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Johnson & Johnson announced today it would eliminate as many as 8,200 jobs, or 7% of its work force, to help the company cope with what it expects will be a slow economic recovery amid damped demand for drugs, medical devices and consumer products. J&J employs about 117, 000 workers globally. While the job cuts will be global, many losing their jobs will be outside of the US. 

J & J joins a growing list of pharmaceutical and life sciences companies that have announced new layoffs. Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, plans to fire 19,000 workers following its acquisition of Wyeth and had already cut 10,000 positions since 2007. J&J began firing as many as 4,400 employees from its pharmaceutical and stent divisions in late 2007. Finally, Merck recently announced that it will be eliminating 16,000 workers after its merger with Schering Plough closes later this year.

J&J’s announcement is more bad news for New Jersey which is still reeling from the earlier loss of tens of thousands of pharmaceutical and life sciences jobs.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget New Jersey)

 

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The New York Times reported today that AstraZeneca has agreed to pay $520 million to settle two federal investigations and two whistle blower lawsuits over the sale, marketing and off-label promotion of its blockbuster antipsychotic drug Seroquel. Despite this settlement, UK-based AstraZeneca still must contend with 14,444 civil lawsuits filed by many patients who developed diabetes and other health related conditions because of misleading marketing that failed to adequately disclose that the drug caused abnormal weight gain.                     

AstraZeneca joins a growing list of pharmaceutical companies that have been penalized for off label promotion and misleading advertising. Earlier this year Eli Lilly & Co paid $1.4 billion over its marketing of another antipsychotic drug Zyprexa and Pfizer announced that it would pay $2.3 billion including a record-breaking criminal fine of $1.195 billion mostly for its painkiller Bextra which was withdrawn from the market.

Despite the size of the fines and settlement figures for these recent cases, they are a drop in the bucket when compared with the amount of money generated by illicit marketing and advertising. For example, the $520 million that AstraZeneca has agreed to pay to settle the Seroquel case pales in comparison to the $17 billion that the drug has generated in US sales since 2004. The same was true for Zyprexa and Bextra.

While these settlements cannot repair much of the damage that has been done to unknowing patients, it signals that the US government is beginning to live up to its pledge to provide safe and efficacious medicines to the American public.

Until next time...

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

 

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In a previous blog post, I suggested that there was much speculation about whether or not there would be substantial job losses at the various Wyeth sites throughout Pennsylvania after the Wyeth-Pfizer merger closes. As you may recall, company representatives were assuring Pennsylvania legislators that major job cuts and site closure weren’t likely. 

Yesterday, Bernard Poussot, president of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, sent a message telling employees the company’s Collegeville Headquarters, which employs about 4,000 people, would remain open after the deal closes on October 15, 2009. The fate of employees at other Pennsylvania-based Wyeth facilities remains uncertain.

While this may be good news for some employees at the Collegeville site, it is likely that a substantial number of jobs will be shed after the deal closes. Previously, Pfizer suggested that the combined company intends to shed about 20,000 jobs. I guess the good news is that all 4000 Wyeth employees won’t be losing their jobs!

Until next time...

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

 

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The Philadelphia Inquirer reported today that Pennsylvania state legislators, spearheading efforts to retain jobs in the state after the $68 billion Pfizer-Wyeth merger closes next month, said they were fairly confident many positions would remain at Wyeth's regional operations in Collegeville, Great Valley and other sites. Wyeth employs about 4,500 people in the region - about 3,600 in Collegeville and 900 in Great Valley and elsewhere.

One legislator told the Inquirer that "Representatives of both Pfizer and Wyeth have continued to assure us that we should not worry and they have continued to listen to the case that we have made for as many jobs as possible remaining in Pennsylvania." Pfizer, which plans to cut about 20,000 of the combined companies' 130,000 jobs, would not comment yesterday on the statement or the job situation in Pennsylvania. Gee, what a surprise!

If I were a betting man, I would say that there will be massive layoffs in Pennsylvania and elsewhere after the deal closes. Don’t be surprised if Wyeth’s Madison, NJ headquarters and its research facilities in Princeton NJ are first to get the ax. Finally, I am now firmly convinced that you can never trust a thing that a politician says.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!

 

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The Belgian chemical manufacturer Solvay announced today that it had agreed to sell its pharmaceutical business unit to Abbott Pharmaceuticals for $6.6 billion. By purchasing Solvay, Abbott gains access to emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Asia along with new therapeutic areas, including hormone therapies and vaccines. Solvay's flu vaccine Influvac will give Abbott an entrant in the burgeoning vaccines market, which is currently dominated by European pharmaceutical giants like GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis.

Abbott already holds U.S. marketing rights for Solvay's Trilipix and TriCor, drugs which raise "good" HDL cholesterol while reducing triglycerides and "bad" LDL cholesterol.

Solvay's other top-selling drugs include the Parkinson's disease treatment Duodopa and hormone therapy drugs AndroGel and Duphaston. It is not clear whether or not the Solvay purchase will affect ongoing pharmaceutical operations or staffing decision in the US. However, I suspect that there will be management changes and layoffs in Europe.

In other news, Johnson & Johnson bought an 18 percent stake in Dutch biotechnology company Crucell NV, which is trying to develop a universal flu vaccine, while competitor Merck acquired the rights to sell Australia-based CSL Ltd.'s Afluria flu vaccine in the U.S.

The Solvay deal is the latest in a string of mergers and acquisitions, as cash-rich pharmaceutical companies race to acquire new products amid looming patent expiry on blockbuster drugs. Earlier this year Swiss drugmaker Roche acquired Genentech following similar deals uniting Pfizer Inc. and Wyeth, and Merck & Co. Inc. with Schering-Plough.

Expect more M&A activity in the life sciences sector before year’s end.

Until next time...

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

 

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Mark Sendak, author of the incisive EyeonFDA blog and social media enthusiast, has been keeping a watchful eye (pun intended) on the growing number of pharmaceutical companies that are adding channels and videos to YouTube. 

On his blog today, Mark reviews several new channels developed by Novartis, Johnson and Johnson, Teva, Boehringer Ingelheim and AstraZeneca. While a growing number of pharmaceutical companies continue to add new channels on YouTube, Mark contends that the “success of these channels has varied greatly and several companies have obviously developed the channels without any idea of what they would like to do with them and some of the channels show obvious signs of neglect.”

To learn more about pharma’s incursion on YouTube, read Mark’s post!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Video Watching

 

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Pfizer, the world’s largest drug maker, announced on Thursday that it is unveiling a new program that will let people who have lost their jobs and health insurance to keep taking Pfizer medications — for free, and for up to a year. The company will provide more than 70 of its prescription drugs ranging from Viagra to Lipitor at no costs to unemployed and uninsured Americans who lost their jobs since Jan. 1 and have been taking Pfizer drugs for me than three months. It is not clear how much Pfizer will spend on the program and whether or not costs will be capped.

The announcement comes amid massive job losses caused by the recession and a campaign in Washington to rein in health care costs and extend coverage. The move could earn Pfizer some goodwill in that debate after long being a target of critics of drug industry prices and sales practices. The program also likely will help keep those patients loyal to Pfizer brands. Don't be surprised if other pharmaceutical companies announce similar program over the next few weeks.

Pfizer and the rest of the drug industry wants is trying to have a voice in the debate over how to overhaul the U.S. health care system, partly by joining in a pledge this week to help hold down inflation of health costs. In the mean time, drug companies have been raising prices on their drugs, partly to offset declines in revenue as the global recession reduces the number of prescriptions people can afford to fill.

Pfizer ought to be commended on the program and its concern for the health and well being of unemployed and uninsured Americans. However, it is important to point out that this is little more than a high profile, marketing campaign designed to improve the image of drug makers. More important, it is the first public acknowledgement that drug makers are willing to engage legislators in discussions about how to reform healthcare to reduce costs and cut expenditures. 

What really is at stake here is whether or not the US government will begin regulating drug prices as part of a comprehensive healthcare reform package. As many of you may know, the US government, unlike most other governments in the world, cannot negotiate or set prescription drugs prices. Not surprisingly, the US prescription drug market is the largest and most profitable in the world. It will be interesting to see how the US healthcare reform discussion unfolds—clearly a lot is at stake for the American prescription drug industry.

Until next time...

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

 

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Twitter, which is currently de rigueur in social media circles, is emerging as one of the most powerful branding and marketing social media tool that has been developed to date.   While other industries are already exploiting Twitter’s powerful marketing reach (to hawk their wares), drug makers have been reluctant to adopt Twitter and most other forms of social media. Industry analysts and company insiders contend that pharma’s reluctance to adopt social media can be attributed to the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) lack of guidance on its use for promotional purposes. At present, it is anybody’s guess when this guidance may be issued, if ever.

