AstraZeneca Fires Mgr For ‘Negative’ Remarks
9 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // April 6th, 2007 // 7:49 pm
The AstraZeneca regional sales manager who was quoted in a company newsletter saying there’s “a big bucket of money sitting in every” doctor’s office, was fired today. His quotes first appeared last night on two blogs, Question Authority with Peter Rost, the former Pfizer exec-turned-whistleblower, and then Pharmalot.
“AstraZeneca strongly repudiates the negative comments made in this newsletter,” the drugmaker says in a statement published by The Philadelphia Inquirer. “This newsletter was produced outside of AstraZeneca’s required approval and review processes.”
Messages left for Mike Zubillaga at his home and work were not returned, writes Tom Ginsburg, the Inquirer reporter. AstraZeneca spokeswoman Kirsten Evaire says Zubillaga was fired not for actual improper conduct, but for his comments, which violated the company’s “robust compliance program that calls for responsible sales and marketing practices and conduct.”
“All of our sales representatives are trained under these guidelines,” the statement said. “We will reiterate with employees the importance of adhering to the highest ethical standards and all our compliance policies.” Asked whether Zubillaga was fired for merely speaking his mind, Evaire said: “Our statement speaks to everything we have to say about the situation.”
The remark that caused controversy:
“There is a big bucket of money sitting in every office. Every time you go in, 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.”
Here’s a thought or two: AstraZeneca says the newsletter was published “outside” of the required approval process. What does that mean? And it was the Winter edition newsletter, which means it circulated for awhile. Why was he fired now? No one inside the company saw this until now? Or was it because the drugmaker was embarassed the remarks became public? If AstraZeneca was really upset, why didn’t the company act sooner?
The full story in The Philadelphia Inquirer.[tags]AstraZeneca[/tags]
Lisa Van Syckel
Perfect example of foot in mouth disease.
Lisa Van Syckel
WOW!!This story is also the most viewed on phillynews.com.Lesson learned,probably not,
Finian
Who wins?
This egotistical blowhard blogist:
Those of you following my blog know that I broke the story about the AstraZeneca Regional Sales Director who was quoted in an AstraZeneca Oncology Newsletter saying “there is a big bucket of money sitting in every [doctor's] office.”
-OR-
The typically aggressive regional sales manager whose onboard jaw filter failed miserably?
Neither.
The real winner is the idiot in AZ communications who published the story and had more than a little time to think about it.
ed
Hi Finian,
I gather you’re referring to Peter Rost, who first posted the newsletter on his blog. He did ‘break’ the story. But I’ll leave it at that.
That aside, I honestly don’t think anyone won. Not the RSM who lost his job; not AZ and not big pharma. AZ could have done something about this sooner if it cared to do so, but to go overboard at this late date - and only after the newsletter gets publicized - makes the company look reactive, as if its hand was forced. By extension, this doesn’t help big pharma, in general.
I don’t think any AZ communications person looks so swell either. As you note, someone had time to think about this publication and so should have known better. If I’m missing something, please fill me in.
Thanks for writing, by the way.
ed
Insider
It’s never nice when anyone is fired.
Clearly the deeper issues are:
1. Was the poor guy just telling the truth?
2. How did AZ compliance systems fail?
3. How many more unexploded bombs are out there?
I bet the remaining AZ Regional Sales Directors will be searching their garages for back issues of such like publications to see if they have said anything too truthful!
Darren
Knowing how these things work internally at these companies, there was no way this was produced by an in-house communications person; they would still be trying to get the winter edition through the legal review system! Rouge newsletters are a issue that comes up in many big companies, including non-profit organizations. As the former head of the communications function at one of them, our team spent countless hours trying to bring order to the process and no matter how much work you do, some idiot always feel they can do it better than the pros hired to do it. I feel bad for communications people who have to mop up what the sales team has created for them with this blunder.
js
I speak from my own personal experience when I say this is typical of company thinking. These comments are made regularly at meetings but no one is ever stupid enough to committ them to writing. The way I see it is these managers become so full of themselves they forget the basic prinicipals of life, it is okay to think it but not okay to say it out loud. I don’t have to imagine what it was like to work for him, I do work for his type. Managers who believe every sick person is an opportunity make money. I am not naive enought to think big pharma is a charity but what we do and say will surely be how we are judged “words have meaning”.
ed
Hello everyone.
As a life-long journalist, I can only imagine what it must be like to work as a sales rep in big pharma, although certainly I’ve had quite a bit of exposure to these folks over the years. And I’ve covered other industries for other newspapers and so have some idea, I would like to think, about the pressures of achieving sales goals in general.
With this said, I think the larger problem in this particular case is one of culture: a long-running emphasis on a Machivellian desire to achieve the goal at all cost, and forgetting that Gordon Gecko (did I get the spelling right?) was never really confined to Wall Street.
Look, people make mistakes all the time. We’re all human. I don’t know what this felllow was like to work with or work for, but what I’m really getting at is the environment in which such attitudes thrived. AZ management and, by extension, the entire industry, should use this episode as a wake-up call to redirect their moral compasses.
I don’t want to sound self-righteous (and of course, that’s the first thing some will say now that I’ve written those words(, but the real problem isn’t the occassional blunder or instance of bad judgement, but institionalized indifference to troubling practices.
There’s a benefit to be had for industry: change behavior and trust will be restored. If it’s really all about the meds, then these episodes wouldn’t occur. I’ll attempt to paraphrase Roy Vagelos (probably very badly) by saying that really goods meds will often do a good job of generating good profits.
ed
Joana
Deja vu for me on this story– we rarely get to read or hear these things in public, but when it occurs it’s memorable.
A couple of years ago I had a chance to be a fly on the wall, when squeezed into a crowded shuttle at Dulles Airport. I ended up standing next to a woman juggling sample cases,when a man came to her aid. They got to talking an it turned out they had a friend in common at Millenium , for whom she had recently started working as a detailer for Velcade ( a drug for mutliple meyloma). She went on to say that she ” just loved oncology, it was so much fun, because the market was so great. ”
As a cancer survivor who had anything but fun during the course of my grueling illness, I could not think of a snappy comeback at the moment, so I remained silent. I was actually on my way to speak about access to treatment probelms at an onocology conference, and got to use this telling anecdote in my presentation.