does an excellent job of recapping all of the major life sciences layoffs that have taken place in the past year or so. The recent massive pharma layoffs prompted William Ashton, Acting Dean of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia PA to say “I was in the pharmaceutical industry for 28 years. I’ve never seen such a sea change as is occurring right now. This is really dramatic.” Further, Dr. Ashton predicted that drug companies will increase their use of contract sales forces (CSFs) and contract research organizations (CROs) to contain expenses and that staffing firms will be the winners.

This led to me to wonder what Dean Ashton has been doing for the past 10 years or so because the life sciences industry has already increased its reliance on CROs and CSFs. A quick perusal of the pharma and biotech employees who lost their jobs over the past few years reveals that a majority of them were in sales and R&D. I don’t know whether or not I should break the news to Dean Ashton, but the future is already upon us—another example of how out of touch academia is with industry in the 21^st century.

I think that it is time for industry executives and academicians to begin a serious dialog to determine the type of training that would be appropriate for individuals seeking jobs in the life sciences industry. A failure to do so will likely have a negative adverse effect on the continued growth and future success of the US life science industry.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Pfizer announced today that it will eliminate almost 1,000 jobs in France through layoffs or voluntary departures. Gerard Bouquet, vice-president of Pfizer France, announced that "This new organization will take effect from Dec. 1, 2009 and there will be no forced layoffs before that date.” The cuts will affect Pfizer’s sales force and at it Paris-based headquarters.

Today’s announcement comes just a few days after Rod MacKenzie, Pfizer’s worldwide head of discovery research told reporters “Given the complexity of the changes within research, I have concluded that we will not be able to provide that clarity [for the layoffs] or communicate them by the end of the year." While it appears that there may some confusion regarding American workers, this is clearly not the case for Pfizer’s European employees.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting

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The Pharmalot blog reported yesterday that GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will tell its US pharma employees today about a new reorganization plan that will include more job cuts. The restructuring will primarily affect sales reps and some R&D personnel. GSK, like most other pharma companies, has been steadily downsizing operations and headcount for the past year or so at its US locations in Research Triangle Park, NC and Philadelphia PA

Look for the layoffs to occur before Thanksgiving—just about the time when employee’s annual bonuses are calculated.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!

P.S.  It was learned today by the Phamalot Blog that 1,880 sales reps and sales support staff job will be eliminated over the next few months. Also, the company may consolidate its Philadelphia and Research Triangle Park headquarters.

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No doubt that many of you already know that DTC advertising is an effective way for pharmaceutical companies to “push” their drugs. However, when I saw the amount of money that was spent on DTC in 2007 I was shocked! In 2007 alone, drug companies spent $5,375,117,382 on advertising. Yes, that's $5.375 billion dollars (think of how many research grants could have been funded or how much money could have been spent on universal healthcare!).  The aggregate ROI for 25 pharma companies examined was impressive–totaling about $32 billion or roughly 7-fold!

A table published by Consumer Reports AdWatch highlights 25 of the biggest spenders along with their sales, giving an indication of how much their ad spending has paid off —or not! The drugs that received the biggest bang for the buck are bolded. Despite the conflict of interest and false advertising DTC flap over Lipitor, it still managed to have the third best return among the 25 products analyzed.

¹Consumer Reports Consumer Drug Reference, 2008.
²Data compiled by Nielsen Media research, March 2008.
³Data provided by Drug Topics and Verispan, March 2008.


No wonder why everybody wants to work for a pharmaceutical company–despite the downsizing there is still substantial money to be made!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!

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I want to thank my esteemed colleague, Ed Silverman at Pharmalot, for the heads up on this post.  As part of Wyeth’s asset realignment program dubbed “Project Impact”, the company announced today that it would cut another 1,200 jobs at “all facilities in all capacities.”  Meanwhile, late last Friday 141 people at Wyeth’s Pearl River, NY, facility were laid off. Most of the jobs that were cut were in manufacturing and R&D. Of interest, last Friday was also Bob Essner’s last day as Wyeth’s CEO (he will continue as Chairman through December 31, 2008). For those of you who may be interested, Bob’s total compensation package in 2007 was about $20 million (his base salary was a paltry $1.73 million).

The most recent layoffs were made as part of the drug maker’s previously announced plan to cut up to 10 percent of its global workforce of 50,000 by 2011. Wyeth executives contend that Project Impact is warranted because of increased generic drug competition and a weak product pipeline. As you may recall, Wyeth previously laid off 1,240 sales reps late last month due to sagging sales of several of its consumer and pharmaceutical brands.

These new layoffs couldn’t come at a worst time for Wyeth employees. For those of you who still have jobs at the company, I highly recommend that you begin to explore alternative career opportunities. It is going to be a long and difficult ride!

Until next time… 

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (if there are any left) !!!!!!!

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According to a post on the Wall Street Journal Health blog, Wyeth announced today that it is laying off about 1,200 marketing and sales representatives who helped support Protonix, its blockbuster heartburn and acid reflux medication. The job cuts are part of a previously announced “asset reallocation plan” that is designed to reduce the size of the company’s workforce by about 5% this year, and by 10% over the next three years.

The company employees about 50,000 people worldwide with roughly half of them in the U.S.  Like some of its competitors, Wyeth is facing stiff generic competition for several products that are slated to lose patent protection over the next couple of years and recently has had trouble getting many of its new drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!

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According to a press release by IMS, a company that tracks pharmaceutical sales, growth of the US pharmaceutical market shrank from 8% in 2006 to a meager 3.8% in 2007–the slowest growth rate since 1961. Total U.S. prescription sales in 2007 only reached $286.5 billion. The 2007 slowdown in sales was attributed to:

• Loss of patent exclusivity for branded products
• Fewer new drug approvals
• Effect of Medicare Part D on annual growth
• Renewed focus on safety issues by US Food and Drug Administration

Industry officials place the blame for the slow down on FDA because fewer newer drugs were approved in 2007 as compared with years past. However, I believe that the slow down has more to do with:

• Higher prices of branded medications as compared with generic drugs
• Lack of public confidence in the pharmaceutical industry
• Increased scrutiny by regulators on direct to consumer advertising and continuing medical education (CME)
• Fewer and less innovative drugs in company pipelines

Bashing FDA is easy. The willingness of the pharmaceutical industry to assume ownership of some of its own shortcomings and missteps is substantially more difficult to do!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!

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