{"id":54475,"date":"2015-02-20T13:51:14","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T18:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=54475"},"modified":"2015-02-20T18:49:24","modified_gmt":"2015-02-20T23:49:24","slug":"no-good-deed-goes-unpunished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2015\/02\/20\/no-good-deed-goes-unpunished\/","title":{"rendered":"no good deed goes unpunished&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\" class=\"small\"><em>Society holds our interactions with our  customers &ndash; healthcare providers and payers &ndash; to a higher standard. And  it should. Society expects our business to be conducted openly and  transparently and in a way that does not create even a perception of  inappropriate influence.<\/em><\/div>\n<div align=\"right\" class=\"small\"><em>Deirdre Connelly <a href=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/blogs\/health\/images\/2011\/01\/connellyspeech.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">speech<\/a> January 2010<\/em><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\" class=\"small\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" vspace=\"2\" hspace=\"4\" height=\"150\" border=\"1\" align=\"left\" src=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/images\/5.jpg\" \/>The quote is from a <a href=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/blogs\/health\/images\/2011\/01\/connellyspeech.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">speech<\/a> given by then newly appointed CEO of GlaxoSmithKline America, Deirdre Connelly, at the <font color=\"#200020\">CBI 8th Annual Pharmaceutical Industry Compliance Congress<\/font> in January 2010. It was a year and a half before GSK agreed to their $3 B <a href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/glaxosmithkline-plead-guilty-and-pay-3-billion-resolve-fraud-allegations-and-failure-report\" target=\"_blank\">settlement<\/a>, &quot;<em>GSK agreed to plead guilty to a three-count criminal information, including two counts of introducing misbranded drugs, Paxil and Wellbutrin, into interstate commerce and one count of failing to report safety data about the drug Avandia to the Food and Drug Administration.<\/em>&quot; And it was long before GSK&#8217;s <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2013\/08\/06\/speaking-of-governments-doing-the-right-thing\/\">ChinaGate<\/a> scandal.  When I read this <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/blogs\/health\/images\/2011\/01\/connellyspeech.pdf\">speech<\/a> back then, I was awed [see <a href=\"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2011\/01\/25\/so-what-went-wrong\/\">&ldquo;so what went wrong?&rdquo;&hellip;<\/a>]. I guess I thought that either Connelly was the biggest sociopath on the planet, or she was an angel. I suspected the latter, but felt like I might be being the most gullible naive guy on the planet. I even hoped GSK would confess their sins [Study 329 for example]. But that didn&#8217;t happen. Deirdre Connelly, however, did happen. But now&#8230;<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"big\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/pharmalot\/2015\/02\/17\/a-glaxo-exec-retires-amid-sales-slump-and-reps-question-a-bonus-program\/\">A Glaxo Exec Retires Amid Sales Slump and Reps Question a Bonus Program<\/a><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"big\"><strong><font color=\"#004400\">Pharmalot: WSJ<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"middle\">By<a> Ed Silverman<\/a><\/div>\n<div align=\"center\" class=\"small\">Feb 17, 2015<\/div>\n<p align=\"justify\">In the latest shift at GlaxoSmithKline, Deirdre Connelly, who has run  the North American pharmaceuticals business for nearly six years, is  retiring, according to a memo distributed yesterday to employees. She  will be replaced by Jack Bailey, who most recently headed government  affairs, managed markets and the vaccines business in the U.S.,  according to the memo. The move comes amid an ongoing reorganization at Glaxo, which has  promised to cut expenses by $1.6 billion annually through 2017. The drug  maker is struggling with declining sales in its key respiratory  franchise and an overall sales drop in the U.S., which is its most  important market and accounts for roughly one-third of companywide  revenue.<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">&ldquo;The U.S. healthcare environment is extremely challenging. We are  making good progress with payers and early signals are encouraging, but  there remains a lot to deliver,&rsquo; Abbas Hussain, the president of the  Glaxo global pharmaceuticals business, wrote in the e-mail to employees.  The memo was first reported by Bloomberg News. &ldquo;With Jack heading the U.S. business, I feel confident that we have  the right experience to steer us through the current environment and  deliver our strategy. I&rsquo;d also like to thank Deirdre for her leadership  of the U.S. business these last six years &ndash; she is a great leader and a  good friend. I&rsquo;m incredibly grateful for everything she has done to  reshape the U.S. business.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">The change comes after a management reshuffling last year in which  Connelly, who arrived from Eli Lilly, began reporting to Abbas.  Previously, she reported directly to Glaxo chief executive Andrew Witty,  who has been under pressure to engineer a rebound not only from  declining sales, but also a bribery scandal in China. During her tenure, Connelly, 54, attempted to steer Glaxo through a  turbulent period. Last year, sales of respiratory medicines fell 18% in  the U.S., due to both lower volume and price reductions. This reflected a  25% drop in Advair, one of its most important medicines [<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gsk.com\/media\/594405\/q4-2014-results-announcement.pdf\">see here<\/a>].  