Thursday, October 29, 2009

Stryker : "A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall!"

No it's not Bob Dylan I'm singing about! It's been a tough year in Strykerland! You know the world of 20% growth, Harvard MBA's, and those chintzy looking Brooks Brothers Suits. I guess the Board of Directors is going to have to evaluate what's going on in this organization, and do they need to find someone that can keep things under control?

On April 18th, 2009, this site had posted the blog, "Strike 3 for Stryker!" Earlier that week Michael Sullivan, the U.S. Attorney for the DOJ announced a guilty plea to felony misbranding of OP-1 by a Stryker territory manager. At that time the question was asked whether Stryker was feeling the need to accelerate a return on their investment after spending hundreds of millions to the rights and subsequent ownership of OP-1? TSB wondered who is the Captain of the Ship?

As the saga of OP-1 continues, no less inspired by Stryker's need to grab a piece of that $1 billion dollar market that INFUSE plays in, with more and more hospitals evaluating the cost of that product, it is difficult to believe that a renegade group existed at Biotech without anyone knowing what was going on. What if Stryker was really teaching their reps on how to mix a cocktail of OP-1 and Calstrux? Does anyone believe that this was going on at an organization that is known for micro-management, without someone higher up not knowing ?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, considering that if the defendants are convicted on all counts, they will spend a minimum of 16 years of prison. That is a mandatory 80% of a 20 year sentence. If I'm in their shoes, I believe its time to start naming names, and singing like a canary. You know what Robert Zimmerman use to sing; "It's a hard rain gonna fall!" TSB wants to know what its readers think?

2 comments:

  1. Believe it? I'm sure there are some tear-off sheets, sales pieces, and other marketing related support materials that would spell it out pretty well.

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  2. That product (OP-none...OP-when...) has been doomed from the beginning. Stryker has always thought that this was there "wonder product". They were going to add it to everything in the Mahwah and Allendale portfolio & possibly Portage and San Jose as well. Spray it on a hip stem...add it to a plate....a nail...everything. Unfortunately this is a more intensive, technical process for some of the metal heads within the organization. I thought with MacMillan's P&G and Pharma background he would be ahead of this, but then again it was initiated under JB himself.

    Unfortunately karma really stinks!

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