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The Pharmalot blog authored by the intrepid Ed Silverman today reported that Dan Vasella is out as CEO at Novartis and there has been an executive shake up at the company. According to the post, Vasella is reliquishing his post a CEO but retaining his chairman title For a complete run down and a glimpse at the new Novartis org chart read Ed's post

Vasella has come under fire (literally and figuratively) over the past year or so.  Industry insiders and Novartis shareholders contended that he couldn't manage the day-to-day operations of companies and succeed as Chairman. Also, Vasella was the victim of  unwarranted, vicious attacks by animal rights activists who publicly denounced him and set his home on fire!

Vasella, one of the few physicians to head a pharmaceutical company, held the top position since 1996 following the merger of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy to form Novartis. The company has expanded in to new therapeutic areas and markets and performed well under Vasella's stewardship. However, many industry experts contend that ten years is the optimum tenure for most life sciences CEOs. What's four years in the scheme of things?

Until next time....

 Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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Roche announced Tuesday that it will replace Arthur Levinson, PhD, Genentech’s current CEO and American biotechnology pioneer, with Pacal Soriot, DVM, MBA who currently leads Roche’s worldwide commercial operations.  Dr. Levinson will become Chairman of Genentech’s newly configured board of directors but no longer have control over day-to-day operations at the company.  Mr. Soriot will become CEO of Genentech and head all of Roche’s pharmaceutical activities in the US. Some of the other changes that will occur at the company include: Susan Desmond-Hellmann, Genentech’s president of product development, will move into an advisory role after the middle of this year. Genentech CFO David Ebersman is leaving the company and Ian Clark, who heads commercial operations for Genentech, will be chief marketing officer of Roche’s pharma division.

Dr. Levinson and Mr. Soriot will lead the efforts to combine all of Roche’s North American operations which ultimately will be run from Genentech’s South San Francisco location. Many of the activities at Roche’s previous North American headquarters in Nutley, NJ will move west, which means downsizing, more layoffs and possible closure of the Nutley site. 

Dr. Levinson, one of Genentech’s early employees, joined the company as a senior scientist in 1980 and has been its chief executive since 1995. During his tenure, Genentech became the largest, most profitable and perhaps the most innovative biotechnology company in the US. Unlike Dr. Levinson, who is a molecular biologist and has over 30 years of experience in developing successful protein-based drugs, Dr. Soriot, a former Sanofi-Aventis financial and commercial operations executive has little or no experience with biotechnology products.

With this in mind, I suspect that many things will change at Genentech as Roche attempts to transform the once heralded biotechnology company into a subsidiary of its pharmaceutical division. Don’t be surprised if you see a mass exodus from company. Farewell DNA, all good things must end!

Until next time...


Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Genentech, there will be openings soon)
 

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The ink hasn’t had time to try on the deal sheet and Pfizer already has announced what the impact of its acquisition of Wyeth will have on the combined company. Here’s what to expect: Pfizer will shed at least 19,000 jobs from it newly combined work force of 128,000 employees; it will slash its stock dividend by 50%; and it will take a $2.3 billion charge to settle a federal investigation over off label promotion of its former pain drug Bextra. 

The combined company will be run by Pfizer’s CEO, Jeff Kindler, who joined Pfizer in 2006 after serving as legal counsel for McDonald’s. Bernard Poussot who became Wyeth’s CEO a little over a year ago will depart the company. As I mentioned in a post yesterday, Pfizer and Wyeth had been in talks for over a year before the deal was consummated. If the deal had closed last year, Mr. Poussot would have garnered a $38 million dollar severance package that included cash, pension, health benefits and other entitlements. But, because Wyeth’s board changed its compensation package for its CEO on January 1, he will only be entitled to a severance package of only $18.3 million. Not bad for a guy who ran the company for little over a year!

Other fallout from the deal includes: increased consolidation or purchase of cash-poor biotechnology companies—that will result in more layoffs and continue to reduce the life sciences workforce in the US— and the loss of a potential biotech dealmaker (Wyeth) that was aggressively pursuing M&A strategies and licensing opportunities with smaller, struggling biopharmaceutical companies. Most Wall Street analysts agree that the debt taken on by Pfizer to purchase Wyeth will prevent the company from participating in any new major acquisitions in the foreseeable future.

While the deal may ultimately benefit Pfizer, it certainly won’t help to improve the overall, short term health of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (I hear that they are hiring on the West Coast)

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Glassdoor.com a site that allows people to rate CEO and company performance selected Arthur Levinson, one of the original founders and current CEO of Genentech as the “nicest CEO” of the year. Dr. Levinson received a 93 percent approval rating and he is the only biotech CEO on the list. A strategic planner at Genentech wrote “He leads the Silicon Valley biotech company with a “decision-making structure that intrinsically forces authority downward to the lowest possible level providing many opportunities to exercise and test one’s judgment.”  I have worked with Genentech on education and training initiatives in the past and as far as I am concerned it is “second to none” in the biotech industry. 

