Schering: Cafe Pharma Is A Men’s Room Wall
20 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // December 12th, 2008 // 1:28 pm
That’s what the drugmaker’s attorneys have to say about the gossipy forum where anonymous sales reps - and who knows who else - stop by to rant, rave and remonstrate about all things pharma. Well, mostly pharma. There is some lurid talk now and then.
But why does the Lowenstein Sandler law firm, which represents Schering-Plough, bother with CafePharma at all? The drugmaker is accused in a class-action lawsuit of playing shenanigans with the results of the Enhance clinical trial for Vytorin, which raised questions about the effectiveness of the heavily advertised cholesterol pill. And in their lawsuit, shareholders cited comments on CafePharma that suggested some folks at the drugmaker knew of the less-than-impressive results beforehand (back story).
Schering-Plough has repeatedly argued its execs knew nothing of the results until early this month, but the remarks prompted the House Energy & Commerce Committee to seek the identities of the poster (look here), although the web site refused to comply (see here). For their part, the lawyers are having none of it. In pointed remarks in a brief filed in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, they had this to say about the web site:
“CafePharma is designed for use by sales representatives at competing drug companies. Messages left there are anonymous and, according to CafePharma itself, their authors can never be traced. With that license of complete anonymity, CafePharma is a haven for racism, misogyny, wild speculation, and misinformation.
“Crude comments about the physical appearance of femaleexecutives and sales representatives, as well as the sexual prowess of their male counterparts, flood the site. Minorities are denigrated and pilloried. Individuals pose as ‘insiders’ at competing drug companies for the purpose of smearing their products, in the apparent hope of securing a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Rumormongering abounds on the board; indeed, if the messages were to be believed, then Schering should have long ago disappeared through a corporate merger or acquisition. CafePharma is, literally. the cyberspace equivalent of scrawls left on a men’s room wall…it would cheapen the process of justice to rely on anonymous messages left on a message board rife with racism, bigotry, misogyny, and wild (not to mention provably false) speculation and rumor to justify a claim for liability under the securities laws.”
Of course, to make their point, the lawyers go on to cite some rather eye-opening posts, although whether that can be used to convince a judge that all posts are useless and incredible remains to be seen. See for yourself right here.
Hat tip to ShearlingsGotPlowed
Doc
CafePharma is like alot of the internet - much garbage, some truth. The most ironic thing about the law firm putting the most offensive posts in their document, is that many of those same lawyers probably talk and/or think that way themselves (and the Schering execs).
Freedom of speech is not always pretty.
Salmon
Is Pharmalot next?
Salmon
Compliance Analyst
I actually went to that website for the first time and was blown away by the amount of garbage. Anonymous, untraceable postings for a website….it gives all the spineless people a chance to shout out their “thoughts”.
BPW
The reason that many SP employees choose to reveal information through CafePharma is that Schering-Plough will fire them and make their lives miserable if they ever ask any questions about anything that has been authorized by management. At Schering-Plough, you either live by their distorted code or you-re out the door and black-balled in the industry. While much of what appears on the site is very questionable, unfortunately much of it is true. In my opinion, the people that lead the company are boys and girls gone awry!
MM
The offensiveness of some of the postings on cafepharma seems irrelevant. The question is are the comments about executives of SP knowing the results of ENHANCE way before they say they did relevant to the allegations in the complaint. They are. The motion to strike the allegations seems like BS.
Jeffrey Clark, CEO of Beaker.com, The Online Community for Life Sciences Professionals
The offensiveness of Cafe Pharma is not irrelevant. Just because freedom of speech allows us to hide in anonymity and act like kindergarteners doesn’t mean that we should.
This industry is too big, too specialized, too educated and too important to not have an exclusive online platform where its professionals & executives can share thoughts, perspective & opinions about managing a career in the life sciences. Instead we rely upon LinkedIn to link us to people we don’t care about…we rely on Monster, CareerBuilder & HotJobs to flood us with irrelevant classified ads…and we thus are lumped in with the masses.
Instead we should seek each other out inside a platform that caters to our experience, quenches our thirst for perspective & knowledge, and matches our ambition as life sciences professionals….and stop wasting time with the school kids on sites like CafePharma.
Condor
Just like Koestler before him — Schering GC Tom Sabatino (late on a wintery Friday night, no less!) just literally-waddled to the front of the “piggie-payout trough” in Kennilworth, NJ — and extracted $500,000 IN CASH — no earnouts — and a bump to over $850,000 per year in salary alone.
In addition, select Schering executives have amended their severance payments, to increase the tax advantages to them, if they are severed AFTER the scheduled roll-back of Bush’s tax cuts on the richest one percent of American individuals. Shameful.
all of this — right after the surveys on pay were due back in — are you reading this Wellington (Schering’s largest shareholder)?
This is outrageous. It is no wonder schering executives are pilloried on CafePharma. This, after nearly 10,000 fellow schering employees lost their jobs over what is allegedly his ineptitude (and CEO Hassan’s). Take a look:
http://shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/12/tom-sabatino-waddles-to-front-of-piggie.html
I cannot believe they think this will go down without a fight.
Namaste
Former SP
Jeffrey Clark,
My guess is that you have never been shafted for trying to do what is right. Many SP employees have been because trying to do what is right is not well thought of at the company. Many employees are legitimately angry with Schering-Plough, especially the behavior of the top of the top executives. It has been shameful! It has been disgusting! CafePharma allows many of them to convey their frustration by revealing some of the hypocrisy that exists at the company. Many have done so. if they think cafePharma is like a bathroom wall, they should go to the Kenilworth Headquarters. Now that’s a real bathroom!
