Vytorin sales continue to sink

Mar/20/2008 05:32 Filed in: Pharma Business
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Data on sales reps’ encounters with primary care doctors who write the most prescriptions show that Vytorin commanded a 26% share of chats about cholesterol drugs last week. That’s right behind Lipitor, the share leader, at 27%, the data from research firm ImpactRx show. But Vytorin’s share of new prescriptions written by these docs was 6%, less than half the 14% share just before the Enhance trial’s results were released. Prescriptions for Zetia, a sister drug of Vytorin and the part of the combo Vytorin pill besides the statin, were 4% compared with 7% before Enhance. By comparison, generic simvastatin led the pack with 36% of new prescriptions written last week, followed by Lipitor with 24%. A extra life jacket on the Titanic is not going to help now...


The doldrums for Schering-Plough come despite a sales blitz code-named “49.” According to the blog Pharmalot, Schering-Plough reps are spending 49 days (seven weeks) intensively schmoozing doctors — preferably over lunch or dinner — to warm them up to Zetia. (It didn’t take long for the Senate to get interested in the plan.)

The chatter isn’t very favorable on Cafepharma, a site for sales reps. “I hate having extra $$ that I have to spend on Drs that I can barely see,” complains one on a chat board there. “I have a hard time spending all my lunch/dinner $$ now.” Another writes that “this is not how gain back the lost business - good, unbiased evidenced based medicine (as stated before) is the only way to go. And if we have to wait for it - we’ll have to wait. And the share holders will have to wait as well. Any other approach, especially if it comes from the Marketing Dept, will only loose (sic) us more credibility in the eyes of our customers.”


Schering-Plough spokesman Lee Davies confirmed there is a program called “49,” but wouldn’t provide details. Sales reps’ “responsibility is to provide accurate information on Vytorin and Zetia,” he told the Health Blog. “That’s what they’re doing, and that’s the extent of it here.” As for the sales figures, Davies wouldn’t offer any new projections but said the companies are “actively engaged in an ongoing dialogue with health-care professionals about the [cholesterol]-lowering benefits of Vytorin and Zetia.

From Yesterdays Wall Street Journal

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