Showing posts with label zubillaga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zubillaga. Show all posts
Monday, November 02, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Pharma Giles writes .......
Pussy for Pills – the true story so unbelievable they said it could never be made into a movie. Coming to a cinema near you.
The story so far…
Florida. September. Wayne looked out of the window of his luxury hotel penthouse suite and let his gaze wander across the distant sun-drenched beach to the sunlit horizon.
He smiled.
Life was good, and a $200,000 salary plus expense account to match went a long way towards keeping it that way. Sure, being a top gun medical director for AstraZeneca was demanding. Very demanding. But there were plenty of rewards.
Wayne turned that thought over in his mind and laughed quietly to himself. He turned his eyes from the rolling, golden curves of the sand dunes and back to the rolling, golden curves of Redacted, who was pacing back and forth in the room behind him.
Make that physically demanding, he thought.
“Just tell me what you want, Wayne,” she said, worrying a blood-red finger nail. “Tell me what you really want.”
Time to get back to work, Wayne realised. He shivered.
“Honey, what I’d really like is for you to turn the air-con down,” Wayne replied. “It’s freezing in here.”
Redacted’s flimsy, figure-hugging dress revealed a couple of tell-tale signs, signs of either the artificially cool apartment breeze or her aura of barely-suppressed excitement. Wayne suspected they were due to the latter.
“Wayne, you just don’t understand,” she sighed. “Industrial espionage isn’t my scene. I’m just a silly little clinical researcher at silly little Parexel. What possible use am I to a high-flyer at AZ like you?”
Wayne stood up sharply and took three short, quick strides across to where Redacted was standing. He seized her long, copper-coloured hair and pulled her tight to him.
“Stop it! You’re hurting me,” she squealed. Then… “Don’t stop….”
He kissed her savagely, crushing her mouth to his lips, and felt her tremble with hot, needy desire.
“You’ve got something I want,” he purred. “Times, dates, results. You know. And in return, I’ve got something you want…”
He felt her hand reach feverishly for his belt.
“No, not that,” he laughed. “Not yet, anyway…”
She smiled. “Did you bring them?”
“They’re in the drawer, by the bed. The small blue bottle.”
Redacted smiled and turned away into the bedroom. Wayne heard her open the drawer and take out the vial holding the three precious Vicodin tablets. Her reward for being such a good girl, he reflected.
Yes, such a good girl. Just like all of the others.
Wayne thought back to the early days. AZ had always been one long party. He remembered the corporate excesses of his old US CEO, good ol’ Lars. Now there was a guy who really knew who to party.
He smiled at the memory. Even back then, Wayne had acquired a reputation as a Don Juan amongst medical researchers. Love ‘em, lay ‘em, leave ‘em. Back then of course, such behaviour was perfectly acceptable, even encouraged and certainly greatly admired, even by the ladies.
His abilities in that sphere of research operations had not gone unnoticed by senior management, either.
“Zere iz nozzing wrong viz using your greasy pole to help climb ze greasy pole,” Lars himself had once joked to him.
Great days, great days. All different now, of course. Political correctness had forced out Lars long ago. And most of the characters like him.
“Not the anything has really changed,” Wayne’s former marketing colleague Mike Zubillaga had once said to him. “You can still pull the same old stunts to get results. The only thing is that now, if you get caught, your management will cut you off at the knees. They feel they have to pretend that they don’t know what really goes on. If it’s all going well, then fine, but if Joe Public finds out what you’re up to, then it’s goodbye. No way will an executive take a bullet in support of guys like us, these days.”
And boy, did Zube ever find that out the hard way, reflected Wayne…
“What are you thinking about, Wayne?” cooed Redacted, interrupting his reverie.
She was standing in the bedroom doorway, wearing a translucent white cotton hotel bathrobe. Her long, tanned legs carried her to his side.
“About us,” replied Wayne, truthfully.
And about the e-mails and the rumours. Seroquel had always been a product with a deep, dark secret, one that threatened bring down the whole AZ empire. Everyone who was anyone at AZ knew that, but now the smoke was blowing away and the mirrors were tarnishing. And the execs were looking for people to blame…
“Do you love me?” asked Redacted.
Wayne slid his hand inside her bathrobe. “Of course I do,” he smiled.
And it was true. He loved all of his ladies. Every one of them.
