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Annually, the Street.Com surveys its readers to identify the year’s worst biotechnology CEO. Yes, despite large salaries, great benefits and, in most cases, outstanding employees, the executives who make the list just can't seem to do the job right.

The 2011 survey was just released and this year’s five worst CEOs are: 

1. Mitch Gold—Dendreon Corp
2. Greg Divis, Jr—KV Pharma
3. Al Mann—Mannkind Corp
4. Joe Zakrzewski—Amarin Corp
5. John Martin—Gilead Life Sciences

Other notable nominees included: Elan Pharmaceutical’s Kelly Martin, Genzyme’s Henri Termeer and Dan Bradbury of Amylin Pharmaceuticals.

Honorable mention awards went to Jim Bianco of Cell Therapeutics, Doug MacLellan of Radient Pharmaceuticals and Brian Culley of Adventrx Pharmaceuticals.

Despite these dubious distinctions, I would like to be earning their annual salaries and bonus compensation packages!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (I would avoid the companies whose CEOs made the list)

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Despite the fact the US unemployment rate has hovered around 9.0 percent for the past several years and over 200,000 pharmaceutical employees have lost their jobs since 2001, many life sciences executives contend that they cannot find qualified employees to fill job openings at their companies. Most executives blame the US education system for not providing prospective employees with necessary training and immigration laws that prevent companies from hiring highly-skilled foreign workers. According to a recent survey conducted by the staffing company ManpowerGroup, over 52% of US employers that they have difficulty filling open positions because of talent shortages.  Some other revealing statistics about employer’s attitudes include:

• 47% of employers blame job candidates’ lack of hard job or technical skills for their inability to hire
• 35% of companies cite job candidates’ lack of experience as a reason not to hire
• 25% blame lack of business knowledge or formal educational qualification as a deterrent to hiring

While a majority of US corporate executives may believe this, the reality is that employers simply cannot find employees to accept jobs at the wages that they are willing to offer! In other words, there is a plethora of skilled American workers out there; but many US employers are willing to outsource or hire skilled foreign nationals who frequently work for lower wages than most Americans. Further, American employers are unwilling to spend money to train college graduates or re-train existing employees who may be able to step into these so-called difficult-to-fill positions. This may help to explain why an increasing number of students are willing to accept unpaid internships or, in some cases pay to work at companies for free to garner valuable industrial experience which may ultimately lead to a job.

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Peter Cappelli, the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, offered three possible solutions to the current American unemployment conundrum

Work with education providers

If job candidates lack the skills or qualifications to do certain jobs, companies ought to make them go to school to acquire them. To that end, a growing number of community colleges in North Carolina and New Jersey have partnered with prospective employers to develop courses or degree programs tailored to meet their employment needs. For example, about 10 years ago my local community college (Mercer County College) developed a program (in a partnership with the clinical research company Covance) to train students interested in becoming clinical research assistants and managers. Not surprisingly, many of the students enrolled in the program ultimately where hired by Covance. 

In another variation of this model, extant employees, who may be interested in advancing their cares, would be able take classes at local community colleges (in off hours) and have their tuition subsidized via company tuition reimbursement programs. This would help to obviate the high costs and inordinate amount of time typically required to hire external candidates for newly created positions.

Reintroduce on-the-job training programs

Back in the day, companies tended to hire persons who were the brightest, most talented and most likely to benefit an organization.  New hires were required to participate in internal training programs so that they would better understand their positions and allow management to best evaluate new talent. Generally speaking, this allowed most companies to operate more efficiently; mainly because this allowed managers to determine the best fit of new hires into the existing corporate structure. Sadly this is no longer the case at most companies. These days, companies tend to hire worker who possess the technical skills and qualifications to do a certain job and are expected to “hit the ground running” Put simply, short term needs are placed before the long term needs and future success of an organization.

Promote from within

According to data from the talent management company Taleo Corp., in recent years a surprising two-thirds of job vacancies, even in larger companies, have been filled by outside hires. While it may be cheaper to hiring from the outside, the loss of experienced workers and historical corporate knowledge may affect a company’s performance and ultimately its bottom line.

