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FINGER-POINTING TIME
REGULATORS last week began probing possible side-effects of two widely-prescribed Txs. Health Canada and the FDA said they were investigating reports associating blockbuster allergy Tx montelukast (Singulair, Merck Frosst) with psychiatric incidents, including suicide. Said Merck R&D boss George Philip: “We have no indication that anything about the mechanism of Singulair is consistent with these events.” The Rx rang up $4.3 billion in stateside sales last year. Elsewhere, US regulators said patients using topical wound-care Tx becaplermin (Regranex, Ethicon) may have a higher incidence of cancer. A spokesman for the company’s parent, Johnson & Johnson, tells Reuters news agency the product is safe.
THOSE BLOVIATING BIOVAILERS
APRIL 14th, which sadly happens to be the date the Titanic sank, will also mark the day Biovail founder Eugene Melnyk heads to an Ontario court to tell the judge bad things about the CEO he hired, Doug Squires. Mr. Melnyk contends that Mr. Squires contravened Canadian laws a couple of weeks back, when he groused to the media about Mr. M.’s plan to replace Biovail’s board (see ChroMo passim.) The dust-up between the two may determine the company’s future as an independent entity, according to observers. Biovail and its principals are far from strangers to the court-room, having logged $104.4 million in legal costs last quarter. Only last week, the company settled US SEC claims of accounting fraud at a further cost of $10 million (see Chronicle Midweek 03-26.) Mr. Melnyk and three other Biovail officers are also alleged by the SEC and its Ontario counterpart of individually participating in the fraud. He denies all wrongdoing and plans to fight the charges.
INCREDIBLE SHRINKING DRUGBIZ
WYETH last week revealed the meaning of the company’s mysterious new “Project Impact” to 1,200 of the company’s stateside reps, explaining, “Don’t let the door Impact you on the way out.” The pink-slips came as the first wave of company-wide job cuts, with another 800 to 1,800 global positions expected to be eliminated this year. Project Impact was announced in January as a corporate restructuring.
GIVING IT UP FOR THE ABACUS-FLICKER
WHO ARE BIG PHARMA’S new rock stars? Not the CEOs. Those guys have been keeping a low profile lately, understandably. Not the lab bosses: That bunch of sad-sacks hasn’t come up with anything good in years. Not the sales and marketing chiefs. Bunch of lazy, pampered so-and-sos. No, according to a new report from the Ernst & Young consultancy, the power in the drugbiz executive suites is shifting to the new golden boys and girls, namely, the CFOs. According to the study, drugmakers are increasingly relying on their head bean-counter to “take a greater hand in serving as business partner to the CEO and board of directors in shaping their company’s strategic plans.” (Translation: When cost-cutting becomes your company’s preoccupation, why not make the kid with the sharpest switch-blade your new best friend?) Says the report: “In an era when pipelines are erratic, patents are expiring, pricing is under pressure, and payers are pushing back, the role of the CFO and finance function will become pivotal in achieving improved returns and enhanced reputation.” Right on cue, Barr Pharmaceuticals last week announced an expanded role for Bill McKee, the outfit’s CFO. In other corner-office developments, Barr tapped G. Frederick Wilkinson as CEO of its Duramed unit.
COMPELLING BUSINESS CASES
DATA RELEASED LAST WEEK showed slightly less than half the Rxs filled in Canada last year were generics, compared to around two-thirds of those dispensed in the US. Fitting the textbook description of the man living in a glass house who enjoys throwing stones, Jim Keon, prexy of the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, took the opportunity to proclaim: “Increasing the use of lower-cost generic medicines is a far better way to save money on prescription drugs than cutting benefits or asking patients, particularly seniors and those on fixed in-comes, to pay more for the medicines they need.” Does that mean Mr. Keon’s group might be prepared to reduce Canadian pricing on their generic Rxs down to, say, parity with US costs, as a patriotic gesture? No, we didn’t think so.
COMPELLING BUSINESS CASES
THE GERMANS ARE BUYING, but the question is, who’s selling? Last week both Merck KGaA and Stada Arzneimittel AG confirmed they’re in the hunt for drugbiz acquisitions. Karl-Ludwig Kley, kingpin of German Merck, tells a reporter he isn’t eyeing as large a target as Serono, which he bought two years ago. Says he: “We are not looking for acquisitions in Serono’s order of magnitude, but smaller takeovers. We will measure them with… good judgment.” Mr. Kley says Japan is a market of potential interest. Meanwhile, Stada, a fast-growing generics-maker, said last week it plans to continue its string of acquisitions, and is considering several targets. A commentary from Standard & Poor’s distributed last week says Bristol-Myers Squibb “could offer significant value in a merger with the right partner.” Zacks Investment Research added: “The company is an attractive takeover candidate for a larger pharma such as Pfizer or France’s Sanofi-Aventis, both of which have been partners with Bristol on some of its products.”
IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR…
THE US FDA, which identified not one, but two nutriceuticals that it says the public shouldn’t be taking. That would be your “Total Body Mega Formula,” distributed by a Georgia company. According to the G-men, 23 reports have been registered associating the product with “significant hair loss.” Then you’ve got your “Blue Steel” and “Hero” dietary supplements, advertised on the Internet as all-natural Txs for erectile dysfunction. The feds say the products contain undisclosed quantities of sildenafil (Viagra, Pfizer.)
IT WAS A BAD WEEK FOR…
PFIZER’s vice-president and global head of patents, Alan Hesketh. He was arrested last week in New York and charged with distributing child pornography over the Internet. Authorities claim he may have used various computers during the alleged acts, which could result in fines of $500,000 and up to 20 years in the stony lonesome. A company spokesman said: “Pfizer will cooperate with authorities in any investigation.” The company has faced a number of issues in its IT department recently, including the hi-jacking of corporate IP addresses for the distribution of spam e-mails.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“ALL I’M GETTING is ‘We can’t do it, we can’t do it, it’s too expensive.’ And I ask, ‘What value do you folks put on a life?’”—D. Timothy Dazé of the California State Board of Pharmacy, which last week agreed to postpone until 2011 a new requirement that all Rxs in the state be tracked electronically
(c) 2008 Chronicle Information Resources Ltd. Not for redistribution.
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