Nevertheless, as always, there are a few daring companies willing to “boldly go where no pharma company has gone before”—in this case—Twitter! These companies include Boehringer Ingelheim (BI), Astra Zeneca, Novartis and Pfizer. According to a post on the Advance Market WoRx blog, BI is leading the way among pharma company Twitterers, with 679 following, 745 followers and 47 tweets. AstraZenecaUS has 136 following, 440 followers and 22 tweets. Pfizer has 351 following, 462 followers and 48 tweets.  Novartis has 0 following, 681 followers and 40 tweets (I guess Novartis has a thing” against following people).

Unlike its fellow pharma Twitters, BI—which began using Twitter in November 2008—actually uses it as an interactive and conversational microblogging platform (as it was intended). The other pharma company Twitters use it almost exclusively “as a one-way PR feed” says Ellen Hoenig Carlson at Advance Market WoRx. According to a post on the Pharmafocus website, "Boehringer has incorporated Twitter into its wider communications strategy and is using the site regularly to engage its stakeholders. In addition to posting press releases, BI uses Twitter to recommend web-based information about therapeutic areas and articles that its followers might find interesting or useful. To keep its finger on the pulse of the Twitterverse, BI uses media scanning programs to help monitor online conversations and responds quickly to join in or start up Twitter conversations.”

Kudos to Boehringer for recognizing Twitter’s potential to communicate with patients, physicians and other interested parties. I hope that more pharmaceutical companies begin to use Twitter and other forms of social media to engage and improve communications with their stakeholders.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Twittering (or should it be Tweeting?) 

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Since 2007, approximately 80,000 pharmaceutical jobs have been eliminated. The recent consolidation in the industry, e.g., Merck-Schering, Pfizer-Wyeth and Roche-Genentech suggests that many more life sciences jobs will be lost over the next year or so. Typically, to avoid law suits and possible discrimination claims, most companies will layoff a mixture of experienced and entry level employees that cover the racial, religious and age spectra. For those of you who may not know, Americans who are 40 and older constitute a “protected class of employees.” In other words, companies that layoff employees cannot disproportionately give pink slips to employees 40 years of age or older. This law was enacted because older employees typically have higher salaries and have accrued more benefits and vacation time than their more junior counterparts and eliminating them can drastically cut costs. While most companies are careful to layoff a mixture of junior and senior employees during large layoffs, a quick perusal of the demographics of employees who lose their jobs reveals that many of them are older, more experienced workers. Sacrificing a few entry level employees (to prevent any red flags) is worth it to the accountants who charged with cutting costs and orchestrating large corporate layoffs.

Unlike consumer goods, pharmaceutical and biotechnology drug development is arcane, complex and may take up to 15 years to complete. There are many “go” or “no go” decisions that must be made during the drug development process. Typically, these decisions are rendered by experienced employees who have been “down the road” many times before and are able to recognize the oft-time nuanced attributes of successful drug candidates. Without the benefit of these employee and their experiences, drug companies may struggle to make the “right decisions” for new products being developed. Also, the loss of experienced employees can disrupt the flow of essential “corporate knowledge” to entry level and more junior employees. This is important because— while most entry level and junior employees are academically and technically qualified—it usually takes them years (under the tutelage of mentors and senior employees) to understand a company’s best practices. Put simply, the unrelenting loss of experienced pharmaceutical workers can alter the standing or dominance of pharmaceutical companies in certain therapeutic areas. While massive layoffs of experienced pharmaceutical employees bolster drug stock prices in the short term, the long term effects of these layoffs on the overall health of the pharmaceutical industry remains uncertain.

Jeff Kindler, Pfizer’s CEO, mentioned yesterday during a CNBC interview, that eight Wyeth senior executives will keep their jobs after the Pfizer-Wyeth deal closes later this year. Not surprisingly, he failed to mention how many “rank and file” employees of the combined company would keep their jobs after the merger. Don’t be shocked when Pfizer-Wyeth announces massive layoffs after the deal closes—Pfizer’s stock price has fallen 21% since it announced the Wyeth acquisition late last fall.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!

 

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Rumors are rife that Novartis is going to purchase Lexington, MA-based Cubist for $1.6 billion. Wall Street analysts are speculating that Novartis may announce the deal as early as Monday.

Cubist manufactures Cubicin (daptomycin), one of only a handful of new antibiotics brought to market in the past 20 years that is effective against many infections caused by Gram-positive bacteria, most notably methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The company is developing new lipopeptide antibiotics similar to Cubicin and also has an active anti-viral drug discovery program.

Over the past 10 years, big pharma companies largely abandoned antibiotic research and placed all discovery efforts in the hands of only a few smaller public companies and startups. Cubist is the only independent biopharmaceutical company that successfully brought a new antibiotic to market. 

Novartis’ possible acquisition of Cubist signals, that at least one major pharmaceutical company sees opportunities and upside in the antibiotic drug discovery market. Several years ago, Pfizer acquired another antibiotic discovery company, Vicuron (formerly Versicor) but to date the acquisition has not yielded any new antibiotics. While Novartis’ acquisition of Cubist is yet another sign of consolidation that is taking place in the life sciences sector, it may bolster new efforts in the antibacterial drug discovery area. Unlike Cubist, Novartis has enough money and marketing muscle to increase Cubin sales and develop some of the exciting new molecular entities in Cubist’s drug development pipeline.

Until next time…..

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

 

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In the wake of last week’s Pfizer-Wyeth M&A feeding frenzy, I suspect that most analysts were hoping that this week would be a little quieter. Unfortunately for many pharmaceutical company employees, this week may be shaping up to be almost as nerve-wracking as last week! 

 First, Sanofi-Aventis officially threw its hat into the ring and declared that it was on the hunt for a merger or acquisition partner. All of the usual suspects have been cited as possibilities. They include: Bristol Myers Squibb (Plavix, Erbitux, Orencia Abilify) , Amgen (EPO, Aranesp, Neupogen, Neulasta and Enbrel), Biogen-Idec (Avonex, Tsyabri and Rituxan) (Actavis (generics) Ratiopharm (generics) and Crucell (vaccines). The hands on favorite and most likely target would be Bristol Myers Squibb because the two companies co-market Plavix, their top selling drug that is due to lose patent protection in the next year or so. That said, in this environment anything can happen. 

In other news, GlaxoSmithKline announced that it will be cutting 6,000 jobs later this week when the company puts out financial results. The company began reorganizing itself in 2007 and will continue to do over the next few years to deal with generic encroachment on several of its top selling drugs. Glaxo employs about 100,000 people worldwide. Analysts suspect that many of the job cuts will occur in the UK and that sales rep may be hit the hardest in this latest round of layoffs.

Until next time…

 

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

 

 

 

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Talk about a rough week. First, on Monday, Pfizer announced that it was acquiring Wyeth, a move that is expected to result in the loss of 8,000 to 10,000 jobs if the deal is approved. This was followed on Wednesday by an announcement from Abbott Laboratories indicating hat it was laying off about 200 sales representatives because of regulatory delays for its12 hour-formulation of its pain drug Vicodin. Finally, on Thursday, AstraZeneca announced that it will cut another 7,400 jobs worldwide by 2013 (bringing the total number of expected layoffs to 15,000). Also on Thursday, Sepracor, the maker of the sleeping pill Lunesta, announced that it will cut 20% of its permanent work force (530 jobs) and 410 contract sales representatives (even though the company announced a profit).

Suffice it to say it has been a tough week for pharmaceutical company employees. I hope that next week is better.

Until next time…

Good Luck and errrrrr Good Job Hunting????????

 

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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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I believe in free enterprise and that publicly-traded companies ought to be able to buy one another if a deal makes sense. In any other financial market, Pfizer’s impending acquisition of Wyeth would be a noteworthy event but not extraordinary. However, we are living in unprecedented and uncertain financial times and Pfizer’s possible purchase of Wyeth has serious implications for American taxpayers.

As you may recall, the US government has pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into American banks so that they remain “solvent.” This was done to unfreeze credit markets and to purportedly provide relief, albeit indirectly, to American taxpayers many of whom are in financial trouble. However, the government’s infusion of TARP money didn’t unfreeze the credit markets and banks are still reluctant to lend to one another or to small business owners and consumers who need financing to keep their business and homes.

The Pfizer-Wyeth deal began about a year ago when Pfizer’s CEO floated the idea of a merger or acquisition. Negotiations between the two companies were on and off over the past year mostly because Pfizer and Wyeth couldn’t agree on an acceptable purchase price. The financial meltdown of last October changed all that and it became economically feasible for Pfizer to purchase Wyeth at a sharply discounted price.  However, one of the missing variables in the equation (that might kill the deal) was the availability of credit to complete the transaction. Because US banks are currently flush with TARP cash (because they stopped lending) and the Pfizer-Wyeth deal represents a safe deal with a substantial financial upside, it was not surprising that four of the largest US banks were willing to finance the deal.

