Some of you probably have already noticed. I'm getting real tired of writing about stodgy pharma companies, so a few other stories have appeared on this site.After writing tons of articles about the drug industry, for Brandweek, and a couple of books, I feel like I've just about had it with the geeks in that industry and the rich men who gulp it down at the trough.
Let's get real, we can kid about good-looking pharma sales reps, hired for theis sex-appeal, and we can make fun of Kool-Aid drinking Pfizer reps hanging out at Starbucks, but fact is that they resemble preaching mormons more than anything more exciting. Many of them reputedly even are mormons.And anyone who stands at the gates of one of our wealthy pharma companies as the masses take off from work in their BMWs and Audis and Toyotas will note that the crowd getting out is all but exciting.
Of course, that doesn't mean it isn't fun to sometimes write about the fat cats that make it to the corner offices, but let's get real, to write about that stuff every day? Nor can any pharma blog ever aspire to really significant readership, simply because very few people think that area is all that fun to read about.
Then again, good advice is to write about what you know, and to stick by the stuff to which you can add value.
Well, I don't care.
I'm really bored.
And this blog is branded as questioning any authority, so right now I'm questioning myself. Shouldn't I change something?
5 comments:
I know exactly how you feel. My antidote is here
Write something about this guy...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3MLTvYBQy0&eurl=http://www.wearechange.org/
Found at:
http://www.wearechange.org/
MVH/Hel Vete Bröd
Hey, I'M Mormon and even I (and several others) have been a long time reader of your blog, Huffington Post and Brandweek articles, purchaser of your books, etc.
And yet I also personally know several other Mormons who are in the drug industry (at LEAST a handful of whom are at Pfizer) and I just ask myself, "What happened to these guys-- and girl? We grew up together and had the same values and goals for helping humanity, but it seems the free flow of money in the industry can change ANYone's ethics-- even when it's coming as ransom from the poor and the sick who are told about their medications, 'Your money or your life!'"
It's a shameful thing, but just like Catholics, Jews, Agnostics, Atheists, Evangelicals, etc., there is good, bad and all shades of gray to be found among every religious or irreligious group because they're all (churches, corporations and sometimes corporate churches) comprised of just people, and human history has proven that people collectively have the potential to do all manner of good or all manner of evil (as in the drug industry case) . . . and what a sad and pitiful commentary on humanity THAT is. You'd hope that SOMEbody could somewhere gather enough of a group together that was above all the yuck and sleeze and absence of empathy, compassion and goals for the greater good. But then, they wouldn't have the billions of $$ to offer that PhRMA would, so I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that.
Quite frankly, from a business point of view the fact that you know several Mormons in the drug industry is probably a good thing. There is no question that the lifestyle of this group has not only resulted in a life span 9 years longer than average Americans, they are also known as good, ethical business partners and employees, which was kind of my point . . .
Hi Peter,
I hope, you are not really getting bored writing about this dirty pharma industry. But I know how you feel.
I myself sometimes feel like I don't want to write my story about the suicide of my wife and ZOLOFT over and over again. But that´s the only way to change things: To go to the public and tell you story.
I think, a few other stories on your blog are o.k. and it will make it more vivid. But, please, concentrate on the pharma thing. You are one of only a very few people who are speaking out and know how this business works and all the myths the pharma industry is telling to the people to conceal their real aim: its only about money and ethics and morality doesn't cout.
best reagrds, Lothar
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