While the US economy is beginning to show signs that it is beginning to recover, I believe that surest way to prosperity is to put Americans back to work. Although this may require a substantial financial investment by US corporations, we simply can no longer rely on outsourcing or a cheaper immigrant workforce to allow American to continue to compete on the world stage.

Until next time...

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

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Fierce Biotech conducted its annual survey to identify top female executives in the biotechnology industry. After receiving 130 nominations, they compiled a Top 10 List for 2011.  While some notable women executives may not have made it onto the 2011list, there is always next year.

Their list is as follows:

1. Katrine Bosley—CEO, Avila Therapeutics
2. Susan Desmond-Hellman, MD—Chancellor of USCF (formerly @ Genentech)
3. Deborah Dunsire,MD—President and CEO, Millennium, the Takeda Oncology Company
4. Carol Gallagher—CEO, Calistoga Pharmaceuticals
5. Melinda Gates—Co-Founder and Co-Chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
6. Maxine Gowen, PhD, MBA—President and CEO, Trevna
7. Rachel King—CEO, GlycoMimetics
8. Tina Nova, PhD—CEO Genoptix Medical Laboratory
9. Gail Schulze—CEO& Executive Chair of the Board, Zosano
10. Daphne Zohar—Pure Tech Ventures

If you think that someone who is not on the list deserves to be there, add a comment to this post.

Congrats to the women who made the list!

Until next time...

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

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Layoffs at big pharma tend to slow during the summer as most people are on vacation and nobody wants to fire folks when the kids are out of school. However, the failing economy has prompted several companies to abandon tradition and fire people during the summer anyway.

According to the Pharmalot Blog, previously announced layoffs at Merck have been accelerated and approximately 8,000 more employees will lose their jobs in early August. While the layoffs were not unexpected, those affected likely thought that they had more time before being shown the door.

In other news, Elan announced that it was laying off 104 employees at its King of Prussia, PA facility. The layoffs resulted from the sale of Élan’s manufacturing facility to Alkermes for $960 million. The acquisition gives Alkermes a chemical formulation and manufacturing business and a stake in two recently approved drugs; Ampyra for multiple sclerosis and Invega Sustenna a treatment for schizophrenia. The layoffs will occur next month and the facility will be closed in September.

Finally, a recent KPMG LLP survey of top executives of US drug makers indicates that M&A activity will continue to increase over the next several years as pharma companies attempt to offset rising generic competition and waning drug revenues. At present, roughly 70 percent of all medications sold in the US are generics. 

Eighty-three percent of the executives believe that their companies will be buyers or sellers in deals over the next two years. Further, just over half believe that it will take more than two years for the US economy to fully recover.

While M&A activity isn’t a bad thing for some companies, it is typically followed by reorganizations and massive job layoffs which are obviously not good for rank and file employees. Consequently, if I worked for a major pharma or biotechnology company, I would definitely make sure that my CV was up-to-date!

Until next time...

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

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The US Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced that a consent decree of permanent injunction has been filed against McNeil-PPC, the consumer products division of Johnson and Johnson, and two of its senior executives, for “failing to comply with current good manufacturing practice requirements as required by federal law. The action prevents McNeil, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, from manufacturing and distributing drugs from its Fort Washington, Pa., facility until the FDA determines that its operations are compliant with the law.”

McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division’s Vice President of Quality Veronica Cruz and the company’s Vice President of Operations for OTC Products Hakan Erdemir were named defendants in the consent decree, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on March 10, 2011. The highest ranking company executives in charge of the facilities named in a consent decree are always included (by law) on the civil action.

The decree also requires McNeil to adhere to a strict timetable to bring its facilities in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, and Lancaster, Pa., into compliance.

Consent decrees are civil actions—not criminal ones— and are meant to be remedial rather than punitive. In other words, there are no fines levied and the agency expects the companies under consent decree to bring their manufacturing facilities back in to compliance with Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP). However, if the company fails or refuses to comply with the FDA, criminal charges can be filed against the companies and the two executives mentioned in the consent decree. The agency had little choice but to seek a consent decree of permanent injunction against McNeil because of manufacturing problems and recalls of several of its signature brands including Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec, and Benedryl. Criminal charges may be forthcoming because of possible cover ups of the recall that involved hiring outside contractors to purchase tainted produced in bulk to surreptitiously remove them from store shelves.