According to the NY Times, “Pfizer’s bid is being financed by four banks that received bailout money: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America.” Ironically, last week the US government agreed to give Citigroup and Bank of America an additional TARP infusion to prevent them from “failing.” Amazingly, these very same banks (that have been teetering on the brink of insolvency for the past several months) can find the cash (taxpayer money) to finance Pfizer’s purchase of Wyeth. And, what can the American taxpayers expect to receive in return for investing in the deal—massive job layoffs— if Pfizer’s past purchases of Warner Lambert and Pharmacia are used as harbingers of things to come.

In better financial times, these layoffs would be noteworthy but not insurmountable jobs—there were always jobs at rival pharmaceutical companies and smaller biotechnology companies. However, over the past three years, the pharmaceutical industry has shed over 160,000 jobs and the biotechnology industry, the usual refuge for former pharma employees, has also layed off tens of thousands employees. Put simply, there is no longer a place for these highly skilled and experienced pharmaceutical employees to go to seek employment.

Wyeth shareholders and the banks will undoubtedly benefit financially from the impending deal. On the other hand, while Pfizer may garner some short term benefits from the Wyeth purchase, I think the ROI from the deal will be nominal over the long haul. Ironically, the people who stand to lose the most from the deal are the very same people who made the deal possible—the American taxpayers!  Imagine how you might feel if a deal made on your behalf using your hard-earned money resulted in your eventual unemployment!

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Pfizer's board of directors voted on Sunday evening  to acquire Wyeth for $65 billion.  While this may help to assuage some of Pfizer's short term financial problems, like the loss of  Lipitor in 2011,the deal will not help the combined company in the long run. 

The deal will undoubtedly lead to massive layoffs at both Pfizer and Wyeth--a time when our economy cannot afford much more job loss.  Further, it will diminish competition, reduce the need for more scientists and ultimately diminish America's standing in the life sciences. 

If I were a Pfizer or Wyeth employee the first thing that I would do on Monday morning would be: update my resume, contact as many  recruiters as I can and find a new job before the layoffs begin. I think the era of severance packages is over!

Until next time... 

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!

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Pfizer is the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. It was able to garner that distinction by going on a decade-long buying spree that began in the mid 1990s. To date, Pfizer has acquired Warner Lambert, Pharmacia and a host of smaller specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Despite these acquisitions, which yielded top selling blockbuster drugs like Lipitor and Celebrex, Pfizer’s stock has never performed up to analyst’s expectations. In fact, while it’s smaller and more nimble pharmaceutical competitor’s stock prices were soaring, Pfizer’s stock price was either flat or falling. While conventional wisdoms suggest that “bigger is always better” this has proven not to be the case when companies, like Pfizer, attempt to win greater market share through mergers and acquisition and also loss sight of their core business.

In my opinion, Pfizer’s acquisition of Warner Lambert in the mid 1990s was a well executed, strategic move—the transaction gave Pfizer rights to Lipitor, currently the world’s top selling prescription drug. At that time, Pfizer’s internal drug discovery pipeline was essentially running on empty and it needed a blockbuster to insure its future growth. Despite the benefits of the Warner Lambert deal, it took Pfizer many years and hundreds of millions of dollars to fully integrate the two companies into a fully functional one.

Several years later, Pfizer acquired Pharmacia to gain access to Celebrex, a Cox-2 inhibitor that had the potential of becoming a blockbuster drug to treat inflammation and chronic pain. Unfortunately, Pfizer’s ROI on Celebrex hit a sales-stopping road block when the safety of Cox-2 inhibitors was called into question after Merck withdraw its Cox-2 inhibitor, Vioxx from the market in 2005. While Pfizer directly benefited from Celebrex sales, it again took the company many years, at great expense, to fully integrate Pharmacia into Pfizer’s day-to-day operations.

During its decade long expansion, Pfizer’s internal drug discovery programs were largely ignored and had begun to fail largely because of management’s inexorable focus on acquiring blockbuster drugs rather than developing them internally. In the early 2000s, recognizing that blockbuster drugs were becoming harder to purchase, the company bet its financial future on a new cholesterol-lowering drug called torcetrapib (which, by the way, was developed by Pfizer scientists). The buzz surrounding torcetrapib—a potential blockbuster drug that was expected to replace Lipitor—reached a fever pitch in 2006 as Pfizer’s stock price soared. Unfortunately, Pfizer was forced to abandoned clinical development of torcetrapib in late 2006 because it exhibited potential life-threatening side effects in pivotal Phase 3 clinical trials This failure, coupled with the impending loss of  patent protection for several of its top selling drugs, most notably Lipitor, has placed Pfizer in its current precarious financial situation.

Like many of its competitors, Pfizer believes that biotechnology is the “next big thing” and its executives have publicly disclosed their intentions to get into “protein-based therapeutics.” While this strategy may represent a way for Pfizer to correct its current downward trajectory, the company, as a whole, lacks the requisite biopharmaceutical experience and expertise to commercially compete in this space. To obviate this, Pfizer has hinted that it would consider purchasing a large biotechnology company or a pharmaceutical company that has biotechnology products on the market.  Enter Wyeth—another pharmaceutical company that is trying to reinvent itself as a biopharmaceutical company. However, unlike Pfizer, Wyeth markets and sells two successful biotechnology products—Enbrel, a treatment for rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis and Prevnar a blockbuster anti-pneumococcal vaccine. However, it is important to note that neither Enbrel nor Prevnar were developed at Wyeth. Further, while Wyeth has achieved commercial success with both Enbrel and Prevnar, several of its non-biotechnology drugs have recently hit regulatory snags and their future approval is uncertain.

On the surface, a Pfizer-Wyeth merger may make sense—both companies are struggling, Pfizer needs an entrée into biotech and Wyeth has marketed biotechnology products and biomanufacturing capability. However, a closer examination of the deal reveals some major flaws. First, Wyeth’s internal biotechnology discovery pipeline is sparse (although it does have a few, niche protein-based products in early stage clinical development). While Enbrel sales are increasing and consistently have topped $1 billion in annual sales in recent years, Wyeth only owns the non-US rights to Enbrel (Amgen owns the US rights). Second, Prevnar is coming off patent soon and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has developed a competing vaccine that is expected perform as well or better than Wyeth’s next generation version of Prevnar. Finally, Prevnar has been a huge money maker for Wyeth because there are currently no other approved pneumococcal vaccines on the market. The introduction of GSK’s competing vaccine will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the sale of Prevnar and its successor. If neither company has strong internal drug discovery pipelines and both lack sufficient expertise in biopharmaceutical product development, why are Pfizer and Wyeth actively engaged in M&A discussions?

For the past several months, rumors have been circulating that Pfizer might acquire Amgen. While a Pfizer-Amgen deal makes more sense to me that a Pfizer-Wyeth one, I don’t think that acquiring another large pharmaceutical company is in the best interests of Pfizer shareholders (they are still paying for the past two mergers!). That said, if Pfizer does acquire Wyeth, the combined entity will still hold the distinction of being the world’s largest pharmaceutical company—at least there is that!

Until next time...

 

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (hope that a merger doesn’t take place—there will be layoffs!)

 

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While the domino theory was incorrect when it came to the spread of communism during the Cold War, there may be a kernel of truth to it when it is applied to today’s pharmaceutical industry. On Tuesday, Pfizer announced that it would lay off 800 researchers. Not to be outdone by Pfizer, Roche announced today that it plans to lay off about 780 workers over the next two to three years because of “worsening economic conditions.”

After spending the last decade or so associated with the pharmaceutical industry, one thing that I have learned is that there isn’t a single company that I can think of that wants to be the first to do anything. However, when a pharma company makes a bold move, the others are very quick to follow because they “don’t want to be perceived as not being “cutting edge” or keeping pace with their competitors. To that end, the domino theory may warrant some further investigation when it comes to day-to-day operations of big pharma.

Until next time,

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

 

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I received an e-message from a reader who alerted me about new information and rumors that are swirling about the layoffs announced yesterday by Pfizer.  For more info, check out the post at the Daily Anchor.

Seems like other things may be brewing at Pfizer.

 

Until next time...

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

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Long rumored, Pfizer announced yesterday that it will eliminate another 800 research jobs outside of its six core therapeutic areas: cancer, pain, inflammation, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. The new cuts represent 5 to 8 percent of Pfizer’s approximately 10,000 researchers worldwide. According to a company spokesperson, the company will continue to evaluate its current staffing to make decisions that are consistent with its future goals. In short, expect more layoffs to occur in the near future.

Industry analysts expect additional cuts to occur in R&D and Pfizer’s dwindling sales force. To date, Pfizer has eliminated about 10,000 jobs, mostly in R&D and sales. Pfizer became the world’s largest pharmaceutical after going on a 12 year buying spree that began in 1996 after its acquisition of Warner Lambert, the company that developed the blockbuster anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor. The company currently employs about 85,000 people worldwide.

