Pharmaceutical representatives exposed Novartis bribery

A labor arbitration case may lead to details of Novartis's bribery in marketing.

On August 10, Li Li, a former medical representative of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, disclosed the misconduct of Novartis in the promotion of the drug "Good Dragon." In order to pursue the rapid growth of sales of “Good Dragon” in several major hospitals in Beijing, Novartis has developed a detailed promotion plan in exchange for direct marketing sales fees to doctors.

Shanlong prices are as high as 13,000 yuan each. According to Li Li’s work email, her superiors instructed her to “use 50 thousand yuan to buy 50 sales, preferably 30 mg, within 2 to 3 months”.

“In the past month or so, I tried to contact some doctors and talked about this plan. They also accepted it. But actually letting me give them money, I couldn’t accept it, so I resigned.” Li Li Said, "For me, it's like letting me kill people."

After Li Li submitted the written and electronic resignation application for two weeks, Novartis has not responded, so she chose to rely on labor arbitration to solve the problem. The Chaoyang District Labor Dispute Arbitration Committee in Beijing received on August 5 Li Li’s 34 pages of evidence. Li Li now only hopes to successfully terminate the labor contract with Novartis, and receive the salary and compensation for loss of office.

On June 17 before the outbreak of the GlaxoSmithKline incident, police in Zhengzhou started a survey of the GSK Henan office, which resulted in 18 sales personnel. Li Li is obviously concerned about such things appearing on herself: "We are afraid every day. We are afraid that the Disciplinary Committee and the public security will find me."

Novartis’ External Communications Department responded to this report that: 1. The employee joined the Novartis Oncology Division in January 2013 and has now resigned. The company strictly follows the labor laws and the company’s relevant regulations and procedures; 2. The employee is at the end of July. Send a letter to the company, ask for 5 million, and reply within 3 days, saying that otherwise take measures; Third, the company had asked the employee to provide relevant evidence on the matter, but the employee refused to provide. The company still welcomes the employee to provide relevant evidence to the company. Once it is verified, it will be strictly handled.

North China is Shanlong's largest market

According to Li Li’s statement, she entered the Novartis Pharmaceutical Sales Department in January of this year and was assigned to the Shanlong Group, responsible for sales of the variety in several hospitals in North China.

“North China is the largest market in the country. I am responsible for the Beijing Union Hospital, the People's Liberation Army 307 Hospital, and the Armed Police General Hospital. There are a lot of sales of this variety.”

Shan Long, the octreotide acetate microsphere injection, was originally owned by Novartis's Sandoz Corporation and was transferred to Novartis after 2011. Sandoz, the world's second-largest generic pharmaceutical manufacturer, said: “Sandoz has a total of two similar drugs, one is Shanning, and the other is Shanlong. The difference is that Shanlong is a microsphere preparation. Everything else is the same."

Shanlong is a rare drug used to treat gastrointestinal pancreatic endocrine tumors, carcinoid tumors, vasoactive intestinal peptide tumors, and acromegaly. Because it is a microsphere preparation, Shanlong can play a long-lasting effect, generally only need to fight one per month, which is the biggest advantage compared with Shanning.

Li Li said: "Shenning is five hundred and six hundred, and Shanlong's price is as high as 13,000 yuan. Therefore, Shanlong is under pressure to sell."

According to its description, Novartis Pharmaceuticals has established a sales plan for Shanlong since January of this year. The starting base is relatively low, but the indicators for each month require a more substantial increase. “The monthly mark growth rate is about 20%. It will be very difficult to meet the standard promotion method in May.”

Li Li's "conventional" approach is to train doctors in drug knowledge in exchange for doctors' approval. This way it is difficult to maintain a monthly increase in sales targets. Seeing that in July, the performance will certainly not be up to standard. When it was difficult, Li Li’s superiors began to “guide” them.

Li Li said: "In fact, it was for me to give kickbacks to doctors. He explained to me in detail how to tell the doctor how to give it."

In a recording, even the surname manager instructed Li Li: "The form does not matter, as long as you talk to them, this is a one-time investment. You say, 'This is an early investment that I am very difficult to apply for. Look at this side in the end. Can you do this? As long as you sell (go up) here, it's okay to point to other resources. Understand this?”

The promotion plan for even the surnamed manager is: Give a doctor a fee of more than 5 dragons, and don't give a dose of less than 5 pills. The aforementioned e-mail mentions that from June to July, he hopes to “use 50 thousand yuan to buy 50 sales”. Calculated at a price of 13,000 yuan each, on average, the cost of 50,000 yuan will account for about 10% of sales.

Li Li also said that the leadership also asked her to promote hyperinformation of Shanlong: “The promotion of hyperinfection is mainly in five directions: portal hypertension, pancreatitis, liver cancer, cirrhosis, and gastrointestinal bleeding. Of course, we are all It is the director-level doctors of major hospitals who are still very cautious about the use of superindicators. They are generally used abroad and they dare to use them."

The use of super-indicated medications exceeds the prescribed use of the drugs. Even if it is approved by a doctor, this practice is not recommended. However, this is a common practice for major pharmaceutical companies to increase sales of pharmaceuticals.

Promotional fees are more like rewards for doctors

Under the pressure of the GlaxoSmithKline incident, Li Li did not give these fees after he had contacted and negotiated more than a dozen doctors according to the leadership instructions.

"The name of the money is the daily promotion fee, which is separate from other funds. Our medical representatives can apply to the leadership. Before May, my monthly promotion fee was also a thousand or two thousand dollars, mainly for organizing doctors. Open the conference and buy some food and beverages.” Li Li made it clear that the cost of Shanlong’s plan is not directly linked to the number of doctors prescribing drugs. “The kind of direct link you’ve talked about will be done in general.” RDPAC is strictly prohibited.” RDPAC is short for Foreign Pharmaceutical Association. Li Li clearly knows the restricted areas of medical representatives.

These moneys, given in the name of promotion fees, are strictly speaking not medicine kickbacks and are more like rewards and thanks to doctors. Because in addition to promoting the good dragon, Novartis also intends to establish a doctoral relationship, pave the way for the promotion of its new drug "Finnetopol." In February of this year, the kidney cancer drug Fynodysut had just been approved for sale in China. “Big Directors often have the right to speak on the use of cancer drugs.” According to Li Li, the daily promotion fee is a special amount for Novartis to the sales department. There will be a certain amount of money in the hands of leaders at all levels, but she does not know what the total amount is.

Physicians use acquiescence at Novartis' plan to pay for expenses. Li Li said: "There are no doctors who have explicitly refused."

The deadline given by the Novartis manager is to complete the plan within a maximum of 3 months. It also explicitly instructs: “Take it (expense) divided into two. In this case, it is estimated that they will not (refuse)... But if you can If it reaches three months, it is estimated that the problem will be small."

On August 12th, Novartis said that it will give a reply on this matter in the last two days.