February layoffs

I have heard that the reorganization will start in February after everyone is back from the holidays. The layoffs have been from 5% (mostly home office) up to 25% ( lack of diabetes and lackluster CV sales combined with Auvi Q). Scott Ohrlein is leading the charge to "cut costs" - best in class.

 

Scotty and Pauly maybe part of that 25%. They Shit the Bed

 

OMG...is this true? Im going to slow down just in case it is. You know, take it easy breezy. Once I know that Im safe for the long term, then will I start working hard again. Until then, its gonna be fake calls and enjoy the long holiday break. Cheers and happy holidays! Thanks for the heads up.

 

Its all about the drug pipeline. When drugs are new, and higher priced, you need a large and experienced sales force out there to drive adoption. When drugs are mature or have gone generic, the need decreases. Sanofi just went through their three year launch plans in November. If they really believe in their own commentary, the company will still need strong and experienced sales forces to handle the launches and the layoffs will be small. If they are just shoveling shit (and they know it) expect the worse.

In either case, I cannot fathom a 5% reduction in corporate. I suspect it will be much higher than 5%.

 

It should be 50 percent of home office lackeys. Scott, Fink, Jez , Barry all need to be shown the door. No more Launch Outhouse plans for 2016.

 

With the new launches of Toujeo and Praluent, we should be good for a while. I feel like they need us now more than ever with competition the way it is in Diabetes and CV. Thoughts?

 

You're either a troll or an institutional ABL.

 

There are two ways to handle product launches. In days gone by all the pharmas would staff up and launch with their own resources, but in the last 5-10 years the trend has been to add only those sales people that will be needed long term (i.e. well-beyond the launch window). Extra headcount needed to help with a launch can come from contractors who can be let go when they are no longer needed. None of that should be news to anybody.

What is different here is that the company is going to book a big charge for restructuring, and it will be a very large number. What is the difference between a $1.2 billion write-off and a $1.4 billion write-off for a company as large as Sanofi. Basically the extra $200 million is a rounding error as far as Wall Street and management are concerned. If the goal is to trim the diabetes and CV sales forces to the bare bones, the smart move is to add some extra money into the restructuring pool and reduce the headcount now, hiring people back as contractors for a year or two if needed. That way the one-time cost gets ignored for financial reporting (nobody will pay attention to the special charge for restructuring), while a severance program in 2017 or 2018 would hit the financial statements.

If management believes that the pipeline will supply winning drugs for the next five years, they will keep the sales forces intact. Toujeo and Praluent, by themselves, are not enough to protect the sales force, but with several more new drugs in the near term it might be possible. However, Pfizer and a lot of other large companies would tell you that basing sales force retention strategies on the assumption of successful and on-time completion of R&D projects is not a winning strategy.

 

This is not good. How much money was paid out to get the month jump on Amgen? Might want request a refund on that voucher.


Amgen and Regeneron Face Declining PCSK-9 Prescription Volumes
Amgen and Regeneron Face Declining PCSK-9 Prescription Volumes
Bidness Etc evaluates declining prescription volumes for Amgen Inc. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Dec 7, 2015 at 9:02 am Est

Amgen and Regeneron Face Declining PCSK-9 Prescription Volumes

• NASDAQ:AMGN) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:REGN) have been facing slow growth for their newly launched cholesterol controlling drugs. Recent prescription data shows that scripts for PCSK-9 inhibitors are declining. The drugs have been in the market for around 5 months, but haven’t made an impact yet, which could be attributed to the slow pace in deals between drug makers and payers.
  
  
  Repatha, developed by Regeneron, and Sanofi SA and Praluent, developed by Amgen, belong to a new class of cholesterol controlling treatments called PCSK-9 inhibitors. Repatha, which costs $14,600 for annual treatment, was the first-in-class drug to secure an approval in July this year. Praluent was approved in August, at a slightly lower price tag of $14,100 for annual treatment.
  
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  Even before the drugs were launched, there was speculation they would be targeted by health insurers and healthcare managers, who had already taken measures to control increasing drug prices. Upon the launch of Repatha, health insurers and healthcare managers seem to be facing a situation similar to the one faced in the HCV landscape.
  
  The HCV market was being controlled single-handedly by Gilead's blockbuster drugs, which were exorbitantly priced and unaffordable. Due to a lack of alternatives in the market, health insurers did not have any leverage to urge the drugmaker to lower drug prices. It was only after a competitive HCV treatment was launched in December by AbbVie, that healthcare managers took action against drugmakers allegedly charging exorbitant prices.
  
  It was announced that only the drug, which would be offered at a lower price, will be provided coverage. Express Scripts announced that it will be covering AbbVie’s drug instead of Gilead’s, since the former offered a significant discount on its product. This initiated a price war, which urged Gilead to offer competitive prices to get its drugs covered by other leading healthcare managers as well. In around a month, all the healthcare managers and insurers had chosen their sides, and were covering HCV drugs.
  
