Weak BiDil sales seen as key to execs' departures

Analysts and cardiologists are buzzing about yesterday's abrupt departures of NitroMed's CEO and CFO. Their resignations came after last year's widely heralded approval of BiDil, a heart medication that was approved specifically for African-Americans. Analysts had pegged its market potential at a near-blockbuster peak of $825 million. But bedeviled by reimbursement problems and possibly the small size of its sales force, NitroMed recorded sales of only $4.5 million last year. For some cardiologists, the main lesson appears to be that trying to compete with big pharma by using a tiny sales force is a non-starter.

- here's The New York Times article