"I admit it.”
Celia sighed.”But if only they were all more moderate and reasonable!" Andrew shook his head.”If they were that, they wouldn't be successful activists. Another thing-when they're ruthless and unethical, as they can be sometimes, you should ask yourself: where did they learn to be that way? The answer is: from companies like yours, my dear, because, when no one was watching them, ruthless and unethical is the way they were.”
Celia would have appreciated Andrew's last remark more if she had witnessed a scene at the Citizens for Safer Medicine offices a few minutes after she left on Friday afternoon. Summoning an assistant, Dr. Stavely asked, "Has that woman who was with me gone?" When the answer was yes, Stavely instructed the young man, "I want a press conference called for tomorrow morning-as early as you can arrange it. You will say that the subject is an urgent, life-and-death matter affecting hospitals and patients. Make sure you get the television networks and press wire services. There'll be a news release to be issued at the same time, which I'm going to write now. Someone will have to work tonight to...”
The brisk, efficient instructions continued, and at 10 A.M. next morning the press conference began. Facing reporters, and on camera, Dr. Stavely described the IN. fluid problem she had discussed with Celia the preceding day-the bacteria-contaminated bottles and the resultant septicemia, believed responsible for several deaths. What the CSM leader did not mention was either Celia or the information Celia had given her, namely that the FDA had already decided to forbid further use of all existing IN. fluid supplies from the company concerned, and that an announcement to that effect would be made on Monday. Instead, Stavely declared, "Citizens for Safer Medicine deplores the inaction both of the Food and Drug Administration and the manufacturer of this potentially deadly material. Further, we demand-yes, demand!-that all supplies of this IN. fluid be banned from use-and recalled . - .”
The effect was immediate. The major TV networks carried the story on their evening national news, while next day's Sunday newspapers gave it prominence, in many cases using an Associated Press photo of Stavely in action. Thus on Monday, when FDA delivered its announcement, most reporters-not bothering to check-began their stories, "Today, responding swiftly to a demand by Dr. Maud Stavely and her Citizens for Safer Medicine, the FDA announced a ban on further use by hospitals of...”
It was a triumphal coup d’état for CSM and, soon afterward, was used prominently in a mailed brochure appealing for donations. Celia, who followed the sequence of events with some embarrassment, kept the knowledge of her own involvement to herself. She had learned a lesson. She had, she realized, been foolishly indiscreet, and then had been made use of by a master tactician.
To Celia's surprise there was not, anywhere at Felding-Roth headquarters, a trial transcript of the Australian court case which had involved Montayne. Nor could the company's legal department locate one in the United States. There were plenty of reports that quoted it, but now Celia wanted to read the proceedings in their entirety. Although, obviously, Maud Stavely had a copy, Celia felt disinclined to ask Citizens for Safer Medicine to lend it; she therefore instructed the legal department to cable a correspondent law firm in Australia and have one sent by air. Meanwhile there were plenty of other things to do. The promotional program that would launch Montayne was now proceeding at a frantic tempo as the February deadline neared. Celia, aided by her deputy, Bill Ingram, was responsible for the several million dollars spent already; still more money was allocated for the months ahead. Elaborate advertising--expensive four-page multicolor inserts was appearing in a profusion of medical magazines, while an avalanche of direct mail was going out to the nation's physicians and pharmacists. Among promotional items being sent was a cassette tape--on one side, a recording of the beautiful Brahms "Wiegenlied" (Lullaby), on the other, a clinical description of Montayne. Backing up the advertising and direct mail, the company's detail men and women were delivering thousands of sample packages of Montayne to doctors, at the same time dropping on their desks golf tees and ball markers imprinted with "Montayne.”
At all levels of the company, as with any new drug launching. there was a mix of excitement, circus, nervousness and hope. Also creating hope, in an even wider dimension, was some news from the Felding-Roth Research Institute in Britain. There, it seemed, Martin Peat-Smith's scientific team had successfully broken through the technical barrier which had baffled them for so long. Complete details were lacking-Martin's report had been brief and in general terms only-but it appeared the now demolished barrier was the one of which Dr. Rao Sastri had said, when talking with Celia eighteen months earlier, "There are no techniques to take us further... possibly in ten years from now
Celia was delighted to learn that, in this specific at least, Sastri had been wrong and Martin right. What was known, via a letter from Nigel Bentley, the Harlow administrator, was that the British technical achievement involved purification of a brain peptide mixture obtained from rats, and maze tests on rats had shown it to be effective in improving the memories of older animals. More experimental work was proceeding. Clearly, while a medication to improve human memory was an unknown number of years away, it was much more of a possibility than at any previous time. The news was timely in that it forestalled the latest attempt, by some members of the board, to close the Harlow institute-again because of high costs and an absence of results. Now, with some positive results, Harlow and the mental aging project appeared safe for the time being. This, too, pleased Celia, who felt happier in having recommended against closure of Harlow a year and a half earlier. In mid-December the Australian trial transcript for which Celia had asked arrived on her desk. It was a bulky typewritten volume, several hundred pages long. By then, however, the pressures on Celia were such that she was obliged to put it aside for later reading. The transcript still had not been read by early January, when another event occurred ' which was totally unexpected and seemed likely to push her reading even farther into the future. Now that President-elect Carter had surprised the world by securing the White House tenancy for the next four years, outriders for the new administration were urgently recruiting candidates for the many government posts which Republicans would soon vacate. Among those recruited was Felding-Roth's corporate vice president for sales and merchandising, Xavier Rivkin. Xav Rivkin, a lifelong Democrat and more recently an ardent Carter supporter, had given time and money in the election campaign; be also knew the new President, having served with him in the Navy. From all this, a reward now arrived-the offer of a post as assistant secretary in the Department of Commerce. Within Felding-Roth, news of the offer was at first kept secret, as was the fact that Xav wanted to accept. Sam Hawthorne and a few members of the board, between whom the matter was discussed privately, believed he should. There was awareness that it would do the company no harm to have a friend in Washington at Commerce. Quietly, a special and generous early pension arrangement was made, with Rivkin due to leave soon after the January 20 presidential inauguration. In the second week of January, Sam sent for Celia and informed her of the Rivkin arrangements, of which she had not heard previously but which would be common knowledge in a day or two. "Quite frankly," he said, "no one, including me, expected this to happen so soon but when Xav leaves, you'll move up to be vice president of sales and merchandising. I've had discussions with the same members of the board who approved the arrangements about Xav, and we realize this has happened at an awkward time, with Montayne about to--" Sam stopped.”Is something wrong?" "Not really," Celia said. They had been standing, in his office, and she asked, "Do you mind if I sit down?" "Of course. Please do.”