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