Pharma Industry Archive

Johnson & Johnson’s Ortho McNeil/Janssen unit is in the process of laying off about 900 staffers, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Sales and profits at J&J are both up overall. Sales went up from $61 billion to $63.4 billion last year, profit was up from $10.5 billion to $12.9 billion. But the productivity of each sales rep employed by J&J is in an overall decline. The two...

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If there’s a pharma company that rewards executives for delivering absolutely nothing, thy name is Medarex. Consider its record in 2008: Revenues declined from $56.2 million to $52.3 million. Its net loss expanded from $27 million to $38.5 million. The company has never made a profit in the last five years. The deficit on its balance sheet accumulated to more than $1 billion. Its big...

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The Huffington Post’s Dan Dorfman reports that the SEC and FINRA (another finance regulatory body) have launched insider trading probes to figure out whether stock was improperly traded ahead of the wave of recent mergers in pharmaceuticals. Among the deals under scrutiny are Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth, Merck’s takeout of Schering-Plough, and Roche’s buyout of...

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If you’re a Bayer employee and you’re wondering why — since last year — you can no longer stay at the hotels you want or take the flights that are most convenient, wonder no more. Bayer implemented a “nonmandated” travel policy to cut costs — and woe betide execs who want to stay at the nice hotels or ride the airline that gives them airmiles. Bayer is...

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Sepracor began the year by announcing the layoffs of about 940 staff — 530 of its own reps and execs and 410 contract reps. But the pain wasn’t felt equally at Sepracor. Top management at the company saw their total compensation rise a combined 20 percent to $23 million. CEO Adrian Adams (pictured) saw his pay jump 44 percent from $4.5 million to $6.5 million. Former chairman...

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A federal court in Connecticut has declared that sales reps for Schering-Plough may be entitled to back pay for the unpaid overtime they have worked. The court ruled that reps are not the kind of sales people who are “exempt” from the Fair Labor Standards Act, and thus a case demanding overtime pay for extra hours worked can go forward. The case is a potential class action suit...

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Medicis more than doubled the pay of its sales chief in 2008 even though that executive, Richard Havens, pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the Food and Drug Act last March. Havens, the former evp of sales, and three of his underlings pleaded guilty right before his April retirement to promoting an off-label use of Loprox, a skin infection treatment. They had promoted it for diaper rash even...

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Former Bristol-Myers Squibb svp/strategy Andrew Bodnar faces a year in prison after he pled guilty to lying to the FTC about BMS’s generic deal with Apotex. The conviction carries a lesson for senior drug company executives hoping to put one over on the government: If you’re going to lie to the feds, make sure that everybody tells the same lie. BMS and Apotex employees can download...

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Pfizer is close to settling the Trovan case for $75 million, the Washington Post reported Saturday. BNET readers learned of this development on March 6. (Back story here.) Back then, Pfizer spokesperson waved BNET off the story, saying news of a settlement was “not accurate” because talks were ongoing. A month later, the WP reports an identical number and Pfizer’s response...

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The Department of Justice recently said it would not intervene in a whistleblower lawsuit filed against Gilead. BNET learned that the suit itself has now been dropped by the plaintiffs. As such, Gilead has dodged a bullet. The DOJ tends to decline suits where government reimbursement money is not at stake; and without that carrot the plaintiff appears to have thrown in the towel. One must also...

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