I finally met with the AMRN drug rep yesterday - had an interesting chat for about 30 minutes.
Very nice young woman who's been with AMRN about a year, was a drug rep for another product (not cardiac) for about 10+ years.
I asked how many reps were covering our state of about 6 Million - she looked a bit exasperated and said - "ME"! There was one other who quit. I asked how many were planned with the recent secondary and she said the plan was to increase to 8.
I asked how successful she is in getting docs to prescribe and she said it was tough getting in to see docs and most have limited knowledge of V. Her focus is contacting high prescribers of statins and finofibrates. She doesn't necessarily focus on specialties but on the highest prescribers of the above drugs.
She was pretty passionate about V saying she is on it and got her parents to take V.
She spoke alot about insurance coverage and that she spends times going to pharmacies to educate about insurance coverage, PA's and the coupon use. She gave me a copy of the AMRN prior auth template they give to docs and pharmacists - I'll copy and paste it in another thread.
She hinted about the AHA guideline update which should be coming up this year and the FDA decision as the big catalysts for coverage.
I didn't tell her I was an investor but that I attended the AHA conference and it was apparent I probably knew more about V than she did so we didn't talk about use that much. She seemed pretty well informed, emphasized the concept of residual risk with statins, but I was a bit disappointed she didn't know the NNT of Statins since it's on the investor presentation.
We spoke a fair amount about what I think docs need to hear from her in the 5-10 minutes she may get with them. I emphasized a few points to complete the sell (I'm sure she gets a ton a training on this but I gave my 2 cents anyway). I told her
1) Reference NEJM article and P value of 7 "0's"
2) Discuss NNT of 21 (and 6 with total event analysis) compared to Lipitor of 45
3) Emphasize CV RRR failures of Fish oils, fibrates and Niacin and 25% MACE reduction of V
4) Tremendous cost effectiveness -re: ICER
5) It's NOT Fish Oil
6) Effectiveness across all levels of elevated TRIGS and likely NOT a trig drug - RI was a CV outcome trial and not a TRIG lowering trial!
7) NO serious side effects
8) MOA likely result of effects on endothelial function and plaque and thrombus reduction and stabilization. Cherry and Evaporate(?)
She gave me some physician and patient education materials and samples. I'll follow up in a month or so to see how things are going.