Her bathrobe slid to the floor. Redacted shivered with excitement as Wayne pressed his lips to her (continued next post…)
Well, it could have been like that. Check out Jim Edwards at BNET for the full, hilariously sleazy story from the real world…
The story so far…
Florida. September. Wayne looked out of the window of his luxury hotel penthouse suite and let his gaze wander across the distant sun-drenched beach to the sunlit horizon.
He smiled.
Life was good, and a $200,000 salary plus expense account to match went a long way towards keeping it that way. Sure, being a top gun medical director for AstraZeneca was demanding. Very demanding. But there were plenty of rewards.
Wayne turned that thought over in his mind and laughed quietly to himself. He turned his eyes from the rolling, golden curves of the sand dunes and back to the rolling, golden curves of Redacted, who was pacing back and forth in the room behind him.
Make that physically demanding, he thought.
“Just tell me what you want, Wayne,” she said, worrying a blood-red finger nail. “Tell me what you really want.”
Time to get back to work, Wayne realised. He shivered.
“Honey, what I’d really like is for you to turn the air-con down,” Wayne replied. “It’s freezing in here.”
Redacted’s flimsy, figure-hugging dress revealed a couple of tell-tale signs, signs of either the artificially cool apartment breeze or her aura of barely-suppressed excitement. Wayne suspected they were due to the latter.
“Wayne, you just don’t understand,” she sighed. “Industrial espionage isn’t my scene. I’m just a silly little clinical researcher at silly little Parexel. What possible use am I to a high-flyer at AZ like you?”
Wayne stood up sharply and took three short, quick strides across to where Redacted was standing. He seized her long, copper-coloured hair and pulled her tight to him.
“Stop it! You’re hurting me,” she squealed. Then… “Don’t stop….”
He kissed her savagely, crushing her mouth to his lips, and felt her tremble with hot, needy desire.
“You’ve got something I want,” he purred. “Times, dates, results. You know. And in return, I’ve got something you want…”
He felt her hand reach feverishly for his belt.
“No, not that,” he laughed. “Not yet, anyway…”
She smiled. “Did you bring them?”
“They’re in the drawer, by the bed. The small blue bottle.”
Redacted smiled and turned away into the bedroom. Wayne heard her open the drawer and take out the vial holding the three precious Vicodin tablets. Her reward for being such a good girl, he reflected.
Yes, such a good girl. Just like all of the others.
Wayne thought back to the early days. AZ had always been one long party. He remembered the corporate excesses of his old US CEO, good ol’ Lars. Now there was a guy who really knew who to party.
He smiled at the memory. Even back then, Wayne had acquired a reputation as a Don Juan amongst medical researchers. Love ‘em, lay ‘em, leave ‘em. Back then of course, such behaviour was perfectly acceptable, even encouraged and certainly greatly admired, even by the ladies.
His abilities in that sphere of research operations had not gone unnoticed by senior management, either.
“Zere iz nozzing wrong viz using your greasy pole to help climb ze greasy pole,” Lars himself had once joked to him.
Great days, great days. All different now, of course. Political correctness had forced out Lars long ago. And most of the characters like him.
“Not the anything has really changed,” Wayne’s former marketing colleague Mike Zubillaga had once said to him. “You can still pull the same old stunts to get results. The only thing is that now, if you get caught, your management will cut you off at the knees. They feel they have to pretend that they don’t know what really goes on. If it’s all going well, then fine, but if Joe Public finds out what you’re up to, then it’s goodbye. No way will an executive take a bullet in support of guys like us, these days.”
And boy, did Zube ever find that out the hard way, reflected Wayne…
“What are you thinking about, Wayne?” cooed Redacted, interrupting his reverie.
She was standing in the bedroom doorway, wearing a translucent white cotton hotel bathrobe. Her long, tanned legs carried her to his side.
“About us,” replied Wayne, truthfully.
And about the e-mails and the rumours. Seroquel had always been a product with a deep, dark secret, one that threatened bring down the whole AZ empire. Everyone who was anyone at AZ knew that, but now the smoke was blowing away and the mirrors were tarnishing. And the execs were looking for people to blame…
“Do you love me?” asked Redacted.
Wayne slid his hand inside her bathrobe. “Of course I do,” he smiled.
And it was true. He loved all of his ladies. Every one of them.