Wall Street rewarded Pfizer’s decision to layoff more scientists by pushing its stock share price up 1.3% yesterday. Rewarding a company for eliminating one of its most important and valuable assets has never made sense to me. But, then again, I am a scientist not an MBA-toting Wall Street analyst—what do I know?

Until next time…

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

 

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Pfizer announced today that it will eliminate almost 1,000 jobs in France through layoffs or voluntary departures. Gerard Bouquet, vice-president of Pfizer France, announced that "This new organization will take effect from Dec. 1, 2009 and there will be no forced layoffs before that date.” The cuts will affect Pfizer’s sales force and at it Paris-based headquarters.

Today’s announcement comes just a few days after Rod MacKenzie, Pfizer’s worldwide head of discovery research told reporters “Given the complexity of the changes within research, I have concluded that we will not be able to provide that clarity [for the layoffs] or communicate them by the end of the year." While it appears that there may some confusion regarding American workers, this is clearly not the case for Pfizer’s European employees.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting

 

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Over the past few weeks, the blogosphere was rife with rumors and speculation that Pfizer would be laying off additional R&D personnel in December. However, it seems that the layoffs have been postponed and nobody at Pfizer seems to know when they will take place. Conventional wisdom suggests that job cuts will likely take place sometime after the holidays, probably in mid -January, 09.

Rod MacKenzie, Pfizer’s worldwide head of discovery research told reporters “Given the complexity of the changes within research, I have concluded that we will not be able to provide that clarity [for the layoffs] or communicate them by the end of the year." I suspect that he knows who will be getting pink slips but is reluctant to make the announcement until early next year because it would look awful if Pfizer lets people go right before the holiday season. 

Call me crazy, but I don’t think that publicizing lay offs (to be determined later) is good for employee productivity and morale. I have no doubt that rumors about the impending layoffs have been circulating at Pfizer for months. Unfortunately for Pfizer, one or more of its employees leaked the information and company executives are in damage control and spin modes. The inability of Pfizer executives to control internal information flow is just another example of why many industry analysts believe that Pfizer grew too quickly over the past decade. Nevertheless, hundreds and perhaps thousands of Pfizer employees will lose their jobs in the not so distant future.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget Groton, CT)

 

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Pfizer may announce new job cuts by the end of next month as the company tries to curb spending before cheaper generic versions of its top- selling drug Lipitor flood the market in 2010. The cuts will likely take place in sales and marketing—Pfizer has cut more than 14, 000 jobs since 2007. 

Aren’t you glad that you didn’t take me up on that land deal in Florida?

 

Until next time…

Good Luck and Hang On!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

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Astra Zeneca announced today that it would cut 1400 jobs and close several manufacturing facilities worldwide. According to a post on the Pharmalot blog “about 600 full-time jobs will be lost in Sweden as packaging operations are expanded in Wuxi, China. The cuts will come on top of the 7,600 positions the drugmaker plans to eliminate by 2010. The plant closings will occur in Spain, Belgium and Sweden by 2013. Manufacturing jobs will also be trimmed in Sweden and the UK as production is shifted to lower-cost countries in emerging markets.”

On Tuesday Wyeth disclosed that it was eliminating 70 positions at its Pearl River, New York, facility (which employs 3,200 workers, 118 employees at its Rouses Point facility in upstate New York that employs 725 people work, and 124 jobs at its Sanford, North Carolina manufacturing facility. Ironically, as more and more US workers are laid off, many big pharma companies like Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are expanding operations at their research facilities in India. In fact, Merck is doubling its headcount from 800 to 1,600 employees at its research facility in India that was opened a little over a year ago.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Keep on Looking!!!!

 

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The Pharmalot blog reported today that Pfizer will likely layoff large numbers of R&D personnel over the next few weeks and months. This should not come as a surprise to Pfizer employees because the company recently announced that it would eliminate research in certain therapeutic areas including heart disease and obesity as part of a global reorganization plan. According to the company, the reorganization is expected to be completed by year’s end and operational in 2009. Inside sources say that the job losses should be significant and far reaching.

In other news, BioJobBlog learned today that Bristol Myers Squibb plans to announce company-wide layoffs by December 1, 2008. As previously reported by BioJobBlog, BMS has been quietly downsizing since last spring because of the impending patent expiry (in 2011) of its blockbuster anticlotting drug Plavix. BMS, unlike Pfizer, has been extremely circumspect about its impending layoffs which is causing a great deal of anxiety among its employees. The recent sale of ImClone, BMS’s partner for the cancer drug Erbitux, to Eli Lilly will undoubtedly contribute to additional layoffs at BMS in the future. Currently, Erbitux is BMS’s top selling biopharmaceutical product.

It goes without saying that it is not a good time to be a pharma employee. Unfortunately, as the old adage goes “things are likely to get worse before they get better”. 

Until next time…

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

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Pfizer announced earlier today that it was going to cut R&D jobs and abandon its research efforts in the areas of cardiovascular diseases, cholesterol management, osteoporosis, anemia and liver and muscle diseases. The company plans to refocus it drug development in five therapeutic areas including Alzheimer’s; diabetes; immune disorders and inflammation; cancer; pain; and mental illness, including schizophrenia. Also, the company will continue its work on anti-thrombotic agents to prevent blood clots.

The job cuts and refocusing are part of a previously announced plan to cut about $2 billion dollars from Pfizer’s operating budget. Over the past 15 years, Pfizer has gone on an unprecedented buying spree in an attempt to acquire blockbuster drugs and bolster its flagging internal drug development pipeline. Unfortunately, the gamble has not paid off and Pfizer must now attempt to reinvent itself to restore shareholder value and instill investor confidence. 

Unlike many of its competitors, Pfizer failed to invest in and capitalize on early opportunities in the biotechnology industry. The company has been trying to play catch up ever since. To that end, over the past year or so, Pfizer invested in or purchased several small biopharmaceutical companies to demonstrate its commitment to biotechnology.  It may be “too little too late!” Unfortunately, because of a lack of vision and foresight by company executives, many Pfizer employees will have to pay the ultimate price of losing their jobs as the US falls deeper into recession.

Hat tip to Pharmalot and the WSJ Health Blog.

Until next time…

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

 

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Pfizer announced today that it would withdraw marketing application being considered at FDA and the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for Dalbavancin an antibiotic it was developing for complicated skin infections caused by bacteria including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Pfizer acquired Dalbavancin after it purchased California-based Vicuron Pharmaceuticals for $1.9 billion in 2005. At that time, Vicuron had filed an NDA with FDA and had expected approval for the novel antibiotic. Instead, after acquiring Vicuron, Pfizer received an approvable letter from FDA that requested additional studies before the agency would approve the drug. Based on the agency’s comments, Pfizer decided to withdraw the original US and European applications filed by Vicuron and conduct addition Phase III clinical trials for the complicated skin and soft tissue infection and pediatric indications. I suspect that results from these trials will determine whether Pfizer files new applications with FDA and EMEA for Dalbavancin.

For those of you who may not know, Vicuron Pharmaceuticals was formerly called Versicor, a company founded by Eric Gordon, Mickey Gorman and others. In 1996, I was recruited to interview for a Vice President of Biology position at the company.  At that time, Versicor had about 15 employees — Eric was CEO and Mickey was a consultant.  Although Eric, Mickey and I became fast friends, I didn’t get the job (they never hired anybody for the position). 

Both Eric and Mickey left Versicor a couple of years later. Eric went on to start Sunesis, a very successful Bay area oncology company and Mickey retired to his home in Key West, FL. From time to time, I would run into Eric at BIO meetings and Mickey and I would meet up at my all time favorite Vietnamese restaurant (Hy Vong) in Little Havana in Miami, FL. Eric has since retired after 30 years in the pharma/biotech biz and Mickey unfortunately passed away from cancer in the early 2000s.

 

After meeting Eric and Mickey, I knew that Versicor would be a success one day—the $1.9 billion that Pfizer paid for Vicuron tends to validate that notion. While I didn’t benefit financially from Versicor, I was lucky and fortunate to meet two, really smart, fascinating and genuine individuals who helped me to establish my credibility in the biopharmaceutical industry.  As the saying goes “Money isn’t everything!”

 

Hat tip to Ed at Pharmalot.

 

Until next time…

 

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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A little over a year ago, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) launched its “productivity transformation initiative” (PTI) designed to “transform” the company into a next generation biopharma leader. As most of you may already know, PTI is corporate speak for layoffs and downsizing.

The PTI was largely in response to impending loss of patent protection in 2011 of its blockbuster Plavix, an anti-thrombosis drug that BMS co-markets with Sanofi Aventis. While BMS has a deep and innovative drug pipeline, the likelihood that the company will be able to replace Plavix revenues with one of its investigational drugs is remote.

