Forest Labs CEO to step aside at year's end after decades at the helm
Forest Laboratories will have a new CEO when 2014 dawns. Longtime chief Howard Solomon will step out of that role on Dec. 31, with plans to stick around as chairman till next year's annual meeting, and as a director for some time after that. In the meantime, Forest's search committee is hunting for a replacement, aiming to name someone before year's end.
20 Highest-Paid Biopharma CEOs 2012
Call it a rite of spring. Every year about this time, FiercePharma takes a look at executive compensation in the industry, and we rank the highest-paid CEOs. If you're a regular reader, you'll notice that this year's list is longer than previous editions. And there's a reason for that: curiosity.Are the CEOs on this list worth their price? What's a supersuccessful new drug worth? Should CEO pay be docked for R&D failures? What about failed launches? Should other, lower-paid executives earn more?
Top 10 Cardio Drugs 2012
For years, cardio was king. The world's all-time best-selling drug, Pfizer's Lipitor, after all, is an antihyperlipidemic drug. Cardio drugs have traditionally made up one of the largest categories of therapeutic treatment in the drug universe.
Last year, the top 10 cardio drugs racked up sales of $28.644 billion, down 23% from the $37.271 billion they sold in 2011. Still, the group has made a lot of money for its companies for years and, in some cases, completely changed the treatment of heart disease.
It is an interesting list. Only Merck has two drugs in the top 10. The other drugmakers make up a broad swath of the pharma industry.
Which Big Biotechs are hitting the gas pedal on R&D spending?The R&D numbers for the top 10 biotechs may only amount to a fraction of what you'll find in Big Pharma. But unlike the giants, which are trying to keep a lid on multibillion-dollar budgets, you'll find a much faster crowd when you turn your gaze to the biotechs. All 10 reported increases in their research spending for last year. And a few of them slammed their foot on the gas pedal.
Altogether the top 10 biotechs spent $11.8 billion on R&D in 2012, according to our research, a hefty 15% average increase over their 2011 performance. Compare that to the stable year-over-year record in Big Pharma, where doing more with the same amount of cash has become an industry mantra. Read the report >>
Top 10 pharma companies by employeesBeing the largest company by any number of measures--revenues, earnings, those kinds of yardsticks--is a good thing. Being the largest by number of employees is trickier, unless yours is also the largest by those other measures. As we have seen time and again in recent years in the pharma industry, having lots of employees and falling revenues is a formula that leads to layoffs. As a whole, the top 10 companies had fewer employees at the end of 2012 than at the end of 2011. Read the full report >>
Third Rock Ventures has brought on Alnylam Pharmaceuticals ($ALNY) CEO John Maraganore in the advisory role of venture partner and former Genzyme and Sanofi ($SNY) executive James Geraghty as an entrepreneur-in-residence to support Third Rock's investments in rare genetic diseases. Also, Daniel Lynch, the former CEO of ImClone Systems, has changed roles from entrepreneur-in-residence to venture partner. Story
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Merck, Lilly, Pfizer top $1B doc-payments list
Drugmakers forked over more than $1 billion to doctors last year, significantly more than reported in 2011. And that's only the amounts we know about. According to a new data analysis by PharmaShine, reported in the Financial Times, that figure only includes the 12 leading drugmakers that actually disclose physician payments.
Daiichi accuses Ranbaxy shareholders of hiding info before buyout
Ranbaxy Laboratories' FDA woes may soon be over now that the drugmaker has forked over a $500 million settlement to the federal government. It seems owner Daiichi Sankyo's Ranbaxy woes, however, are anything but. The Japanese company now believes former Ranbaxy shareholders withheld key info when negotiating to sell Daiichi its majority stake in the Indian drugmaker.
FDA ban could cost India's Wockhardt $100 million
An FDA import ban can be costly, and India's Wockhardt says the import alert it is now under could slice $100 million out of its revenues.
Why is the FDA holding Avandia hearings? Agency critic has ideas
Publicly disgraced after cardiologist Steven Nissen and his colleagues unveiled data on its cardiovascular risks in 2007, Avandia was withdrawn in Europe and put under tight rein in the U.S. Now, the FDA is revisiting the issue, and Nissen himself has issues with that.
Ranbaxy said to be eyeing major cuts to sales force, mainly in U.S.
The company is considering cutting back its field force of about 14,600 by as much as one-third, the sources said.
Pfizer offers share exchange to grant Zoetis its freedom
Pfizer is cutting the apron strings at Zoetis. Just months after its highly successful IPO, in which Pfizer sold off a 20% stake, the animal health business is set to become fully independent. Pfizer is offering a stock swap to its shareholders, who can exchange $100 in Pfizer shares for roughly $107 worth of Zoetis stock.
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Scientists failed to replicate the tantalizing evidence of efficacy from a study of the cancer drug bexarotene in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, throwing cold water on efforts to advance the approved anti-tumor therapy for patients with the memory-stealing illness.
Nordion's constantly evolving business will soon be without proprietary pharma, as the company has agreed to ship out its targeted therapies business for $200 million.
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