Some of the drugmaker’s oncology reps are very upset about being seen in the little green machine. The Toyota buggy, which costs about $22,000 or so, just doesn’t go fast enough or have the room needed to store lots of samples (never mind the lunches). Worst of all, the Prius isn’t as classy as a BMW.

What’s going on? To save money - and make noise about being environmentally friendly - Novartis apparently told the oncology reps to drive a Prius, or pay something themselves if they want to drive a different car. Ironically, the decision comes at the same time the reps were told that ’special’ was being put back in specialty sales.

The chatter on CafePharma says some reps don’t feel very special:

“By shoving the Prius down our throats, you have diluted our ‘benefits’ significantly…”;

“I had a tuff day yesterday and was looking forward to relaxing at the end of the day at my kid’s basketball game. After the game we went out to dinner with a group of friend and the topic of conversation and ridicule was my new company car.”

“Oncology reps have 2 to 4 times larger territories that the mass market reps and spend hours on the road. If we spend 4 -6 hours a day on the road, the Prius is not going to cut it. Basically, its not the money, but the principle. That is not putting the special back into specialty. It is a slap in the face and every single rep is spending their days talking about this shitty car instead of selling. Have you seen this thing, no power anything and is the laughing stock of the roads. This is the YUGO or Hyundai of this century….It may not be a big deal to those in NJ, but when you pull up to a major oncology office and a Genentech or Celgene rep pulls up in their SUV or X5 BMW and right next to them, we pull up in a freakin’ Prius, who is going to be pumped up for the call? Yeah, it may seem small, but the car is all we got out here… It is very important to back up what is said and not lie to us about being special. Its now about principle not the money!”

Wonder what they’d have to drive if they weren’t so special. The Honda Fit Sport? And does anyone know what Dan Vasella drives around Basel?

[tags]Cars, Novartis, Prius, Sales Reps[/tags]