FDA had little choice but to seek a consent decree because of the seriousness and continuous nature of the problems at its Fort Washington production facility and the fact that J&J senior executives were either unaware or unconcerned with the problems at its subsidiaries. While working under a consent decree may be embarrassing for J&J, the damage caused by the recalls of some of its most visible consumer and OTC brands may be irreparable.

 Until next time...

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

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I received a call today from GDS International, a UK-based b2b publishing company, alerting me to its annual, event called the Next Generation Pharmaceutical Summit (NGP) currently taking place at the Ritz Carlton on Amelia Island in FL. This invitation only event is supposed to bring pharmaceutical and life sciences executives to discuss problems facing the industry and what thing ought to be implemented to insure continued progress and growth.   This is the news coming out of the conference attended by over 50 pharmaceutical and biotechnology executives

Big Pharma concludes that M&A is not the New R&D

With large firms seeking synergies to drive down R&D costs, M&A deals can aid in the transfer of technical knowledge, scalability and reduce time to market. However, previous M&A periods have not alleviated the productivity crisis. “While short term gains emerge from these deals, in the mid to long term, R&D innovation, organic growth, and internal drivers are still key facet’s behind creating a successful company and providing an organization with sustainability.” So says, an executive committee composed of  50 pharmaceutical executives including Jeffery Nye, Chief Medical Officer at Johnson & Johnson, Reinilde Heyrman—VP of Clinical  Development at Daiichi Sankyo, Oscar Laskin—VP of Early Development at Celgene are leading the debate, joined by Ann Wang—VP of Clinical Operations at Human Genome Sciences. These sentiments confirm the notion that the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are in transition and suggest that life sciences companies still face many serious challenges in the not too distant future.

While increasing mergers and acquisitions isn’t likely to reinvigorate R&D, newly emerging economic pressures have recently triggered another wave of M&A activity in both sectors. But is this the solution for long-term sustainable growth?  “The willingness for the industry to unite in such a way clearly demonstrates long-term strategies for improved business processes so long-term investment in R&D can be secured” said Drew Contessa the NPG director.

The NPG will reconvene in April 2010 to review recommendations and actionable items.

The realization that M&A is not a solution to correct waning productivity in R&D was a long time coming. It cost about 150,000 pharmaceutical employees their jobs over the past three years. The idea that companies are beginning to recognize that buying or merging with another company is not a panacea or long term fix is a good thing. 

Hopefully, the life sciences industry can learn from its past mistakes.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!! 

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There has been no shortage of conversation lately about current problems facing the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. These industries are faced with the effects of the global recession because of a dangerous combination of falling revenues and spiraling costs. Life sciences company executives are looking for ways to cut production costs and cope with the current decline in drug sales.

“Social networking sites are great to catch-up with old friends, share photographs, music and links but in this climate does the executive community have time for this?” asked Spencer Green CEO of MeettheBoss.com “Credit isn’t the only casualty of the crunch: time is another scarce resource for executives, they need immediate value when online to inform stakeholders and update the public on need developments.

MeettheBoss.com, first launched for the financial services sector in 2008, has just unveiled a new and improved version – redesigned with increased functionality and features, and specifically launched to keep life sciences professionals abreast of late breaking news and trends in the industry. Free Video Roundtables, executive broadcasts and “smartwords” are some of the new functions for the executives to communicate with stakeholders and the public at large. More importantly, it provides instant access to a network of your peers. Also included in the new launch is an upgraded version of MeettheBossTV,an online television channel dedicated to business leaders. The first week of MeettheBoss pharma will feature John Earley, global head of lean and supply at AstraZeneca and Steve Dreamer, VP and head of engineering at Novartis.

While similar to BioCrowd, a social and business networking site for ALL bioprofessionals, MeettheBoss.com is almost exclusively focused on the "goings on" in the pharmaceutical industry.

Please drop me a line and let me know whether or not you like MeettheBoss

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Networking!!!!!!!!
 

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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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