To make matters worse, late last week, one of Plavix’s likely successors, an investigational anti-clotting drug called apixaban (being co-developed with Pfizer) failed to meet its primary clinical endpoints in a pivotal Phase III clinical trial called Advance 1 which was designed to evaluate the drug for prevention of venous thromboembolism in patients undergoing total knee replacement.  The 3,195-patient study compared apixaban, an oral Factor Xa inhibitor given at a dose of 2.5 mg, twice daily, to twice-daily 30mg injections of Sanofi-Aventis’ Lovenox (enoxaparin). This late stage clinical failure prompted the company to announce that it would no longer seek approval of apixaban in 2009 as previously planned.

Early this week, BMS ratcheted up the PTI and imposed a total hiring freeze for all permanent employees, consultants and leased workers (contractors). Previously, vacated permanent or temporary positions could be refilled if appropriate, qualified job candidates were identified. Finally, the company announced today that it would permanently ground its corporate fleet of jets that was operating out of Mercer County Airport in Trenton, NJ. According to an article in my local paper, the Trenton Times, BMS plans to sell four aircraft and layoff about 32 employees, mostly pilots and mechanics. 

Despite all of the other PTI initiatives implemented to date, the decision to sell all of its corporate jets sends a clear signal to stakeholders that BMS truly “means business”! I guess Jim Cornelius and other BMS executives will have to book commercial flights or take Amtrak to out-of-town meetings for the foreseeable future. That said, I doubt that Jim and others will be driving or taking the train to meetings in New York City or Washington—the corporate helicopter fleet is still operating!!!!!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget BMS)!!!!!!!

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Pfizer announced today that is it closing a manufacturing facility in Cork Ireland.  Approximately 180 people will lose their jobs. Pfizer tried to sell the plant but was unable to find a buyer. The Cork plant will officially be closed sometime in 2009.  Another of Pfizer’s five Irish manufacturing facilities located in Ringaskiddy is also on the block. That facility employs about 300 people. Pfizer cites the 2006 failure of torcetrapib, an experimental cholesterol drug as the reason for the plant closings.

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Yesterday Pfizer announced that it would layoff 275 employees at its manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo County in Michigan. Not to be out done by big pharma, generics manufacturer Perrigo Co. said today that it is going to create 400 new jobs in the western Michigan town of Allegan. According to published reports, Perrigo plans to invest $10.5 million in its Allegan, MI headquarters and manufacturing facility in an expansion that is projected to generate 99 new jobs within a year and 400 others over five years. A Michigan Economic Development Corp’s analysis suggests that the Perrigo expansion could generate up to 1,039 jobs in Michigan by 2020

A Perrigo spokesperson said that as it has done with past jobs cuts in Kalamazoo, the company will recruit the Pfizer personnel losing their jobs. This is good news for the folks who were laid off by Pfizer yesterday. However, when you do the math (275-99), the will be a net loss of 176 pharmaceutical jobs in Western Michigan by year’s end. Although Perrigo said that another 300 jobs will be created over the next five years, I wouldn’t count on many jobs being added until the US economy finds its way out of its current recession.

Hat tip to Pharmalot for the heads up!

Until next ….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (Michigan may be better than I thought)!!!!!

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Pfizer is at it again. The company announced today that it will cut 275 jobs from its manufacturing operations in Kalamazoo County before the end of the year. The cut will reduce the company’s total employee roster to about 2,500 at the Portage, MI site.

Pfizer has been steadily streamlining and downsizing operations in Michigan ever since it inherited several Michigan-based sites after it acquired Pharmacia in 2002.

Not surprisingly, a company spokesman said “We operate in a highly competitive and constantly changing environment, and we have to adapt to that.'' Easy for him to say—he still has a job. 

The announcement comes on the heels of a rumor circulating last week that some Pfizer employees at its Croton R&D facility may lose their jobs next fall.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (avoid Michigan)!!!!!!!!!!

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According to apost at Pharmalot, rumor has it that Pfizer will lay off a number of chemists at its main R&D facility in Groton, Connecticut as early as next Fall The rumor supposedly began at an R&D blog run by a former Pfizer employee (always a reliable source for inside information). 

M y colleague Ed Silverman who runs Pharmalot contacted Pfizer about the rumor and received this response “A leading R&D organization must evolve, continue to build on its strengths, capture competitive advantage wherever possible and be realistic about what it will take to return Pfizer to growth. What I can assure you is that if and when there are organizational changes, those decisions are never taken lightly. Our guiding principle is that colleagues hear about important Pfizer news from company leadership first and are treated with the utmost respect.” In other words, Pfizer will likely be laying off more employees in the very near future.

Hat tip to Ed!

Until next time…

Good Luck, Good Job Hunting and Happy 4^th of July!!!!!

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As many of you may know, Ranbaxy was involved in a bitter patent dispute with Pfizer over Lipitor, Pfizer’s blockbuster multibillion, dollar anti LDL-cholesterol drug. Ranbaxy was challenging the validity of Pfizer’s intellectual property estate for Lipitor which would have extended patent protection for the drug until 2013 or longer. The patent dispute began after Ranbaxy filled an ANDA with the US Food and Drug Administration to sell generic Lipitor after uncontested Lipitor patents expire in early 2010.

Conventional wisdom suggested that Pfizer would ultimately lose the patent dispute and that Ranbaxy would be able to immediately flood the market with a much cheaper generic version of Lipitor. This would have an enormous negative impact on Pfizer’s financial stability and its future (Lipitor had $12.8 billion in sales in 2007). Nevertheless, untilDaiicho-Sankyo announced its intention to acquire Ranbaxy last week, Pfizer was willing to gamble and run the risk of losing the lawsuit. Apparently, Ranbaxy impending sale was enough of an impetus for Pfizer to settle the patent dispute which has grown increasingly acrimonious over the past year or so.

According to agreement (which needs to be approved by the US Federal Trade Commission), Pfizer was able to get Ranbaxy  to agree to delay the release of generic Lipitor until November 2011 — up to 20 months later than many analysts had been expecting (some insiders believed that generic Lipitor could reach the market as early as March 2010). Further, as part of the agreement, Pfizer will allow Ranbaxy to sell its version of Lipitor in Australia, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden two to four months before Liptor’s patents expire. This is likely the sweet part of the deal for Ranbaxy because all of the above mentioned markets are top sellers for anti-cholesterol drugs. Finally, because Ranbaxy was the first to file an ANDA for generic Lipitor with the FDA, it will get 6 months of market exclusivity guaranteed (in the Hatch Waxman Act) to a generic manufacturer that is first to file for generic production of a brand name drug nearing patent expiry.   However, after quickly perusing the terms of the deal, I think that it more closely resembles an authorized generics deal rather than a “true” competitive generics launch.

Currently, Lipitor costs about $2.50 to $3 a day. Analysts predict that Ranbaxy can sell its generic Lipitor for about 75 cents to $1 a day, or as low as 10 cents a day at some discount pharmacies. The potential drastic price reduction coupled with Daiichi-Sankyo’s intention to purchase Ranbaxy (which would have provided Ranbaxy with more money underwrite and press on with IP lawsuit, it what I believe forced Pfizer’s hand to act as quickly as it did to settle the suit. The deal, if approved, allows Pfizer to dodge a near fatal financial bullet and will provide it with a potentially lucrative revenue stream from it authorized generics deal that it struck with Ranbaxy. 

Nevertheless, given the financial stakes associated with the Lipitor franchise, it may make more sense for Pfizer to purchase Ranbaxy rather than enter into the pending deal. Also, a Ranbaxy purchase would allow Pfizer to enter the biologics and biotechnology fields—something that Pfizer executives have been talking about publicly to insure the company’s future. Like most other pharmaceutical generics manufacturers, Ranbaxy has active research programs on biosimilar and other biotechnology products. If I was driving the boat at Pfizer I would offer Ranbaxy a lucrative counteroffer to block its sale to Daiichi-Sankyo. I don’t know—the deal just makes sense to me. That said, not many recruiters have been calling me about CEO jobs lately!!!!!!

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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Rumor has it that Pfizer may offer a counteroffer to acquire India-based generics manufacturer Ranbaxy. As you may recall, Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo agreed earlier in the week to pay about $4.6 billion for a controlling interest in Ranbaxy. According to reports many analysts expect Pfizer to attempt to queer to the Daiichi-Ranbaxy deal because “it is battling Ranbaxy in about 18 countries on patent rights of Lipitor, the largest selling cholesterol drug in the world. Lipitor has annual sales of $13 billion. In most countries the patent on the drug will expire starting 2011.”  Ranbaxy has won favorable court decisions on Lipitor in many countries including in the US, the largest drug market in the world, which accounts for 28 per cent of the global generic market estimated at $72 billion.

I tend to agree with the pundits. Pfizer has a lousy pipeline and its recent clinical trial record is horrendous. Consequently, the company must hang on (as long as possible and at any cost) to its blockbuster brands to avoid financial ruin.

