Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Plavix reps are on the top of my drug-rep shit list. Lets take a trip down memory lane a few years ago. A long time ago (2006 to be exact), there was generic Plavix on the market. While Plavix remained at $5/tablet, the generic was (if I remember correctly) $20/#100. I know it was a huge huge difference, like when Zocor went generic.
Why/how generic Plavix (clopidogrel) managed to hit the market is unimportant. What is important is that now you didn’t have to drop $150/month to get the drug. People had generic copays, cash patients could actually afford something that they couldn’t before, the public rejoiced and the clopidogrel flew off the shelves like Plan-B on prom night.
Fast forward a month. Clopidogrel is no longer available. Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi (herein known as douches) pulled out the legal card (ie: probably bribed the FDA) and got the affordable generic withdrawn from the market. If I remember correctly they somehow magically got a new indication which prolonged their patent (ie: probably bribed the FDA).
The short amount of time that clopidogrel was available wasn’t long enough for word to spread to the doctors that a generic was available.
Now here is why (to this day) I refuse to speak with Plavix reps, they totally left the pharmacies out to dry when questions were asked about Clopidogrel by the doctors. In other words, they didn’t inform doctors that there was a generic out for a short period of time. So doctors, in their infinite wisdom and yell-before-asking fashion, starting pointing fingers at the pharmacies.
We had doctors claim that we were illegally importing medications from Mexico/Canada. Doctors were making claims that pharmacies were selling illegal generics because “Plavix didn’t come in a generic”. Did the reps stop these rumors and set the doctor straight? FUCK NO. They just SAT THERE with smug little looks with their studies as doctors were throwing accusations around regarding pharmacies and where they get their drugs. At this time there was a bunch of bullshit regarding counterfeit drugs, so guess who lumped us all in with that clusterfuck. Trying to explain this whole FDA legal bullshit to a doctor or a patient is like trying to explain Medicare Part-D to a Phillipino home-health nurse.
Then the safety and WHY it was taken off the market was brought up. Patients and doctors couldn’t accept that it was yanked off the market due to legal douche-baggery, obviously the generic was ‘inferior’ and it ‘put their patients at risk’. Did the Plavix reps come to our aid? No, of course not. Anything to sell their fucking overpriced wanna-be aspirin even at the expense of the reputation of those who dispense it.
To this day I refuse to talk to Plavix reps for not stepping up and taking care of the shit-storm that their douchebag company caused at the expense of the pharmacists and the patients. You don’t want to be there for us, so in return I’m making damn sure that I’m not doing any favors for you.