Her bathrobe slid to the floor. Redacted shivered with excitement as Wayne pressed his lips to her (continued next post…)
Well, it could have been like that. Check out Jim Edwards at BNET for the full, hilariously sleazy story from the real world…
Monday, April 23, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
The UK's Indy covers the Zubillaga Saga
A doctor's is a 'big bucket of money, grab a handful', said fired Astra sales chief
Published: 21 April 2007
The pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is at the centre of a storm in the US after firing one of its sales directors for comments he made likening doctors' offices to "a big bucket of money".
Documents have surfaced on industry insider websites allegedly describing illegal drug marketing practices and AstraZeneca has since launched an investigation into the activities of several employees.
Mike Zubillaga, who was regional sales director for AstraZeneca's Mid-Atlantic Business Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania, was quoted in a internal newsletter saying: "I see it like this: there is a big bucket of money sitting in every office. Every time you go, you reach your hand in the bucket and grab a handful. The more times you are in, the more money goes in your pocket. Every time you make a call, you are looking to make more money."
Unfortunately for Mr Zubillaga, who was intending to motivate his sales staff to sell more cancer drugs, an industry blogger got hold of the newsletter from a whistleblower and published the comments, sparking an online debate about the ethics of drug companies.
Concern was raised after another comment from Mr Zubillaga in the same newsletter appeared to highlight a more serious issue. He allegedly appeared to be suggesting sales staff should counter-promote drugs, which is selling by comparing another company's drug, a practice prohibited in the US.
AstraZeneca sacked Mr Zubillaga just hours after his comments surfaced on the web two weeks ago and said "the direction he gave the team violated the core purpose of the company".
The company said it was investigating claims about sales practices and compliance issues raised by various blogs. One group calling its self the AstraZeneca Group of Seven has been set up for employees "to submit comments anonymously".
"The company takes claims of misconduct very seriously and investigates these in a timely and effective manner," AstraZeneca said. Some investigations had been initiated and concluded while others were ongoing, the company said. "Responding to complaints is a fundamental element of our compliance programme and is consistent with the ethical values that underpin our business."
Some commentators have suggested that Mr Zubillaga was simply telling the truth, although others have taken offence. Peter Rost, a former marketing executive at Pfizer, who first posted the newsletter on his "whistleblower" blog two weeks ago, wrote: "AstraZeneca lacked the internal controls to make sure the truth didn't get out, and now they are trying to show they are holier than thou, by firing the guy who said what everyone knows to be true ... Instead of a reprimand, AstraZeneca created a sacrificial lamb to cover the corporate rear end."
Friday, April 20, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
AstraZeneca - the Zubillaga saga contd.
The News Journal reports:
Less than two weeks after it fired a pharmaceutical sales manager for comments in a company newsletter, AstraZeneca was defending itself again Monday.
The maker of such drugs as Nexium, a treatment for acid reflux disease, and Crestor, a cholesterol-reducer, said it is investigating recent allegations posted on pharmaceutical industry blogs questioning the company's sales and marketing practices. One allegation said some of the company's salesmen were being pushed to promote the sale of one of its cancer drugs for unapproved uses.
"As we learn about these things through whatever mechanism, we investigate them and take them seriously," Emily Denney, an AstraZeneca spokeswoman, said Monday.
Denney's comments come after AstraZeneca issued a statement on Friday, reading in part, "We have a robust compliance program that calls for responsible sales and marketing practices that comply with applicable laws, regulations and industry standards, such as PhRMA [the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America] and the American Medical Association guidelines, as well as AstraZeneca's internal policies."
Denney declined Monday to address the specifics of any of the allegations making the rounds on several websites, including those made by a group calling themselves "The AstraZeneca Group of Seven," whose unidentified members say they are employees of the company.
Denney declined to detail what actions the company was taking to address the online allegations.
On Friday, Pharmalot, a blog written by Ed Silverman, who covers the pharmaceutical industry for The Star-Ledger newspaper of Newark, N.J., ran a portion of what purports to be a letter from "AstraZeneca Group of Seven" to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. The letter said AstraZeneca's salesmen were encouraged in a November 2006 meeting to promote the company's Faslodex cancer drug for so-called "off-label" uses and to compare it to competitor Novartis' Femara cancer drug, even though no head-to-head clinical trials had been done.
Drug companies are not allowed to promote their products for other than FDA-approved uses, but there's no prohibition on doctors prescribing them for so-called off-label uses.