Stay tuned for late-breaking news and updates!

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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Brand name pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have been quietly spending millions to lobby Congress for changes in US patent law. Specifically, these companies want to overhaul the intellectual property rules dealing with the doctrine of “inequitable conduct”. When a company or individual engages in inequitable conduct, it means that the company or individual has misrepresented or concealed information with the intent to deceive the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In such cases, a federal judge has the legal authority to void the patent and declare that it is unenforceable. Not surprisingly, brand-name drug companies are lobbying Congress to eliminate or curtail inequitable conduct penalties. 

According to the New York Times, in the last 15 years the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (which handles appellate patent litigation) have ruled in the affirmative on 40 cases of inequitable conduct–14 of which involved pharmaceutical or healthcare companies. Similar rulings have been issued by federal district judges in an indeterminate number of cases that were not appealed (and never reached the Federal Circuit court). The article contends that some drug makers knowingly submitted false statements to the USPTO, inaccurately described experiments in patent applications or concealed information (usually prior art) that contradicted their claims. In one high profile case, the appeals court ruled that the Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk failed to disclose that it had not performed an experiment described in a patent application for human growth hormone. In another notable case, the court contends that Pharmacia (now Pfizer) used an “inaccurate and misleading” affidavit to win a patent for a new glaucoma drug.  Personally, I am aware of several instances in which companies willfully and knowingly failed to disclose prior art in patent applications that were ultimately approved.

Those of us in the biz know that patents are valuable commodities and that the financial stakes surrounding patent estates and intellectual properly are extremely high. A robust patent estate can either make or break a company. Nevertheless, in my opinion, if a company (or individual) cheats by falsifying, concealing or omitting pertinent information in a patent application, they ought to be penalized for it.  As one former USPTO commissioner, who served under George HW Bush puts it: “Patents can be very valuable. There are strong incentives to want to get them. Cheating occurs from time to time. The inequitable conduct doctrine says that if you cheated to get a patent, you should not be able to enforce it.”

Brand name drug manufacturers contend that generic drug makers routinely attack their patents by accusing them of inequitable conduct, whether they are guilty or not. Further, they claim that unwarranted and endless patent litigation impinges on their ability to discover and bring new drugs to market. Consequently, brand name drug markers argue that the inequitable conduct doctrine should be eliminated from US patent law. Not surprisingly, this would seriously hinder or curtail the ability of generic drug manufacturers to bring their products to market—something that brand name drug makers desperately want to protect their multibillion dollars drug franchises from generic encroachment.

The number of patent applications submitted to the USPTO has doubled in the past 10 years and more than tripled since 1987. According to Jon Dudas, the current undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property “We are getting more and more unpatentable ideas and worse and worse quality applications”. Historically, the annual number of patents that are allowed (approved) ranges from 62 to 72%. After reaching a high of 72% in 2000, it dropped to 43% in the first quarter of 2008. These data suggest that, the probability of getting new patents allowed is diminishing. This is making brand name drug companies anxious and extremely competitive when it comes to patent applications. And, when competition increases, it is not uncommon for companies and individual to resort to unorthodox (and sometimes overtly unethical or illegal methods) to insure success. In my opinion, the doctrine of inequitable conduct and the penalties associated with it are what keep illegal and unethical behaviors in check. With this in mind, I think it would be extremely unwise for Congress to eliminate or severely curtail the penalties for inequitable conduct.

Based on the small number of inequitable conduct cases that have reached the Federal Circuit, it appears that the current system is working the way it was designed to function. This begs the question: “Why fix something that isn’t broken? “ Oh wait, this debate isn’t really about ethics or legality–it is about making money–silly me!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try intellectual property law)!!!!!!!!

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Pfizer the world’s largest and least innovative pharmaceutical company  announced yesterday that its profits dropped by 18% last year. The company attributed the loss to reductions in the sale of its blockbuster anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor, which is slated to lose patent protection in the next few years.

Pfizer, which has about $25 billion in cash, has been on something of a buying spree the past couple of years. The company is desperately trying get into biotechnology (too little, too late?) and believes, as it always has, that the best way to enter a new therapeutic area is to buy its way into it! To that end, Pfizer has already purchased two “biotech” companies in 2007 (more purchases are likely on the way) and entered into financially-lucrative, long term research collaborations with several others. Although this strategy has previously worked for Pfizer in the short term, it has proved to be financially disastrous for the company in the long term. Nevertheless, Pfizer said it still expects earnings this year to grow about 11%, due largely to a cost-cutting program that has eliminated 25,000 jobs, or 23% of its work force since 2004.

Until Pfizer executives realize that a robust internal drug discovery and development program is the key to success, Pfizer will continue to be the world’s biggest pharmaceutical company with a constantly flagging stock price.

Until next time….

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

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Has it really been 10 years since the launch of Viagra, the first drug that was approved to treat erectile dysfunction (ED)?  Why it seems like just yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, Pfizer was originally developing Viagra as a treatment for cardiovascular disease (it increases blood flow). However, members of the Viagra clinical development teams quickly observed Viagra’s unmistakable erectogenic potential and understood the impact that it would have on male sexual function for years to come.

Before Viagra’s launch in 1998, impotence, (the term previously used to describe what is now known as ED) was rarely discussed or mentioned by anyone, including many physicians. Now, with the advent of Viagra, Levitra and Cialis ED has become a part of the American lexicon.  So-called tough guys like Bob Dole to NFL players are no longer ashamed to mention that they suffer from ED now that they can take a pill to overcome the condition. All kidding aside, Viagra has helped many men with conditions ranging from diabetes, atherosclerosis to prostrate cancer. But, there is one question that I have. “Are there really that many men who suffer with ED to account for the roughly $6.0 billion per year that is spent on Viagra and related medications? 

Anyway, Happy Birthday Viagra! Maybe the little blue guy’s birthday can get a “rise” out of Pfizer’s stock today–sssshhhhhhh, let’s not put too much pressure on Viagra, it may interfere with its performance!

Until next time....

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

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Cambridge, MA-based Alkermes announced today that it is restructuring its operations following the termination by Eli Lilly and Company of its inhalable AIR Insulin program (Alkermes manufactured the inhaler delivery device). The company is reducing its workforce by approximately 150 employees and closing its AIR commercial manufacturing facility in Chelsea, MA. The company is taking these actions based on its current expectations of the financial impact of Lilly's termination of the AIR Insulin program.

The job cuts, effective this week, represent almost 18% of Alkermes’ total workforce. Employees affected by the restructuring will be eligible for a severance package that includes severance pay, continuation of benefits and outplacement services. The company expects cost savings from the restructuring in the range of $15 million to $20 million in fiscal 2009.

In other news from across the pond, the trade group, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), reported today that the UK pharmaceutical industry lost about 8.000 pharmaceutical jobs or about 10% of its workforce over the past three years. The ABPI asserts that there is a direct link between job cuts and changes to the British government’s pricing mechanisms for medicines. A spokesperson for the group said “Every time a new PPRS (Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme) comes into force there is a decline in the number of jobs”. Not surprisingly, the group is urging the government to not make any changes in the PPRS.

The UK pharmaceutical workforce has taken a number of big hits of late– Pfizer recently closed a manufacturing plant in Kent, while British drug makers AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline both announced substantial global job cuts many of which were located in Britain.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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Maybe Pfizer executives ought to ask their doctors for Zoloft prescriptions to deal with the compulsive buying spree that they have been on for past 6 months or so. After acquiring after Encysive Pharmaceuticals just two weeks ago,  Pfizer announced plans to acquire Serenex, a privately-held biotechnology company that specializes in oncology.  Pfizer also acquired Copely Pharmaceuticals last November.

 No financial details of the deal were disclosed but Pfizer is acquiring the rights to SNX-5422, an oral heat shock protein 90 inhibitor which is currently in Phase I trials for the potential treatment of solid tumors and hematological cancers. The company is also acquiring Serenex’ proprietary drug discovery technology and “extensive small molecule Hsp90 inhibitor compound library”, which has potential uses to treat cancer, inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.

Surprisingly absent from the deal are the rights to SNX-1012, Serenex’ lead compound, which is for treatment of oral mucositis in cancer patients. It is scheduled to complete Phase II trials in mid-2008 and researchers working on the drug will form part of a new company that is to be spun off and owned by the current shareholders of Serenex.

I guess the adage “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks” is apt for Pfizer. I guess they still haven’t learned that bigger is always better!!! Go figure.

Until next time

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

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I am old enough to remember when the artificial heart was invented and used to extend the life of Barney Clark, a dentist in Seattle, WA. It was a phenomenal accomplishment back in the day. So, it seemed appropriate to me that Robert Jarvik, the guy who invented the artificial heart, appeared in Pfizer’s Lipitor ads as a spokesperson to promote heart health. However, a Congressional committee examining consumer drug advertising has questioned whether the Lipitor ads may have misrepresented Dr. Jarvik and his credentials to promote the drug.

