This time, Carl Icahn may have chosen a biopharma adversary as stubborn as himself. And that's saying something. Forest Laboratories ($FRX) CEO Howard Solomon shows no sign of backing down in his defense of the company's current regime. And he's perfectly willing to fight eye-to-eye with the activist investor. No shying away from a public argument here.

In fact, as Reuters reports, Icahn offered to compromise with Forest. Before launching his second proxy fight for four seats on the drugmaker's board, he offered to accept two seats on an enlarged board instead. It's a strategy that worked before with other drugmakers; Biogen Idec ($BIIB), for instance, gave Icahn one board seat to get his backing for two of its own nominees.

Solomon and his team would have none of it. The 84-year-old CEO disputes Icahn's criticisms--including charges that he's mismanaging Forest's response to the Lexapro patent expiration--and his board is backing him up. "[Solomon] just said, 'The board doesn't want you on.' And that was the end of it," Icahn told Reuters.

Instead, Solomon chose to go the distance. Not without reason; Forest shareholders nixed all of Icahn's nominees last year. And now that Icahn has started poking at Solomon's son David, the Forest chief has personal motivation.

Icahn took aim at the company's succession plan--or alleged lack thereof--suggesting that Solomon wanted his son to take the job. Now, Forest has hired an executive search firm to help. But that's as far as Solomon's sympathy goes. Want to critique my son's resume? What about your son's?

"I did not anticipate that my son David would be publicly disparaged and caricatured by someone utterly ignorant of even the slightest information about his qualifications or performance," Solomon wrote, going on to remind Icahn that he himself has appointed his son to the boards of public companies. "The qualifications of our sons should speak for themselves," Solomon added. And for the record, he said, David Solomon will be "neither favored nor handicapped" for promotion at the company "because of his relationship with me."

- read the letter from Solomon
- see the Reuters news
- get more, also from Reuters
- check out The Wall Street Journal story

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Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) isn't the only drugmaker struggling to get recalled over-the-counter products back on store shelves. Novartis ($NVS) hasn't yet restocked brands pulled back in January, and consumers are fretting, particularly those who suffer from migraines.

Some patients swear by the Novartis pain reliever Excedrin Migraine, and it's simply not available these days. As ABC News reports, some have even turned to eBay for relief, paying more than $1 per tablet. "I went into panic mode after I found out about the recall," migraine patient Susan Scranton, who bought $500 worth on eBay, told ABC.

Novartis Consumer Health pulled Excedrin, along with No-Doz, Gas-X and Bufferin, after broken and mixed-up pills were found in packages. The drugs were among those made at a troubled plant in Lincoln, NE. Since then, the company has been working on fixes at the plant, but production hasn't gone back to normal. Besides Excedrin, products, including Maalox and pet drugs, are still running short.

The recalls have been giving investors headaches too, as Morningstar analyst Damien Conover recently told WNYC News, "It's not giant, but it's meaningful. It's weighing on the company stock." Unfortunately for users of the consumer meds, Conover expects inventory to be lower than normal till next year.

- read the ABC News story

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Savient Pharmaceuticals ($SVNT) had high hopes for Krystexxa, the gout drug it launched in 2010. But when it comes to drug sales, hope doesn't spring eternal. After $102 million in 2011 losses, and first-quarter Krystexxa revenues of just $3.1 million, the U.S. drugmaker plans to cut 35% of its workforce and trim costs to save $56 million annually.

Savient's cutbacks--about 60 jobs, including current vacancies--will leave the company with about 35 sales reps and three regional managers, Dow Jones reports. That's not much of a field force, but Krystexxa has proven to be more of a specialty drug for severe gout than a standard-issue treatment for the painful disorder.

Interim chief David Norton is also a casualty: He'll remain on the board, but will give up CEO duties to Louis Ferrari, who has been running Savient's North American commercial operations. Ferrari has worked at the company since February 2011, soon after Krystexxa won FDA approval. Norton had been filling in since February 2012, when ex-chief John Johnson jumped ship. Johnson is now CEO at Dendreon, which makes the cancer treatment Provenge (also with its own sales disappointments, but that's another story).

Actually, Savient never meant to field a sales force at all. The company wanted to win FDA approval for Krystexxa and then sell itself to a bigger company that could support its launch. But those hopes never came to fruition, either. So, as the Star-Ledger reminds us, the company added 62 to its sales roster last year to back up the Krystexxa launch. And now, it's on to Plan C.

- see the release from Savient
- read the Dow Jones coverage (sub. req.)
- get more from the Star-Ledger

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You can't fault Ranbaxy Laboratories for lack of ambition. Or for lack of faith. The Indian generics company, majority owned by Japan's Daiichi Sankyo, refuses to let regulatory snafus dampen its desire to grow in the United States.

The company's tangle with the FDA is a familiar story: Back in 2008, soon after Daiichi swooped in to buy its stake, the agency barred 30 products from the country and confiscated shipments at the border. Plants in India had flopped FDA inspections, and the agency accused Ranbaxy managers of falsifying records. Ranbaxy labored for almost three years to settle its differences with FDA, and now it's operating under a consent decree with the agency.

The ongoing wrangle threatened to interfere with one of Ranbaxy's biggest drug launches ever: The exclusive rollout of an independently made Lipitor generic. Because it was first to ask FDA for approval of a Lipitor copycat, Ranbaxy had 6-month exclusivity to sell its version. If it hadn't worked out FDA approval at the last minute, it wouldn't have reaped the big benefits of that first-to-file monopoly.

And Ranbaxy CEO Arun Sawhney is well aware of the importance of first-to-file status. As he tells the Associated Press, gaining 180-day exclusivity is a linchpin of his plans for expanding in the U.S. Already, Ranbaxy is making headway, thanks in part to its Lipitor copy; the company's strong U.S. sales fueled 55% revenue hike worldwide in the first quarter, AP notes.

Two other strategies, as reported by the AP: Brand-name sales--the company just rolled out its first branded product, the malaria treatment Synriam--and new delivery methods for existing drugs. "The US, as a total business, will remain the most important to us," Sawhney told the news service.

- read the story from the AP

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Making strong painkillers now comes with extra responsibility. The FDA has unveiled new measures aimed at nipping opioid abuse in the bud. They require drugmakers to fund educational courses for doctors and deliver more safety information to patients, hoping that better-informed prescribers and users can help.

"The problem of prescription drug abuse and misuse is very real," said Dr. Margaret Hamburg, the head of the FDA. "Educating healthcare professionals on how to safely prescribe (the medicines) is essential to address this critical public health issue."

But, as The Wall Street Journal points out, FDA can't require healthcare providers to take the classes. It can only mandate that the drugmakers--and there are more than 20 companies that make these powerful painkillers--provide grants for independently produced continuing medical education courses. The expectation is that at least 60% of prescribers will take the classes by 2016.

Who's most likely to sign up for the new CME? Well-intentioned doctors and other prescribers, the WSJ notes. "The people who are going to take those courses are the prescribers who are already diligent," the Center for Lawful Access and Abuse Deterrence's Michael C. Barnes told the newspaper. "What we need to do is get to those prescribers who aren't already diligent."

- see the WSJ piece
- get more from Reuters

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