Don White, a spokesman for the Office of Inspector General, said Monday he could "neither confirm nor deny that we have received the letter, but we are aware of the situation."
If AstraZeneca were found to have marketed its drugs improperly, the company could run afoul of its Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of Inspector General, which could jeopardize its ability to sell to Medicare and Medicaid.
Less than two weeks after it fired a pharmaceutical sales manager for comments in a company newsletter, AstraZeneca was defending itself again Monday.
The maker of such drugs as Nexium, a treatment for acid reflux disease, and Crestor, a cholesterol-reducer, said it is investigating recent allegations posted on pharmaceutical industry blogs questioning the company's sales and marketing practices. One allegation said some of the company's salesmen were being pushed to promote the sale of one of its cancer drugs for unapproved uses.
"As we learn about these things through whatever mechanism, we investigate them and take them seriously," Emily Denney, an AstraZeneca spokeswoman, said Monday.
Denney's comments come after AstraZeneca issued a statement on Friday, reading in part, "We have a robust compliance program that calls for responsible sales and marketing practices that comply with applicable laws, regulations and industry standards, such as PhRMA [the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America] and the American Medical Association guidelines, as well as AstraZeneca's internal policies."
Denney declined Monday to address the specifics of any of the allegations making the rounds on several websites, including those made by a group calling themselves "The AstraZeneca Group of Seven," whose unidentified members say they are employees of the company.
Denney declined to detail what actions the company was taking to address the online allegations.
On Friday, Pharmalot, a blog written by Ed Silverman, who covers the pharmaceutical industry for The Star-Ledger newspaper of Newark, N.J., ran a portion of what purports to be a letter from "AstraZeneca Group of Seven" to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. The letter said AstraZeneca's salesmen were encouraged in a November 2006 meeting to promote the company's Faslodex cancer drug for so-called "off-label" uses and to compare it to competitor Novartis' Femara cancer drug, even though no head-to-head clinical trials had been done.
Drug companies are not allowed to promote their products for other than FDA-approved uses, but there's no prohibition on doctors prescribing them for so-called off-label uses.
Don White, a spokesman for the Office of Inspector General, said Monday he could "neither confirm nor deny that we have received the letter, but we are aware of the situation."
If AstraZeneca were found to have marketed its drugs improperly, the company could run afoul of its Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of Inspector General, which could jeopardize its ability to sell to Medicare and Medicaid.
Friday, April 13, 2007
AstraZeneca - those who forget history.....
From the NYT June 2003:
AstraZeneca, the large pharmaceutical company, pleaded guilty today to a felony charge of health care fraud and agreed to pay $355 million to settle criminal and civil accusations that it engaged in a nationwide scheme to illegally market a prostate cancer drug.
The government said the company's employees had given illegal financial inducements to as many as 400 doctors across the country to persuade them to prescribe the drug, Zoladex. Those inducements included thousands of free samples of Zoladex, worth hundreds of dollars each, which the physicians then billed to Medicare and other federal health care programs, prosecutors said. The company also gave doctors financial grants, paid them as consultants and provided free travel and entertainment, the government said.
The $355 million that AstraZeneca, a British company, agreed to pay is among the largest settlements in a heath care fraud case. Of that amount, about $64 million is a criminal fine. The company will pay about $266 million to the federal government to settle most of the civil accusations. An additional $25 million will go to settle accusations that it defrauded the Medicaid programs, which are partly financed by the states.
Now read this.
AstraZeneca, the large pharmaceutical company, pleaded guilty today to a felony charge of health care fraud and agreed to pay $355 million to settle criminal and civil accusations that it engaged in a nationwide scheme to illegally market a prostate cancer drug.
The government said the company's employees had given illegal financial inducements to as many as 400 doctors across the country to persuade them to prescribe the drug, Zoladex. Those inducements included thousands of free samples of Zoladex, worth hundreds of dollars each, which the physicians then billed to Medicare and other federal health care programs, prosecutors said. The company also gave doctors financial grants, paid them as consultants and provided free travel and entertainment, the government said.
The $355 million that AstraZeneca, a British company, agreed to pay is among the largest settlements in a heath care fraud case. Of that amount, about $64 million is a criminal fine. The company will pay about $266 million to the federal government to settle most of the civil accusations. An additional $25 million will go to settle accusations that it defrauded the Medicaid programs, which are partly financed by the states.
Now read this.
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