  The same strategy was announced by healthcare managers for PCSK-9 inhibitors as well. It was claimed that the drugs are exorbitantly priced, and that the companies can make profits even if they tag the drugs at a lower price. The companies countered this claim by stating that the drugs’ benefits are worth the price.
  
  The PCSK-9 inhibitors work by targeting specific protein that keeps the liver from functioning properly, which increases bad cholesterol levels. These new potent drugs help lower LDL cholesterol in patients, who are unable to control it through traditional cholesterol treatments, including statins.
  
  Though health insurers planned to adopt the same strategy for these drugs, as the one used in the HCV space, the pace of deals has been very slow. The first payer deal was announced in October; two months after the first PCSK-9 inhibitor hit the market.
  
  Express Scripts, the largest pharmacy benefit manager, announced that it will be covering both the new cholesterol drugs, since it was able to negotiate significant discounts with the two drug makers. Later in November, another leading pharmacy benefit manager, CVS health, announced that it will provide exclusive coverage to Amgen’s Repatha, since the drugmaker offered a “substantial” discount on its PCSK-9 inhibitor. Last week, Oxford, a unit of UnitedHealth, announced that it will prescribe Regeneron’s Praluent first, while Amgen’s Repatha will only be provided to patients who have a certain history with the drug. Oxford announced that the preference was mainly driven by the two different dosages available for Praluent.
  
  Amgen’s PCSK-9 Inhibitor Receives More Prescriptions Compared to Regeneron’s
  For the week ending on November 27, total prescriptions for Amgen’s Repatha stood at 505 scripts, a 32% Week-over-Week decline. Similarly, total prescriptions for Regeneron’s Praluent declined by 34% and stood at 278, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
  
  Since both drugs possess similar efficacy, safety profiles, and price tags, one of the reasons why prescriptions for Amgen's Repatha seems to be ahead of Regeneron’s drug could be its convenient dosage opition. Praluent, which is available in two strengths, is required to be administered every two weeks. On the other hand, Repatha needs to be injected only once a month.
  
  
  
  

 

So what you are saying is that they can tuck the price of the headcount reduction into a restructuring. And that is the most likely course of action based on pipeline realities which include a very competitive insulin market and a not so great launch for new CV drug. The way things are going industry wide it would seem a new strategy (using contract) would certainly be in order. And the way it is all going here specifically I am not sure that anything but that makes sense. No matter what I am getting my resume together because this job has become a total grind anyway. The admin work has finally eclipsed any good I could possibly do in the field. I am consistently surprised by how conservative and stuck in old ways Pharma really is. You would think someone would have figured out an innovative approach by now. I have lost hope for that. Someone flush this toilet.

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! a 34% decrease?????!!!! It was the week of Thanksgiving. Maybe this idiot journalist should invest in a calendar.

 

why hasn't management communicated this to everyone. It seems hospital team had a conference call, but no one else did. Does that mean they are only ones gone? Or are they safe? Seems weird that that team has a call, but not the entire sales force.

 

Exactly so. If the company has a specific plan to reduce headcount, those costs get rolled into the one-time restructuring charge. The company then has some reasonable time to pull the trigger on the actual cuts, but it has to be done within a year to 18 months or the auditors will get cranky. After the financial reserve is exhausted, any further cuts would hit the income statement (say in 2018).

The industry trend has been to cut first and rehire when necessary, even if that looks somewhat stupid. Anybody who works in healthcare that does not have their resume updated and are not working to build and maintain contacts outside the industry are playing a dangerous game.

 

It is indeed ominous that the hospital team was invited in and not the PC sales force. You can draw your own conclusions. I can see the hospital team being reduced. I'm guessing the diabetes side will see few changes, but you never really know.

 

What do they have?

Afrezza - joke, the special ed kid of diabetes products
Lantus - profitable but sales are shrinking; biosim lantus months away.
Lixilan - Afrezza's one eyed cousin. Real hard sell, prior approval nightmare
Lixi - 6th glp to market, 3 once per weeks out there, 2 more down the road
Toujeo - days are numbered once biosim Lantus comes out. The only way to get it on formulary is to discount the shit out of it, race to the bottom, slim margins.
Praluent - PBM's keep PSKs them on a short leash. Try to get an approval -- good luck. Hub?

Speaking of race to the bottom, that's where our salaries are headed. CSO's are the future. They make less than us and are just as effective. New districts will be 2 Specialty reps and six CSO's. DM's can handle 2 such districts.

Hospital reps? Ummm, I don't think we need them with a commodity like insulin.

The only silver lining is an early retirement for fossilized reps and the fact that self important DMs and Novo are heading down the drain alongside us.

I survived the 2010 Thanksgiving layoff. I predict this one will be as deep.

 

I did not survive the last layoff and it was like I was sick all those years and suddenly got better. I regularly meet with two other bounced reps like myself and each of us lost weight and our BP dropped after living years in the torturous abstract world of Sanofi.

 

This just in from Paris: the beatings will continue until the morale improves.