Although Dr. Jarvik has a medical degree, he is not a cardiologist nor is he licensed to practice medicine! Further, one television ads depicts Dr. Jarvik as an accomplished rower but the ad used a body double for him and, as it turns out, he does not even row! To make matters worse, a former colleague of Jarvik contends that he is not the actual inventor of the artificial heart. He suggested that the distinction belongs to Jarvik’s mentor Willem J. Kolff and his associate Tetsuzo Akutsu at the University of Utah. Go figure! Despite the firestorm, Pfizer continues to air the television ad ( I saw it just a few days ago).

Pfizer has spent more than $258 million advertising Lipitor (a cholesterol-lowering statin) since January 2006, most of it on the Jarvik campaign in an attempt to protect Lipitor from generic competition. Lipitor is the world’s best selling drug and generated $12.7 billion in revenues in 2007. While Lipitor has patent protection until 2010, some patients have already switched to a generic version of a competing cholesterol drug Zocor. According to published reports Pfizer agreed to pay Jarvik about $1.35 million under a two-year contract that expires next month. I think it is safe to assume that Jarvik will not appear in any future Lipitor ads.

As many of you may know, drug companies FDA is not required to review direct-to-consumer ads before they are aired to the American public. While some companies request FDA review of their promotional materials before they are used in advertising campaigns, the vast majority of companies do not. Unfortunately, because of this regulatory loophole, direct-to-consumer advertising has turned into something of a cat and mouse game–there are only consequences and penalties if you get caught misrepresenting or not fully disclosing information about your products.

In my opinion, Pfizer’s misrepresentation of Jarvik’s credentials (and Jarvik’s complicity) is unethical and unconscionable. More importantly, it demonstrates how easily and willing companies are to “bend the truth” to preserve blockbuster drug franchises that generate billions of dollars in annual revenues. I think that what Pfizer did was wrong and shameful. The company should be fined and sanctioned for the Lipitor campaign. That said, it is likely that the size of the fine levied by FDA will pale in comparison to Lipitor revenues generated by the Jarvik campaign. I believe that it is time for Congress and FDA close the loopholes in current direct-to-consumer advertising regulations–the safety and health of the American public depends on it!

Until next time….

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

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 that 660 jobs will be lost at a Pfizer manufacturing facility in Terre Haute, Ind., a result of Pfizer Inc.'s decision to stop production of its inhaled insulin product Exubera.

Nat Ricciardi, president of Pfizer Global Manufacturing, announced Pfizer's decision to cut staff in Terra Haute because the company did not have another use for the specialized Indiana-based production facility.

Facility workers were told of the decision on Monday morning and that told layoffs would begin in March. The production facility employs about 800 workers in total and a majority of the affected employees are those hired within the last five years to produce Exubera. The remaining 140 workers will support the company's sterile manufacturing operation that included antibiotic production.

When the company announced plans in October to discontinue Exubera, it also said about 60 jobs would be lost at its manufacturing plant in Portage, Ind. They are among a total off 200 jobs the company has said will be cut here before the end of this year.

A Pfizer spokesperson said the company is "committed to providing whatever assistance our colleagues need, including internal job postings, job search tools, career and retirement counseling and severance benefits for those who leave the company." It appears that the Midwest is starting to feel pain associated with contraction of the pharmaceutical industry.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (forget the Midwest)!!!!!!!!!!

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The Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk announced today that it was halting further clinical development of its inhalable insulin product called AERx. AERx was in Phase 3 clinical testing as a short-term diabetes treatment. In a press release the company stated that it was halting development of its inhaled insulin compound because the drug was "unlikely to offer significant clinical or convenience benefits" versus current diabetes treatments.” AERx joins Exubera (Nektar Therapeutics/ Pfizer) on the inhalable insulin scrap heap. This leavesEli Lilly and Alkermes’ IR insulin system as the only inhalable short-acting diabetes treatment in Phase 3 clinical development.

Interestingly, Novo didn't say that it was giving up on developing inhalable insulins— only that it was halting its current late-stage AERx program. The company did announce that it plans to pursue a Glucagon_Like Protein (GLP-1) inhalable diabetes treatment which is similar to a product being developed by California-based MannKind. Its product in Phase 1 clinical testing. Unlike Nektar, which partnered with Pfizer to develop Exubera, MannKind, a small startup, is developing its inhalable insulin product alone. Novo also disclosed plans to develop a longer-acting injectable form of insulin which would eliminate the need for daily injections by patients with diabetes.

In theory, inhalable insulins make sense—many people hate daily injections. That said, inhalable insulins may create other problems that obviate their usefulness as alternatives to daily insulin injections-just ask Pfizer and Nektar about that!

Until next time….

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

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Pfizer Inc. said Tuesday it will buy privately-held biotechnology company CovX in a move to augment its own internal pipeline of biotechnology products. CovX’s expertise lies in developing long-acting, peptide-based biotherapeutic drugs.

La Jolla, Calif.-based CovX has already generated one early-stage diabetes candidate and two early-stage cancer treatment candidates, Pfizer said. It will operate as part of Pfizer's Biotherapeutic and Bioinnovation Center in California.

According to Pfizer CEO Jeffry Kindler, “The acquisition of CovX is a further step in Pfizer's strategy to acquire and identify new product candidates that we can put into development, leveraging both Pfizer's expertise and that of world-class scientists charged with discovering and bringing in new compounds.” The truth is: that Pfizer hasn’t seen a deal that it could not resist!

A Pfizer spokesperson said CovX scientists will remain with the company. That is exactly what Pfizer told Warner Lambert and Pharmacia employees after those companies were purchased.
If I was working at CovX I would be updating my resume–just in case

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According to an article in the Ann Arbor News, hundreds of Pfizer employees and their guests gathered at Eastern Michigan University's Convocation Center late last week for a good-bye party sponsored by the company.

The party included a live band parodying popular songs with Pfizer-themed material, with the participation of site director David Canter, and a retrospective video documenting change at the Ann Arbor site since it was built in the late 1950s.

Nobody was crying in their beer or anything like that," said a seven-year employee. "There was good food, nice music ... people were there just to have a nice time with their colleagues. ... It's hard to be bitter when you had such great people to work with." Gee, with such loyal employees, you wonder why Pfizer shut down the facility?

I guess business is business–at least Pfizer Ann Arbor ex-employees know that the company appreciated them a lot and that there are no hard feelings.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (I hear Ann Arbor is nice)

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I hate to be the bearer of bad news (don’t kill the messenger) but 2007 has been rife with corporate downsizing and job layoffs. According to a post at Fierce Biotech, jobs cuts were primarily driven by “Concerns about patent expirations, falling sales due to drug safety concerns, redundancy from acquisitions and a general need to streamline operations”. The companies that have “laid-off” the most workers are:  

1. Pfizer-10,000 
2. Astra Zeneca-7,600 
3. Bayer-6,100 
4. Johnson & Johnson
5. 5,000 Amgen-2,600

Companies that did not make the list but have quietly been laying off workers or freezing jobs include GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

It is not a good time to be looking for a job in the pharma or biotech industries. That said, there is always hope and let’s “hope” that 2008 is a better year for both industries.

Until next time….

Good Luck (you will need it) and Good Job Hunting!

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Pfizer said on Tuesday it will eliminate another 40 workers from factories in Puerto Rico. Pfizer closed a plant in Arecibo, Puerto Rico in 2005 and last year announced 210 layoffs in the U.S. Caribbean island territory

As pointed out by Ed Silverman over at Pharmalot, Puerto Rico has long been a manufacturing hub for US pharmaceutical companies. Over the past 30 years, pharmaceutical manufacturing has accounted for a quarter of the island’s gross domestic product and currently employs about 20,000 Puerto Rican citizens.

Over the past few years, companies like Watson Pharmaceuticals (generics), GlaxoSmithKline, Teva (generics), Bristol Myers Squibb and Schering Plough have either closed or will close manufacturing facilities on the Island. These closings were somewhat surprising because the Puerto Rican workforce is one of the best pharmaceutical manufacturing workforces in the world. That said, US pharmaceutical companies are looking elsewhere to produce their drugs because of rising wages, changing tax structures and the high cost of electricity (supplied by oil-fired power plants) on the island. Further, over the past decade, there have been ongoing compliance and quality assurance problems at many of the shuttered manufacturing facilities. Officials from these companies explained that it was less costly to shut down and move operations elsewhere rather than modernize the plants and bring them into regulatory compliance.

Despite these recent facility closings, the island’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry still produces 13 of 20 best selling drugs in the US. However that number will likely continue to dwindle over the next few years. Many companies that have closed or are considering closing production facilities are moving operations to Asian destinations like Singapore, China, Thailand (and even Vietnam) where there are trained workforces, lower wages and cost structures and many people speak English.

