Regardless of you political affiliation, if any, it’s hard to ignore the fact that one party is in favor of a socialist government. This includes healthcare & wealth re-distribution. America has the BEST healthcare in the world. While not perfect, the free-market has led to it’s success. If anyone thinks healthcare is expensive now, wait until the Nanny State gives it to us for free.

My colleagues who worked in Pharma after the ‘92 election cited knee-jerk layoffs by many companies as they braced for socialized medicine. Thankfully, Socialized Healthcare legislation died a quick death, but the damage had been done to those laid off. That’s the price we pay for being in sales, specically pharma sales.

Good luck to all.

It is not the reps fault, either. Because the majority of reps that I have met are intelligent and respectful of the physicians time. But when there are five reps waiting to see a physician, because he only sees them on Weds and Thurs, the looks that I get from the patients does not make me feel good about my job.

Also, the Direct-to-Consumer Advertising has to stop. It turns my stomach watching the News and every other commercial is for Lipitor or Zetia or some other drug. I think the drug companies should only be allowed to advertise the “Disease State”. This way, the people who argue that patients need a way to learn about quality-of-life drugs will be satisfied. But the patients will not know the name of the drug, only that there is a “new treatment for XXXXXX”. Here, it is the doctor that will make the call on the medication, not the patient.

This industry is a great industry, and the products have allowed people to live healthier and more active lives. But the marketing tactics need to be looked at.

I’ve been in the industry less than a decade, so from my perspective things have always been very volatile. Here’s a few things that give me a modest amount of optimism for my career in this industry:
1) Growth opportunities abroad. Tom, you are correct that the US has born the burden of R&D. But we’ve also, as researchers, reaped the benefits. If pharmaceuticals really take off in India/China, the R&D (for the short term) will likely be done largely here in the US. This may offset some of the current troubles we are having. While offshoring has gained a lot of press, the hard-core pharma research has bucked this trend (knock on wood) and stayed here in the US and Europe.
2) Major breakthroughs in a significant disease area: think HIV, HCV, alzheimer’s, cancer. If a single company makes a breakthrough in any ONE of these areas, they will likely have the cash to bankroll large amounts of R&D for the next 10-15 years.
3)Systemic health care costs: it seems counterintuitive, but drugs are actually saving the economy large amounts of money due to shorter hospital stays, treatments that avoid surgery, and higher productivity due to less work time missed. If and when this is recognized, I’m somewhat hopeful that politicians and the public will recognize the value of pharmaceuticals and continue to allow a political climate where pharma R&D can prosper.

In spite of these three areas of “optimism”, I have to agree that the mood of all of my colleagues in pharma R&D is quite grim. Technologies come and go. Aeronautics & space flight had their heyday a couple decades ago. Pharma is coming down from the highs of 10 years ago. It seems like the next generation of scientists have nanotechnology and the energy sector to look forward to. There will always be a need for scientists, but exactly they are employed will constantly be changing.