Pharma’s Cutting Edge

I know how easy it is to feel down about this business of ours under the near-constant bombardment of salvos fired by critics who portray the pharmaceutical industry as little more than a profit machine; a machine run by greedy, unscrupulous, overpaid marketers (hucksters, really) who care as much about healing the sick and preventing disease as the sick and diseased care about them, which is to say not a whit.  Hell…this would be a generous portrayal next to some I’ve seen.

Perhaps you’ve begun to accept some of these criticisms at face value; after all there is no shortage of bad actors in this industry, as in every other.  “Maybe,” you’ve thought, “maybe the harshest of our critics are right, and I am just a pawn being played in some huge corporate swindle of our governments and the most vulnerable among us.”  If that’s really how you feel, I urge you to get out of this business and do something you can feel good about. 

But maybe you’re just feeling confused or ambivalent about some of the industry’s practices or about your own company’s actions.  I say…there’s nothing wrong with feeling confused or ambivalent in this climate; it’d be strange if you didn’t feel confused or ambivalent at times.  There’s nothing wrong with questioning your employer’s policies or practices, either because you don’t understand or you disagree with them.  If you get flak for raising what you consider to be important questions or for speaking your mind in an appropriate forum, something is wrong, and you should seek to redress it.

Your employer should understand that its employees are concerned about what they read and hear and want honest, candid dialog.  They don’t want to read their company’s position in a press release that includes some bullshit about the company standing by its actions at the same time it agrees to pay a half a billion dollars to settle a lawsuit that is “in the best interests” of everyone. Those press releases might satisfy Wall Street, but they don’t cut it as an internal corporate communication.  If you’re in a position to improve the way your employer communicates with its employees why not make that a priority in 2007?

What you have to really watch out for is cynicism and its cousin, apathy.  Once you start believing that your co-workers care about only themselves, or that your job has no real meaning beyond your paycheck and retirement plan, you’re done.  You’ll become miserable, you’ll stop caring about your work, and your performance will suffer noticeably.  In other words, your cynicism could cost you your job.  So, you have to stay positive.  That might be easier said than done, so here are a couple of ideas to help.

Find a pet project or skunks works.  If you’re feeling like your current project(s) lack importance, find a project that you can really believe in and that will benefit your employer.  Volunteer yourself and steal time away from your primary work if you must.  The time away from your “real” job will be offset by your improved productivity, because you’ll be feeling better about work generally.  Who knows, you might even be able to transfer full-time to a small project as it grows up.

Be a champion of a cause.  There are many opportunities to become involved in rewarding causes sponsored by your company.  Some of these are very visible, like United Way drives or community education outreach programs.  Others aren’t so obvious, so you might have to seek them out.  I think there are many unexploited opportunities for pharma to be more involved in positive and fruitful ways with the practices of medicine, nursing and pharmacy.  Why not figure out whether your personal interests could be applied to new ways for your employer to help advance medical care and its pharmaceutical business at the same time?  Once you have a good idea, bring it up the chain of budget authority and see if you can get funding for it.  Don’t give up if you get some early skeptical feedback.  Be persistent and build support for your idea.

Let’s hope all of us read more pharma success stories and fewer scandals in 2007, but let’s also remember that each of us has a role to play in making our industry the envy of all others.  Good luck this year.