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The old baseball adage which says that  “you can’t tell the players apart without a program” is particularly apt when it comes to tracing the M &A activity that led to the creation of some today's largest pharmaceutical companies.

I used to be able to keep track of all of the moving parts  of most of these mergers but advancing age and unprecedented M&A activity in the pharma industry prevents me from successfully doing this any longer. To that end, about a week ago, the New York Times published a pretty cool and informative chart that historically traces the corporate mergers that lead to creation of Pfizer, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis and others.

Check it out!!!!!

Until next time...

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

 

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Twitter, the microblogging platform, is the current rage in social media. According to @Shwen, who writes the Med 2.0 Blog, it grew by 752% in 2008. Shwen is a social media enthusiast who is trying to convince the life sciences industry that Twitter and other social networks can be leveraged to improve drug development and deliver healthcare.

According to a recent post on Med. 2.0, there are currently three pharmaceutical companies that are actively using Twitter: Novartis (@novartis), Boehringer Ingelheim (@Boehringer) and Astra Zeneca (AstraZenecaUS). Also, it appears that Johnson and Johnson (@JNJcomm) launched an account last week. Tweets from @novartis and @Boehringer occur fairly regularly whereas AstraZenecaUS tweets are rare. Unlike YouTube, where pharmaceutical sponsors who create channels can regulate and control content, it is much more difficult to manage Twitter because tweets are in real time, uncensored (for the most part) and can be globally disseminated within seconds.

Despite these issues, Med 2.0’s Shwen muses “I can only imagine that more pharma companies are going to be jumping on board the Twitter-train sooner rather than later. How they use it to engage, on the other hand, is going to vary greatly from company to company. At the very least, I see companies setting up accounts as “listening posts”, but others may choose to engage, like @boehringer does in an informal manner. Whatever the case, Twitter is fast becoming the new dominant space for listening and/or engaging the life sciences community.”

Like Shwen, I believe that it a matter of time before pharma and biotech realize that they must embrace social media (in all of its various forms) to remain competitive in today’s increasingly interconnected marketplace.

For those of you who may be interested, you can follow BioJobBlog (@Biojobblog) and Biocrowd (@Biocrowd) on Twitter too!

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Twittering

 

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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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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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Despite a recent report heralding the ascendancy of the Welsh biotechnology industry, the majority of biotech companies in Britain are in danger of fading away according to a report in London's  Financial Times. According to the Times; “Over the past year the sector has witnessed a string of high-profile drug failures, share prices have plunged and there have been almost no public listings. The sector is shrinking as private biotech companies are bought by cash-rich pharmaceutical companies, most of which are based abroad”.

“The quality of British science has never been in question. Commercial biotech’s perennial problem, say the pundits, is instead a lack of financing, management expertise and commercial savvy. “The UK has always labored under the yoke of not having enough venture capital around and not having the people prepared to take risks” said one analyst.” Nevertheless, the UK is currently  responsible for more than one-third of the European Union’s total drug pipeline.

The British biotechnology industry isn’t alone. Consolidation of the US biotechnology industry has been quietly going on for the past 5-10 years. Many successful American companies have been acquired by major pharmaceutical companies. For example, MedImmune and Millennium Pharmaceuticals were recently purchased by Astra Zeneca and Takeda Pharmaceuticals respectively. That said, I don’t think that what is happening in the UK is unique to the British biotech industry. The bottom line is this; Biotech is a capital-intensive, briskly paced, risky business that is, at most, 35 years old. More companies than not are expected to fail. Pharma, on the other hand, is a conservative and experienced cash-rich industry that is over 100 years old. Therefore, it follows that pharma companies, when possible, will buy successful biotech companies to bolster their thinning pipelines to stabilize their stock prices.

In my opinion, the seminal underpinning and essence of the biotech industry is to harness scientific originality to create innovative l technologies and products. That said, I believe that the biotechnology industry has finally become an integral part of the life sciences ecological food chain (think of biotech as a producer and pharma as a consumer).  I can’t think of many biotechnologies company executives (with the exception of Biogen) that wouldn’t consider acquisition or merger with a major pharmaceutical company as an ideal exit strategy for their stakeholders!

Until next time….

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

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Each year Fortune publishes a list of the top 100 companies that it believes are the best to work for. A quick perusal of the 2008 list reveals that only two drug companies cracked the top 100 this year. Genentech was ranked number 3 (second place in 2007) and Astra Zeneca finished a distant 83rd. The only other big pharma company to ever make the list was Eli Lilly in 2006 which came in at number 52. I guess that in general, big pharma companies aren’t great places to work?

