A Soap Opera: Pharmaceuticals Is An Ugly Business
16 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // March 15th, 2008 // 11:26 am
Who doesn’t enjoy a good soap opera now and then, especially on a lazy weekend? And as this series of clips illustrates, pharma can provide good fodder. Here are the first eight installments of life at Rx Pharmaceuticals, a drugmaker that knows how to handle its sales reps. Does Nikky, the district sales manager, know what she’s doing when she forces the high-performing Camille to give up the lucrative Bevery Hills territory? Will Camille go to Inglewood quietly or look for another job? Can Landon develop rapport with her docs or lose her job? And what about Jennifer? Will she ever understand how to sell Paxatram? Or is she just another cheerleader?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Hat tip to Pharmagossip
Dr. Sal Giorgianni
This soap-opera thing and the Pharmagossip have no place in serious journalism. Shame on you, Pharmalot, for propagating such trash.
Ed Silverman
Hi Sal,
As you may recall, I have, sometimes, added offbeat items during the past year-plus as a way to add levity to what is, almost always, serious material and discussion here.
Do you remember the parody of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ song, in which the lyrics state: ‘Imagine there are no sales reps?’ Some liked it, some didn’t. Like this soap opera, I posted it to serve as a distraction, or something of a break in the action, if you will.
And yes, I do aspire to serious journalism. Pharmalot was just recognized by the Association of Health Care Journalists for a series last year on inappropriate marketing of an AIDS med by Pfizer. But like most publications and web sites, there is often room for different offerings that attempt to achieve different goals.
I understand that not everyone may share my taste, but not everyone shares my news judgement, either. That said, I opted to post this series because it does, in fact, closely mirror a regular daytime soap opera, only this one involves pharma and sales reps.
And the issues portrayed, while simplistic at times, do touch on many of the same issues that are posted and discussed on this site. It’s not as if this is off topic.
I’m sorry you were put off, but I find it interesting that such a soap series about pharma and its reps is out there. Not everyone may like the portrayal, but its existence is intriguing. And so I decided that was another reason to post.
Regards
ed
Donnan Nellas
Its a boring thing, watching soap operas. Its a sign of lazy people..!!
bob
Dear Ed:
First, your sports page lost its luster.
Now, this. You’re getting closer and closer to the NY Times. What trash. Shame on you for even publishing it.
Robert Britting Sr.
Ed Silverman
Hi Bob,
Did you see my comment above? Please take a look. And Pharmalot does not have a sports page.
Regards
ed
www.worldpharmanews.net
Pharmalot » A Soap Opera: Pharmaceuticals Is An Ugly Business…
Who doesn’t enjoy a good soap opera now and then, especially on a lazy weekend? And as this series of clips illustrates, pharma can provide good fodder. Here then are the first eight installment of life at Rx Pharmaceuticals, a drugmaker that knows ho…
Chris
Like any other service that offers a choice, so does Pharmalot. If you don’t find a particular post interesting, don’t click on it. There’s plenty of serious, though-provoking stuff to read and think about.
Insider
For Dr. Sal Giorgianni,
Thank you so much for your kind words.
It’s good to know that we are making an impression.
All the very best and Happy St Paddy’s Day.
Jack
http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com
Insider
Oh, and by the way Sal, keep your eyes peeled on PharmaGossip for a “just for you” post!
MyPharmalotID
Say what you will, it sure beats the depressing thoughts associated with Drs. Scher and Hussain and their COIs, the impact they might have had on the approval of Provenge, and the almost 26,000 deaths from PCa since Black Wednesday, May 9, 2007!!!
Nathan
Ed,
For what it’s worth, these “humorous” things that you post from time-to-time always are at the expense of an industry full of hard-working and honest people who work to develop life-saving medications. I think Bob (and myself) would appreciate your humor a little more if it were balanced. I’ve never seen any humorous stuff on your website about frivolous lawsuits. What about ill-informed juries making ridicules decisions about patents? Your humor is one-sided — the pharma industry is always the butt of the joke. While those pieces are funny sometimes, your inclusion of them on your site says something about the views that you try to hard hide in your journalistic pieces. If you strive to be unbiased in your reporting, I think you should strive to be unbiased in your humor as well.
Ed Silverman
Hi Nathan,
With all due respect, I’ve already explained my decision about why I chose to post the soap opera. And I’m not ‘hiding’ my own views in choosing to post this particular soap opera. Go back and read my explanation if you’re not clear - it addresses some of the issues that are often discussed on this site.
I’m not sure which other humorous items you’re referring to when you say the pharma industry is always the butt of the joke here. You suggest there have been a lot. In reality, I’ve posted only a couple of outright parody items since the site launched in January 2007 - one was the spoof of John Lennon’s Imagine, which I already mentioned, and that was last summer. (Recently, I did post two politically oriented humorous items - about Kennedy, Obama and Clinton; and last week, about Spitzer).
Lastly, I like to think I have a well-developed and well-rounded sense of humor (candidly, you need one to be a journalist and run this kind of site). But I’ll tell you what - if I find a parody of ‘frivolous’ lawsuits concerning pharma, and it’s a well done parody, I will consider posting. To the best of my knowledge, no one has bothered to make a good one.
Regards
ed
Chris
Nathan
I like your posts in general but how on earth can you ask for unbiased humor? What would that look like? Lowest common demoniator - offend no-one? Hello C-Span.
In general I’m pro industry and find the rants and raves on here sometimes ludicrous, usually interesting, and probably well intended. And often, very funny in an unintentional way: especially the super-opinionated anti-pharma zealots who can find nothing of value in that industry in which we have spent many years.
So perhaps try to see that a bit more and let the unintentional humor from ‘those whom we know’ screech for itself.
Justice in Michigan
I suppose this is beside the point, but I checked out the first clip.
One thing is clear - this is _not_ the Actors Studio…
Nathan
Ok, fair enough. I only found two additional “funny” things on this site with Pharma as the butt. The third was Eliott Spitzer a few days ago.
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