Tag: Business and Markets
Hope Darn Well Springs Eternal
March 9th, 2010, No Comments
Well, it takes all kinds to make a market. And the collapse in Medivation’s shares after their disastrous Phase III results the other day seem to have brought out some hopeful buyers. Take this guy:
. . .I’m telling you right now, I believe that sell-off has gone twice as deep as good sense can justify. At least, that’s the way I see it.
First off, we should understand that drug trials are Medivation’s business. Clinical trials are what the company does. This failed phase 3 study isn’t to be considered a crash into a brick wall. It’s not a crippling lawsuit. It’s not the loss of a major customer account. It’s simply a sudden downshift, a temporary change of gears. In many ways, for Medivation, it’s just one facet of business as usual.
As I look at Medivation’s one-year and three-year performance charts, the opening to invest is just screaming at me. . .
All I can say is “Go for it, chief!” I might just add, very quietly, that early-stage drug discovery is not really the kind of business where one-year and three-year stock performance is much of a guide. And it’s also worth remembering that although clinical trials are indeed what drug companies do, we try not to do big honking Phase III face-plants. You don’t start clinical trials that you think are going to end that way, so a crash into a brick wall is actually not a bad analogy.
But hey – the dented hubcaps have just about finished wobbling around into the dust, and who knows, the stock might actually bounce back up a little bit, thanks to the brave and the foolhardy. But if Medivation is ever to make it back to where it was, I don’t see how it’s going to be because of Dimebon.
Via RJAlvarez on Twitter, who says “Tough call, but this is perhaps the worst post recommending a biotch stock I’ve ever read.”
Bad News at Exelixis
March 8th, 2010, No Comments
I’m hearing from more than one source that Exelixis has laid off about 40% of their work force, which is somewhere around 250 people (the numbers I get don’t all agree). This seems to be across the board, all departments, and most everyone is being asked to leave today.
The Bay area biotech scene doesn’t seem to be at its healthiest these days (although it’s still in better shape than San Diego, from the sound of it), but this isn’t going to help it one bit. . .
Merck/Schering-Plough People?
March 5th, 2010, No Comments
Kim Girard, a reporter from CBS Interactive is doing a story on how people are coping with the merger – if you’d like to speak with her, she’s at (de-spammified): kim.berg30-at-gmail.com. I didn’t have any direct knowledge to help her, so I offered to post this to see if she gets something useful. . .
Twelve and One Half Per Cent
March 5th, 2010, No Comments
I will note here, with no additional comment whatsoever, that Jeff Kindler, Pfizer’s CEO, has just been granted a raise in his base salary of 12.5%. Details at Pharmalot.
AstraZeneca Makes Its Move
March 2nd, 2010, No Comments
OK, I think the company has made an official announcement on this. They’re getting out of schizophrenia, bipolar disease, depression, anxiety, acid reflux, thrombosis, ovarian and bladder cancers, systemic scleroderma and hepatitis C. (So much for some of the company’s current and recent big-selling areas. . .)
As for facilities, they’re shutting down early R&D in Wilmington and in Lund (Sweden), and the Charnwood site in the UK is closing. I haven’t heard if there are other cuts going on in the sites (or therapeutic areas) that are remaining, though. Details in the comments. . .
Layoffs Coming at Eli Lilly?
March 1st, 2010, No Comments
I hate to start the week out like this, but I have a report that Lilly is looking to cut quite a few chemistry positions (and maybe others), with word to come on Friday, March 12. Anyone else have anything on this?
Update: to clarify, these appear to be the layoffs that were announced last fall, not a new series. It’s just that we finally seem to be finding out who stays and who doesn’t. . .
Layoff News
February 26th, 2010, No Comments
More job loss news to report, unfortunately. Pharmalot comes in with an item that fits with what I’m hearing, that Sanofi-Aventis appears to be making small cuts, over and over, at its various sites. There hasn’t been a single big announcement that I’ve heard, but the company seems to be shrinking headcount nonetheless.
And I’ve also heard recently that Astra-Zeneca is ready to announce more layoffs, although I don’t have a handle on the size. This appears to be some of the follow-through from their earlier nonspecific announcements – it looks as if they’re finally going to start getting down to some details. Anyone with more information on either of these situations is welcome to add it in the comments. . .
Knocking on Doors
February 24th, 2010, No Comments
A correspondent writes in with an interesting and useful question: he’s with a small company that believes that it’s discovered a useful lead compound in an area where they’re hard to find. But no one there has any experience with knocking on the doors of Big Pharma to talk about a deal, and they’re wondering about the best way to go about it.
I (and people like me) can provide some general advice. But I know that there are consultants out there who’ve brokered things like this before and have both contacts and expertise that can help out. But that just kicks the problem along: how does a fledgling company find one of those? Some startups naturally begin with connections of this sort, but others don’t. Anyone have some leads for them?
Merck Announces Cuts
February 17th, 2010, No Comments
Merck reported earnings this week, and dropped the other shoe: they’re going to make the Schering-Plough merger work by trimming the head count at the company by 15%. Where are the cuts coming from?
As of Dec. 31, 2009, Merck had approximately 100,000 employees. As part of the first phase of its Merger Restructuring Program, by the end of 2012, Merck expects to reduce its total workforce by approximately 15 percent across all areas of the combined company worldwide. The company also plans to eliminate approximately 2,500 vacant positions as part of the first phase of the program. The reductions will primarily come from the elimination of duplicative positions in sales, administrative and headquarters organizations, as well as from the consolidation of certain manufacturing facilities and research and development operations.
Merck said that certain actions, such as the ongoing reevaluation of manufacturing and research and development facilities worldwide, have not yet been completed, but will be included later this year in other phases of the Merger Restructuring Program. Merck also said it will continue to hire new employees in strategic growth areas of the business throughout this period.
Well, OK, the cuts are coming from. . .everywhere. Looks like sales and administration will be first, since those are the easiest to figure out, with R&D coming along later. It doesn’t appear that there’s any hard information to be had, which doesn’t give anyone much to work with. Basically, everyone in research at Merck can, I suppose, just hang out for the rest of the year waiting to hear something. That’ll crank up the productivity, as the scientists at Pfizer, GSK, AstraZeneca et al. can tell you.
Picking Up Industrial Hires
February 16th, 2010, No Comments
A reader sends along this item about St. Louis University starting a research institute to try to pick up some of the ex-Pfizer people from the area. It’s not going to make a big impact, at least at first (if you read the article, you notice that they’re starting out by hiring 12 people). But it’s better than nothing, and it’s a path that a number of ex-industry folks have been able to follow.
I have to applaud the academic institutions that see drug industry employees as a valuable resource. What I wonder about, though, is if Washington University (which overshadows SLU in that region) has picked anyone up – anyone from the St. Louis area have any details? As I say, this isn’t going to solve the employment crisis we’re going through, but it can’t hurt – and by keeping a research culture alive in some places where it’s been getting thinned out, it might lead to some start-up companies when the financial situation clears up.