As Ed Silverman at Pharmalot points out, “Amgen wins the award for taking the biggest dive. The biotech ranked #39 in 2006 and #40 in 2007, but this year doesn’t rank at all.” I suspect that Amgen’s hasty exit from the list has a lot to with large job layoffs, a grossly over paid CEO, a flagging stock price and a weak pipeline. One company that I think ought to be on this year’s list is Massachusetts-based Genzyme which has a reputation for having outstanding employee development and retention programs. It made the list in 2006 (no. 51) and 2007 (no.43) but was conspicuously absent this year. Maybe things have changed at Genzyme?

Until next time

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (try Genentech, houses are currently cheap in the Bay area)!!!!!!!!!!!

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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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Astra Zeneca and Sanofi-Aventis announced job cuts today that will take place in the UK and Germany.

AstraZeneca says it plans to cut more than 300 jobs at its research and development hub at Alderley Park near Wilmslow England, 60 more than unions had feared.

The company, one of the biggest employers in Cheshire, said last week that it was examining its global R&D structure, prompting trade unions to claim that 244 jobs were likely to go at Alderley Park - its largest site for research - which employs more than 3,500. The majority of those affected at Alderley Park work on R&D into respiratory conditions, while there will be a smaller number of job losses from the cardio-vascular team.

Sanofi Aventis plans to eliminate 380 sales and marketing jobs in Germany, one-fifth of the total, because of difficult market conditions, a company spokesperson said. Sanofi Aventis currently employs 1,900 sales and marketing personnel in Germany. The company has 10,000 employees in the country.

The cuts will be made through a voluntary departure plan and retirements, the spokesperson said, citing difficulties in obtaining reimbursements, competition from generic drugs, and falling prices as reasons for the cuts.

The spokesman declined to comment on German press reports which said Sanofi Aventis's sales in Germany fell 8 per cent last year.

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Despite putting itself up for sale and finding no buyers, Carl Icahn still believes that Biogen is an attractive buyout opportunity for some unsuspecting pharma company. In fact, it was Carl who forced Biogen to put itself up for sale last fall (to avert a nasty proxy fight that he threatened). Carl, who owns 4.2 % of the company, believed that Biogen was underperforming and its stock price was too low.

To make his ongoing dream a reality, Mr. Icahn moved today to appoint three members (loyal to him) to the Biogen board. In an SEC filing, Mr. Ichan said that at Biogen's upcoming shareholder meeting he will nominate three people to Biogen's board (which elects four directors each year), and seek to cap the board's size at 12. If successful, Mr. Icahn would then be “within striking distance” to control a majority of Biogen's board by next year.

The three people that Icahn nominated were Alexander Denner, managing director of the Icahn investment vehicle Icahn Partners; Richard Mulligan, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and Dr. Anne Young, head of the neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Interestingly, Dr. Mulligan and Mr. Denner also serve on the board of ImClone Systems, which elected Icahn chairman last year, after a bitter battle during which Icahn accused the ImClone management of improperly developing its cancer drug Erbitux.

Carl has taken a fancy to biotech in recent years and now considers himself to be somewhat of maven.  Although there a molecular biology building at Princeton University which bears his name (he is an alumnus), he is still a corporate raider at heart. After moving into MedImmune stock in early 2007, Icahn threatened a proxy contest at the annual meeting if it did not find a buyer. Several days later, AstraZeneca said it would buy MedImmune for a whopping $15.6 billion. Carl usually gets what he sets out to do.

It appears that Biogen has not heard the last from Mr. Icahn. I suspect that things will continue to get ugly in Cambridge. Stayed tuned for updates!

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (not at Biogen)!!!!!

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The New York times reported today that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office has demanded documents from GlaxoSmithKline, Astra Zeneca and a British affiliate of Eli Lilly & Company in connections with allegations that the companies paid bribes to secure lucrative drug contracts in Iraq while Saddam Hussein was in power. The 3 companies are accused of violating the United Nations’ oil-for-food program that was instituted in post war Iraq in the 1990s.

A report from the fraud office in 2005 accused some 2,200 companies from 40 countries of colluding with the Hussein regime to cheat the UN program out of about $1.8 billion. As I have stated time and time again, drug companies are no different than other companies–profits and stock prices always come before ethics, morality and sometimes the law!

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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