Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10117

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: news

Rost P.
AstraZeneca: "There is a big bucket of money sitting in every [doctor's] office"
Question Authority (Blog) 2007 Apr 5
http://peterrost.blogspot.com/2007/04/astrazeneca-there-is-big-bucket-of.html

Notes:

Newsletter not reproduced here – follow link to Question Authority

Full text:

This just in from an anonymous AstraZeneca employee: A newsletter with an interview with Mike Zubillaga, Regional Sales Director Oncology for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.

And how does he look at doctors?

This is what he says in Oncology Newsletter Winter 2007 Issue 1:

“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.”

Mike Zubillaga: Remember it is not wrong to say those things. After all, that’s very real. It’s just wrong to be caught saying them.

I guess the poor guy will have a meeting with his boss tomorrow.

This just in from Astra-Zeneca’s message board on CafePharma:

“For AZ’s sake, I hope no oncologists or the press ever get a hold of it. The thing should be burned and whoever said it (and whoever the editor is that allowed it) should be canned.”

Too late.

I forwarded this story to a few writer friends, and Pharmalot has his take on this story here, and Brandweek here. I agree with BrandweekNRx who feels sorry for the guy.

And more and more blogs are piling on this bucket of cash . . . the picture winning first price is the one over at PharmaGossip.

It is, of course, still newsworthy, since we rarely hear the drug companies speak this candidly about how they view doctor’s offices: As big buckets of green money.