Dingle
Jeffrey,
You bash CafePharma and then state “This industry is too big, too specialized, too educated and too important to not have an exclusive online platform where its professionals & executives can share thoughts, perspective & opinions about managing a career in the life sciences.”. There are such sites out there, for example - Beaker.com . Oh wait, you are the CEO, but of course. Shameless plug!!!
Look, almost every rep is up on CafePharma - people love to gossip. Some folks get out of hand, this happens on all unmoderated community forums. Bottom linecommunity sites, and cafepharma meets that demand. And don’t just cherry-pick posts and say the site is a bunch of children, there are just as many insightful and valuable comments as there are trash comments.
Observation
This bathroom wall has a lot to reveal! Discovery will reveal the truth!
Doc
Jeffrey Clark,
Here’s a novel idea for you - if you don’t like venues like CafePharma, then don’t go there.
I have worked for more than one big pharma company, try approaching anyone above you with legitimate concerns on any number of issues. You are black-balled within these companies if you do so.
It is perfectly natural for frustrated employees to go over board on some posts. Such is life.
“This industry is too big, too specialized, too educated and too important” - are you kidding me!? Do you really think that education dissuades people from crude talk and behavior? Anyone is capable of these things, to think otherwise might be wishful, but naive.
The truth still remains that these same types of crude language and think - are expressed in many big pharma exec suites and by their legal counsel.
Marilyn Mann
“The offensiveness of Cafe Pharma is not irrelevant.” I meant irrelevant to defendants’ motion to strike.
Jeffrey Clark, CEO of Beaker.com, The Online Community for Life Sciences Professionals
Thanks for the clarifying point, Maryilyn. You sparked a passionate debate for sure.
Former SP, I agree that Kenilworth HQ is a concrete jungle that could use a makeover. Was just there on a rainy day last month & it’s not the cheeriest place on the planet.
Doc, I am not a frequenter of CP. Prefer to spend my time on the more ‘educated’ platforms that cater to this industry.
And, Dingle, thanks for the plug. I won’t use Pharmalot for such a purpose. I’ve got too much respect for Ed & the platform to troll around advertising Beaker.
Sarah Palmer
Jeffrey,
Funny you should say that. At approximately 12:30 ET this morning, someone made the following posts on cafepharma:
One, with the unregistered name Chief Beaker:
“There still are great companies out there, just a little harder to find now. The proof is at Beaker.”
And a second, with the unregistered name CEO of Beaker.com:
“In the past few months, the three major job boards have fallen apart. Traffic, postings & revenue are all off as employers & job seekers question the value of the generalist job board model. Unemployment is at an high water mark for the past few decades, yet the users have chosen other ways of pursuing the next likely option in their career.
So, if the online recruiting industry is firing blanks with all their ‘new’ technologies, what’s the answer?”
Strange, huh?
Sarah Palmer
As to the claims that Cafepharma is nothing but a bathroom wall: if there were no value or truth to some of the posts on the cafepharma boards, we would not have had the success that we have had. There are plenty of places on the internet for bathroom wall talk. Cafepharma clearly offers something more.
Employees in the pharmaceutical industry need a safe place to discuss issues that are important to them. Cafepharma provides that place.
Pharma Doc
Pharma employees need to be able to speak up. They can’t speak up within the company or they will be fired! I’ve seen it happen several times. If an honest, ethical employee speaks up for what’s right, it’s off with his head! These powerful companies that refuse to play by the rules and think they are above the law need to be taken to task for their actions. I really hope that the judge sees right through their bull and allows discovery.
pharma professional
I see pharma companies in a bind. They are tightly regulated, and a comment by any employee who is deemed to “represent” them can get them into major trouble. (Remember the “homemade bread” sales pieces that sales reps used to make and the trouble that created.) So, perhaps more than other industries, they need to have tight controls on what people say. But, of course, employees are valuable for their opinions and insights. Getting the balance right is tricky and I don’t know the answer.
Dave
Here’s the answer. they need to focus on getting honest, ethical indivduals to run their companies instead of the dregs that run them now. If employees respected the executives and the job they were doing, then you wouldn’t see all the criticism on Cafepharma. However, when companies like SP lay people off and then turn around and give their top executives huge raises and large amounts of money, then the employees have every right to be upset. In the case of SP, it seems that the executives have betrayed the employees and their employees no longer trust them. In addition, they have no respect for the greedy bastards!
Notso
As a multi decade SP employee, SP management embarrasses me and I am no longer proud of my work here. Graft, corruption and downright shameless greed of the top 10 - Hassan, Bertolini, Cox, Sabatino, Becherer, and the rest whose regular SEC required earnings filings infuriate me when we are in the middle of a supposed PTP or Performance Transformation Plan should be ashamed. You bet we are upset. We all look at Cafe Pharma. Those of us who are grown ups can sift through the posts and figure out a trend or a legitimate tip. (I wish the bathroom wall posters would be more professional. I skip past them like getting rid of a hot potato. I also wish Sarah Palmer would filter out certain words and require a higher level of communication.) There are worthwhile posts on the site as it is our only way to speak candidly about a company who has done what it wants with impunity for so long, they have no regard for the law or for consequences. (They just say they do.)
Glad2BOut
Perfectly put Notso. I too dedicated well over a decade of my career there. In the beginning, I was proud of my affiliation with S/P. Ultimately, that pride was replaced by disgust and embarrassment as a result of questionable ethics and behavior related to Schering’s executive management team.
I also concur with your comments about filtering out the filthy language in CP, and we agree that such a forum is necessary because it facilitates workers to respond to and challenge the hypocrisy that Schering Plough’s senior management communicates to the corporation, the stockholders, and to the public.