Unlike most pharmaceutical companies, Amgen, Abbot and Lilly recently built or relocated biomanufacturing operations to Puerto Rico. Because of a trained workforce and Puerto Rico’s ongoing familiarity with FDA regulatory requirements, I suspect that other biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical companies will consider establishing biomanufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico– pharma’s loss may well be biotech’s gain!!!!

Until next time….

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

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I guess the old adage that “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks” applies to Pfizer’s decision to buy Coley Pharmaceuticals. Why isn’t it obvious to Pfizer executives that buying companies is easy, but integrating them into a a pre-existing corporate culture is difficult, time consuming and not cost effective.

Yes, Coley is sort of a “biotechnology company” and, as Pfizer has publicly stated, it wants to get into biotech in a big way. And yes, Pfizer and Coley have had a long standing research and business partnership. But, I am not sure that Coley is going to bring any real value to Pfizer. According to Jeffrey Kindler, Pfizer’s CEO, “This acquisition is an important component of Pfizer's vaccine strategy and reflects our commitment to research new and more effective vaccines to prevent infectious diseases and to treat cancers and other debilitating conditions". Coley has been around for many years but recently re-invented itself as a biotechnology company. A quick perusal of its products indicates that is sells a vaccine adjuvant and has several drug candidates in its pipeline (with only one in early stage clinical development). Although this appears to be a quick fix to “jump start” Pfizer’s biotechnology push, I do not think the acquisition will convince business analysts and Pfizer stakeholders that Coley will allow Pfizer to boldly go where the company has not gone before!

I wish Pfizer luck! I also hope that Coley employees are updating their resumes after today’s announcement.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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I was reading a post about the Exubera deal that Pfizer cut with Nektar the other day and I stumbled upon this tidbit–“The two companies will continue to jointly develop an inhaled formulation of PEGylated recombinant human growth hormone (rHGH) to treat growth problems”.

For those of you who may not know, protein PEGylation–developed about 30 years ago by Frank Davis and Abe Abuchowski at Rutgers University– involves chemically attaching polyethylene glycol (PEG) to proteins. PEGylated proteins are less immunogenic and circulate longer in the bloodstream than native, unPEGylated proteins. Protein PEGylation has revolutionized the biopharmaceutical industry because it reduces immunological side effects, improves clinical efficacy and enhances patient compliance (by reducing the number of injections that are required) for many protein-based drugs. Several companies including Schering Plough, Roche and Amgen have used protein PEGylation to create multibillion blockbuster a year biotechnology products like PEG-Intron, Pegasys and Neulasta.

Like most protein-based products, rHGH needs to be injected daily to achieve its desired clinical effects. At present, there are no fewer than 8 rHGH products on the market that are used to treat pediatric and adult growth hormone deficiencies. The holy grail of the growth hormone market is to develop a sustained-release version of rHGH so that daily injections are no longer necessary. To that end, several companies, including Nektar, have developed PEGylated versions of rHGH which are in various stages of clinical development. These products should hit the markets in Europe and the US within the next few years.

Although Pfizer is in the rHGH biz, it is puzzling (to me) why any company would consider developing an inhaled form of PEGylated rHGH –given all of the regulatory hurdles and exhorbitant development costs-when an injectable form of PEGylated rHGH would be far superior and offer greater patient benefits than any of the currently marketed rHGH products? Maybe I am missing something here. That said, the larger question is: Why hasn’t Pfizer learned that the inhaled protein market is a dicey one at best?  Maybe that's why Pfizer is still Pfizer!

Until next time….

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

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First, there was the torcetrapib catastrophe and now the Exubera debacle. Pfizer announced late yesterday that it would stop selling Exubera, the first approved inhaled insulin product, less than two years after its approval. Despite heavy promotion by Pfizer, Exubera sales were tiny, with prescriptions amounting to less than 1% of the multi-billion dollar insulin market.

Once heralded as a potential blockbuster drug by industry analysts, Exubera was plagued with questions about its safety, efficacy, convenience and cost. The bottom line is that it worked no better than injected insulin and, results from clinical trials showed that Exubera could decrease patients’ breathing ability. This coupled with the appearance of the delivery device, which resembled a bong (not that there is anything wrong with that), contributed to the inability of Exubera to gain acceptance among patients and physicians.

Exubera was originally developed by Nektar, a small publicly traded California-based biotechnology company that specializes in inhalation technology and protein delivery systems that include PEGylation. Pfizer bought the marketing rights from Nektar and assumed responsibility for clinical development of Exubera.

Nobody knows how much Pfizer spent on developing and promoting Exubera, but the company took a $2.8 million charge yesterday to cover costs associated with the drug–making it one of the most expensive failures in the history of the pharmaceutical industry.

Despite its status as the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, things are not going well for Pfizer. The company has already consolidated operations and laid off thousands of workers a result of the torcetrapib mess. Further, the ripple effect that the Exubera debacle may have on Nektar and other companies like Eli Lilly that are developing similar inhalable insulin products is unknown at present. 

I do not think that the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries can withstand much more bad news. Pfizer’s  ongoing bad news, coupled with the GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia mess and Amgen’s epoetin woes suggest that it may be a good time to load up  your portfolio with already “cheap” pharmaceutical and biotechnology stocks—there is only one way for these stocks to go—and that is up!

Until next time….

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

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Pfizer announced earlier this week that is will establish a biotechnology research and development center in the Bay area in the near future. I think that it 's about time that the world’s largest pharmaceutical company finally realized that its future growth and success no longer lie exclusively in the realm of small molecules–duh!!!! I ask–“Where have Pfizer executives been and what have they been doing for the past 20 years"? I guess they subscribe to the old adage; “better late, than never”. Tell that to all of the right-sized Pfizer employees who lost their jobs in the past few years.

Maybe Pfizer is on-track and will get it right this time. One can only hope!

Until next time….

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

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Can anything else go wrong at Pfizer? Unfortunately for Pfizer employees, the answer is yes. Pfizer and FDA announced late last week that they found detectable levels of the mutagen/carcinogen ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) in Viracept, the company’s flagship anti-HIV medication. EMS has long been known to be a potent mutagen and carcinogen. I can attest to the mutagenic potential of EMS, because in my former life as a bench scientist I routinely used it to generate point mutations in the bacteria that I was working with.

Pfizer and FDA agreed not to recall the drug in the US because the quantity of EMS found was “low”. However, Roche, the company that sells Viracept in Europe, did recall the drug (slightly higher levels of EMS were found in the European version of Viracept). Predictably, FDA cautioned that although there are no human data, EMS has been shown to cause mutations, tumors and birth defects in animals and is a "potential human carcinogen. Not surprisingly, Pfizer advises children and pregnant women not to start the drug, although children already taking it may continue (really?).
How EMS got into both the US and European versions of the drug remains a mystery. If I had to guess, it is likely that there are significant quality control and quality assurance issues at the manufacturing plant(s) that produces Viracept. Alternatively, the EMS may have always been present in Viracept (as a contaminant or chemical by product) but nobody thought to look for it until recently. According to one report, “Pfizer is working with the FDA to prospectively limit EMS levels in Viracept, while still considering the immediate needs of patients on therapy. This is nonsense. There are other protease inhibitors that HIV-infected patients can try before they continue to take EMS-tainted Viracept. I think that Pfizer should voluntarily recall Viracept and eliminate all traces of EMS before it is reintroduced to the US and European markets!

Until next time….

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

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This morning, Jacob Goldstein at the Wall Street Journal's healthblog, suggested that Wyeth may be an attractive buying opportunity for beleaguered pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.  He based this possibility on a note that he received from Credit Suisse analyst Catherine Arnold, in which she posited that Wyeth's strong pipeline and plummeting stock price (due to recent regulatory setbacks) may  make it attractive as a buyout opportunity for pipeline-challenged Pfizer. 

Call me crazy but I think the assertion is ridiculous and simply an overt attempt by Mr. Goldstein to boost readership for the WSJ's healthblog.  In my opinion, Pfizer has been mired in a downward financial spiral ever since it acquired Warner Lambert (for Lipitor) in the late 1990s.  I think by now that Pfizer executives have learned the lesson that bringing companies with contrasting corporate cultures under a single roof  (regardless of monetary inducements and a financial upside), is more costly and challenging than it appears to be "on paper"

Although Mr. Goldstein's assertion is speculative, I do not  think it is appropriate to start fresh rumors about  possible corporate buyouts that could affect an already erratic and destabilized stock market. That said, I think that bloggers have an ethical responsibility  to consider the impact that their posts have on everyday folks before they begin to speculate on possible corporate mergers or buyouts. Imagine the effects that these rumors could have on the daily lives of already demoralized Wyeth and Pfizer employees! 

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

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