The AstraZeneca Newsletter Scandal: Just Another Day At The Office?
9 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // April 8th, 2007 // 10:01 pm
Was AstraZeneca warranted in firing Mike Zubillaga for likening a doctor’s office to ‘a bucket of money?’ Were his remarks, which appeared in a company newsletter the drugmaker insists was ‘unapproved,’ really so unusual? Is it unrealistic to expect sales managers to avoid blatant analogies to push their people? Don’t we live in an age of unrelenting metrics?
The scandal, which broke into the open Thursday night, raises a conundrum for drugmakers - the need to convince people inside and outside their organization that patients come first while satisfying financial pressures. Can drugmakers convince the rest of the world that such managers exist? In the face of such episodes, is there any credibility?
To gain insight, Pharmalot spoke with Art Caplan, who directs the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsvylvania. Here are some of his remarks:
“What made this unusual is that it’s not too often that we get a peek into the inner workings. But there’s always been a cultural divide between sales and marketing, and the rest of a big pharma. There are almost two cultures.
I don’t think there was anything different (about Zubillaga’s remarks) that you couldn’t find in a sales speech in any pharma company. I didn’t see anything surprising; there was certainly nothing that I would count as unusual.
I also think top managers never know what’s going on at the ground level, nor do they want to. It gives them a level of deniability.
But I’m not sure this person who got fired was some kind of outlier. At the end of the day, the sales force is rewarded for how much they sell. It comes as a shock sometimes to see somebody say he sees doctors as buckets of money….it was not a good turn of phrase.
The only thing that surprises me is AstraZeneca would feel the need to fire this guy. He might’ve needed a reminder about talking to doctors.
When you have Wall Street exerting enormous pressure on pharma to perform, the pressure to deliver profit is the overriding mandate, and that becomes the #1 goal.
Until we decide health care is different and we need to buffer some health care providers and companies that make our drugs from market forces, you’re going to get sales forces that resemble sales forces selling beer or pantyhose. You can dress it up with some rhetoric, but that’s what it is.”
You can read about UPenn’s Center for Bioethics here. [tags]AstraZeneca, Ethics, Sales Rep[/tags]
JS
I might agree but If I was a cancer patient or a Oncology doc I would be deeply offended.
I have been a participant of over 10 years of sales meetings where marketing sells us their product and we inturn develop routines for using it. So many statements are made through the course of a day you forget or become desensitized to it. The rule is never put anything in writing you wouldn’t mind seeing in the morning paper. We are required to destroy all meeting materials and are asked not to take notes or to doodle. The rooms we use are locked and a badge is required for re-entry. The reason this guy is gone is because he forgot the rules or he bacame bigger than the rules … now he is reading about in the morning paper. Too bad for his family but if Cafe Pharma is any proof the man was bothering alot of people. In this business you always need to have people who will come to your aid when you make a mistake. It is clear the Zube had few friends…sad really but he was probably deserving of a lot worse in some subordinate’s eys.
ed
Hi jS,
True, beer and pantyhose ain’t gonna relieve cancer. And yeah, I suppose if he had a powerful rabbi somewhere in that company, he may not have been cut loose. Then again, he became too hot too publicly and too quickly, perhaps, for any other outcome.
The rules, as you call them, dovetail with Caplan’s observation, though, yes? And that is that sales is sales and profis are profits. And there’s nothing unusual in the newsletter remarks or meetings where notes shouldn’t be taken. What’s different here is the ‘buckets of money’ comment was broadcast far and wide, correct?
In any event, thanks for sharing the details and perspective. I thinik it’s helpful to hear about life on the inside.
ed
JS
Hi Ed,
What you say is true and the Zube was lacking in any real support once his words were printed for all to see. In my ex[erience sales reps who are successful financially break down in two ways. The first is one who is all about the sale first and foremost with no real feeling for the people afflicted or the physicians who care for them. This group will do well if they have a good drug backed up by science but ultimately when the chips are down and the medicine is no longer the only choice will not have the relationships needed for continued success. The second group understands the suffering of the patient and the amount of time and energy that is needed to treat the disease especially cancer, HIV, and heart disease. These reps will be successful because they have good science and a willingness to reach out beyond themselves and the money they will make. When the chips are down this rep will continue to succeed with relationships built on a true belief the patient comes first. In my particular specialty it becomes apparent who is good at the big picture and those who are out for the so called “buckets of cash.” It is a fact that physicians and support staff will listen to someone who has some depth of character. We all know we do not work for free and there is a promise of rich rewards so the question becomes how do you want to accomplish that goal? Sales by any means or by relationships based on good science and a desire to get the best treatment for the patient? If you can pair the needs of the physician and patient with your own you will be successful and you will probably espouse those values in print. The Zube had the latter so his days were always numbered.
Lisa Van Syckel
This memo is mild compared to Glaxo Smithklines.SEE GLAXO SALES MEMOS AT http://abcnews.go.com/health/story?id=311956&page=1
Lisa Van Syckel
If you have trouble accessing this URL,do a google search for PAXIL MONEY BAG.You will be able to pull down 5 Glaxo sales memos that are quite DISTURBING.You can see that sales were more important than children committing suicide due to their drug!!!!
Anonymous
Zube also said:
“I heard early in the year at the Miami Breast Conference what letrozole was doing with their strategy. We should have changed our strategy with our core messages earlier in regards to selling against letrozole”.
However:
1) Anastrozole prescribing information has no mention of letrozole.
http://www.astrazeneca-us.com/pi/arimidex.pdf
2) Anastrozole core messages from AZ are against tamoxifen, not letrozole.
3) There are no AZ approved selling pieces against letrozole.
4) Any comparison to a competitor is against company policy without approved material and training.
5) Any oral statements made by AZ reps that minimize anastrozole side effects, ie cardiovascular death rates compared to letrozole, would be considered “misbranding” and put AZ at risk.
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