Two newer products have so far not generated anywhere near the needed  sales levels. The Abbas e-mail also noted that Jorge Bartolome,&nbsp;a senior  vice president for the respiratory &nbsp;and medical centre unit, is  leaving.<\/p>\n<div align=\"justify\">Besides the challenges of growing sales, however, Connelly also  implemented a new and closely watched marketing program for sales reps  called Patient First. Begun in 2011, this was designed in 2011, before  the drug maker paid a $3 billion <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/glaxosmithkline-plead-guilty-and-pay-3-billion-resolve-fraud-allegations-and-failure-report\">fine<\/a> to the U.S. government to settle allegations of improper drug marketing to physicians, among other things. The program was seen as ground breaking because reps are not paid  bonuses based on the volume of prescriptions written by doctors.  Instead, bonuses have been based on product knowledge, business acumen  and understanding needs of patients and physicians, which were assessed  in written tests and simulations conducted by third parties. Supervisory  observations are also used [<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/freepdfhosting.com\/00c11624dc.pdf\">details are here<\/a>]&#8230;  &ldquo;The company put a lot of faith and effort in this system working and  we are putting patients first,&rdquo; says a Glaxo sales rep who asked not to  be named. &ldquo;But you wouldn&rsquo;t go to a car salesman, who just sold some  cars, and pay him based on his knowledge of the auto industry instead of  commission. Salespeople are in it for sales and they&rsquo;ve been seeing  declines because the motivation isn&rsquo;t there.&rdquo;&#8230;<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"small\">Some more from that speech in 2010&#8230;  <\/div>\n<ul>\n<div align=\"justify\" class=\"small\"><em>Doctors don&#8217;t need us to teach them how to practice medicine. But doctors do benefit from the very specific and extensive knowledge we have about our medicines and the conditions they treat. After all, it&#8217;s hard for health care providers to stay current with all the information available about thousands of medicines &#8211; and the new ones coming to market. When our GSK sales representatives talk with doctors, we require that they share the extensive knowledge they have about our drugs &#8211; including both who should, and importantly, who should not, take our medicines. This is something that my management team and I set as a fundamental requirement. Employees are trained to inform their customers when our products are not right for their patients. That is just one example of delivering value to the physician that is in the best interest of the patient&#8230;<\/em><\/div>\n<div align=\"right\" class=\"small\"><em>Deirdre Connelly <a href=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/blogs\/health\/images\/2011\/01\/connellyspeech.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">speech<\/a> January 2010<\/em><\/div>\n<\/ul>\n<div align=\"justify\" class=\"small\">My guess would be that Glaxo&#8217;s slump is not just from Connelly&#8217;s policies, but from many other forces as well. Advair now has some healthy competition. And recall that the off-label promotion of Advair was part of that $3 B <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/glaxosmithkline-plead-guilty-and-pay-3-billion-resolve-fraud-allegations-and-failure-report\">settlement<\/a> against GSK. So falling sales are no surprise: <\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\"><strong><font color=\"#200020\">Off-Label Promotion and Kickbacks<\/font><\/strong>: The civil  settlement resolves claims set forth in a complaint filed by the United  States alleging that, in addition to promoting the drugs Paxil and  Wellbutrin for unapproved, non-covered uses, GSK also promoted its  asthma drug, Advair, for first-line therapy for mild asthma patients  even though it was not approved or medically appropriate under these  circumstances. GSK also promoted Advair for chronic obstructive  pulmonary disease with misleading claims as to the relevant treatment  guidelines&#8230;<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div align=\"justify\" class=\"small\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"90\" vspace=\"4\" hspace=\"4\" border=\"1\" align=\"right\" src=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2011\/01\/24\/connelly_vert.jpg\" \/>I may yet be naive and gullible, but I still think Deirdre Connelly was legit. If that&#8217;s true, her <em>retirement<\/em> brings up something fundamental. Can a publicly owned pharmaceutical company survive in a world where a drug isn&#8217;t hyped up and sold with aggressive and deceitful marketing? where it&#8217;s instead allowed to stand on its actual worth based on efficacy and safety? or will the push for profits, and the dreams of becoming a <em>blockbuster<\/em> drive the show? Whatever the case, let&#8217;s hope that her influence and policies have at least some sticking power. And if she applies to the FDA, let&#8217;s give her a long hard look&#8230; <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Society holds our interactions with our customers &ndash; healthcare providers and payers &ndash; to a higher standard. And it should. Society expects our business to be conducted openly and transparently and in a way that does not create even a perception of inappropriate influence. Deirdre Connelly speech January 2010 The quote is from a speech [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54475"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54515,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54475\/revisions\/54515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}