It is evident from Genentech’s continued success, that Dr. Levinson is truly one of the unsung heroes (and pioneers) of the biotechnology industry. I am glad that he is finally getting the recognition that he deserves.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Genentech, they are hiring!)

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Do you ever wonder what the person who you share an office with is making? Or, have you ever wondered what other people think about the CEO of your company? Or, should I consider working at that company? The answers to these questions and more can now be found at a 4-month old website called Glassdoor.com.

The well designed and easy–to-navigate website allows employees to anonymously post their salaries and write uncensored reviews about their bosses, fellow employees and the companies at which they work. The site also ranks executive performances based on the reviews that it receives.

It is a wealth of information and a must for people who are looking for new jobs or career opportunities. Two of the most important questions that all jobseekers want answered when looking for a new job are compensation and the quality of a workplace environment or corporate culture. Until now, these things were difficult to parse. Not anymore! Check out Glassdoor.com and you might find answers to those nagging questions that you may have about your company, colleagues and CEO!

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Oh, what a difference a couple of years or results from a pivotal clinical trial can have on a company’s financial outlook. As you may recall in 2005, Merck was in a shambles after the Vioxx scandal broke. Its CEO was ousted, its stock was trading at less than $35 per share and employee morale was at an all time low. After two short years, Richard Clark, a life-long Merck employee, was able to turn the company around. Merck’s stock reached a high of almost $61 last December and many of its employees were dancing in the streets of Rahway because their stock options were now worth more than the paper that they were printed on. But, like many things in life, all good things must come to an end.

Since December Merck’s stock price has plummeted to $40 and appears to be headed downward. What sparked the retreat was the release of results from the now infamous ENHANCE clinical trial which showed that Vytorin, which is co-marketed by Merck and Schering Plough, offered no greater benefit than a cheaper, generic version of Zocor (one of the two active ingredients of Vytorin) to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. The fallout from this revelation has been intense and dramatic. Both Merck and Schering Plough are being investigated by Congress for marketing violations and the financial maneuvers’ of several senior executives from both companies are under intense scrutiny. 

Many industry analysts believe that Merck may be on the ropes again and are afraid that the company may slip back into the morass it found itself in after the Vioxx debacle.

I have always held Merck in high regard–no fewer than 15 people who I went to graduate school have worked at Merck at one time or another. Further, the Merck name used to be synonymous with “second to none” science and outstanding pharmaceutical products. Sadly, over the past decade Merck’s leadership has consistently placed profits before good science causing the American public to lose confidence in one of its flagship pharmaceutical companies. Maybe Dick Clark, who was around during Merck’s glory days, can restore Merck’s reputation by insisting that from now on, good science will always come before corporate profits. Time will tell….

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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According to Terry Leap, a Professor of Management at Clemson University, CEOs that exhibit some or all of the following traits or behaviors are likely to be problems.

• An obsession with acquiring prestige, power and wealth
• A reputation for unwarranted and shameless self promotion
• A tendency to propose “grandiose strategies” and failing to include a detailed plan to carry them out.
• A superb ability to compartmentalize and rationalize things.
• A history of emphasizing activity, like hours worked or meetings attended, over accomplishment.
• A reputation for implementing major strategic changes unilaterally or for forcing programs down the throats of reluctant managers.
• An impulsive, flippant decision–making style.
• A love of monologues coupled with poor listening skills.
• A tendency to display contempt for the ideas of others.
• A penchant for inconsiderate acts

The thing that worries me is that many academicians and most CEOs that I know exhibit five or more of these traits. Oy! 

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting

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Over the past 30 years or so, the vast majority of chief executives in the drug business have made their way to the top via the sales and marketing departments. Few senior executives have toiled in a research laboratory or for that matter, know the difference between NMR and protein purification. However, things may be changing in the industry. A quick perusal of the CEOs of the top 20 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies (see below) reveals that 11 of 20 have degrees in engineering (4), medicine (2) and science (5). The remaining 9 have degrees in business and finance (3), sales and marketing (4) or law (2). Several of the scientists (2), engineers (3) and one physician also earned MBA degrees.

Conventional wisdom suggests that scientists usually do not make good CEOs (they are not formally trained in business). However, doesn’t the lack of scientific sensibility put non-scientist CEOs at a disadvantage when it comes to making strategic and operational decisions about R &D?  One would think so….!!!!

A careful examination of my top 20 list suggests that some of the most successful companies are run by scientist CEOs, e.g. Genentech, Gilead, Novartis and Lilly. Expect to see more scientist CEOs at large biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the future–R&D have become way too complex for non-scientist to truly understand its nuances and potential pitfalls. Plus, we scientists know that obtaining a MBA degree is a “piece of cake” as compared with the PhD degree! Hmmm, I wonder what business people think about PhDs?

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!

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