At the Bioprocess International Conference in Raleigh this week, keynote speaker Paul McKenzie showed that he is taking some of the thinking that he had brought to BMS (read on for a 2007 cover story interview touching on this work) to Centocor, only now he is moving the effort from the lab to the plant level, rather than the other way around.

Newsweek has just released its list of the 500 greenest companies, including sector breakdowns. Here are the top pharma companies, headed up by J&J (number 3 overall) and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

 Didn't want to be flip within the body of that last post, as the situation is anything but funny and it's not really any one person's fault (and not this individual's).

But  now, a brief moment with a sponsor of BMS' Productivity Transformation Initiative, courtesy of OfficeMax. 

Sadly, this year will bring bad news, in the form of pink slips, for thousands of U.S. workers in a number of industries, as The Guardian recently reported (Click here for a sobering update). 

BMS leads the pharma pack just now.  Local newspapers report that the company's 10% in planned staff reductions will not affect anyone at the company's new biopharma facility in Devens.

We sincerely hope that anyone and everyone affected finds new positions as soon as possible.   Our web site has some resources that might be of some, if limited, help.  For anyone who might contact us, we'll share anything we learn about positions that become open willingly and gladly, but it's up to you out there in the industry to accept cold calls and help anyone out there who might inquire at some networking or other event.

It's too much to hope for, but nevertheless, here is a hope that, for all companies in all industries, future mergers and acquisitions are made with thought of the possible future human toll firmly in mind.

AMS

GSK just announced today that it would be eliminating 900 jobs at its facility in Cidra, Puerto Rico. More from the International Herald Tribune.  But Pharmalot reports that BMS will be announcing major cuts in December.

Unfortunately, it is far from the only pharma or bio company in job-cutting mode.

Pharmalot, In the Pipeline and FierceBiotech  each offered an assessment recently. 

(Ed Silverman, who has mastered the art of teleportation, or else has had himself cloned,  is posting to his blog all while leading a panel discussion at a DTC event in New Jersey, which started yesterday and is winding down today.  Among the topics to be addressed: How much influence do pharma blogs have?

They certainly wielded a lot of power last Spring, when Peter Rost's blog led to changes at AstraZeneca.  Summer and Fall seemed to bring less serious postings all around. Will pharma itself join the party?  Not until more companies get over their fear of FDA, adverse reaction reporting and other leaks...which means it may take quite a while.

However, more media outlets continue to launch new blogs. Putman will be introducing two new blogs soon:  

• Poor Emil's Almanac, written by our award winning and irreverent columnist, the NIR expert Emil Ciurczak (who has also started up his own website, Thenirprof.com)
• The Oncology drug blog, which will be written by experts in the oncology drug development field.  That blog will debut with musings from Dr. Craig Dees, CEO of Provectus and will be run by managing editor, Heidi Parsons.

And for you chemists and API experts out there, our online expert and columnist Girish Malhotra, now traveling in India,  has just started up his own blog.

AMS

I hate posting news like this.

BMS plans to cut staff later this year, mainly in "back office" and "infrastructure" positions (translation: IT, manufacturing and operations?) More from CNN

But this morning, Bloomberg reports that J&J also plans to reduce its workforce by 4% this year.  More from this morning's news. 

AstraZeneca announced 11% job cuts last week.

The Leadership Sphere blog just reviewed the classic business book "Good to Great," with some insights on leaders and one pharma industry leader in particular.  The best leaders combine personal humility with intense professional will and resolve.  Read the entire post, excerpted below:

They set up successors for success, make sure that those who follow them are poised to continue a successful path or to exceed the expectations that result from that success, and they are compellingly modest. In contrast to the very I-centric style of some other leaders, Level 5 leaders do not typically talk about themselves, preferring to direct attention to other individuals, or to the results of the company as a whole. They don't aspire to be larger-than-life heroes, or to be placed on a pedestal. They are seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results

When George Cain became CEO of Abbott Laboratories, the company occupied a lowly space in the pharmaceutical industry. Cain didn't have an inspiring personality to galvanize the company, but he did have a steadfast intolerance for mediocrity; good was simply not good enough. He destroyed the company's most glaring causes of its mediocrity - nepotism - by rebuilding the board and executive teams with the best people available, not just those who had family connections or had been with the company longest.

Pharmaceutical Executive Editor Patrick Clinton wrote about the changing of the guard and the company's current CEO's objectives a while ago.  

One question I have for Abbott Labs' public relations team.  Why are you so unresponsive to inquiries from the industry trade press?  Ditto for BMS.  I don't mean to single out these two companies, because it's true for many pharma companies in general. At a time when pharma companies and the industry are in need of inspiring stories, the biggest hurdle that many of us journalists have to clear is often the corporate P.R. department. Maybe it's time to change this approach. 
-AMS

We'd developed an RSS feed of Bloomberg and AP clips pertinent to pharma, but let it slide a bit, due to technical issues and the fact that Bloomberg et al. didn't cover the drug industry (at least on TV) as much as they generally do, in May. 

However, it's back in business now, and you'll find a number of potentially interesting shorts  (click here to access the entire feed):

An interview with Zymogenic's CEO.  (Bayer has just signed a $200+-million deal with them for a new blood clotting agent)

A report on Amgen by Montgomery and Lazzard analysts

An update on Gilead's new treatment for lung disease

An overview of the cancer and cardiovascular drug pipeline by Mark Monane of Needham

A look at weight loss drugs, in light of recent developments with Acomplia/Zimulti, with Citi analyst

An interview with Puerto Rico's governor about biotech

AMS

BMS had a good day yesterday: courts upheld its patent for Plavix (a $6-billion world market) and blocked Apotex's generic version, while FDA announced that it would accelerate review of BMS's new breast cancer drug. Bloomberg aired a report on all this yesterday.  Watch the clip here.

All of this has rekindled rumors of a merger, with Sanofi-Aventis, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and GSK all in the running. More on this from Bloomberg today.

Play Video

Bristol-Meyers Squibb: A Takeover Target Again?

Bloomberg-Clip - (BLOOM-Clip)

Jun. 20, 2007. 09:00 AM EST

Bristol-Meyers's Plavix is World's Third-Best Selling Drug; Potential Suitors - Sanovi-Aventis, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline; Plavix Court Decision Lowers Uncertainly; UBS Sees Takeout Prospects Up to $37/share; Bristol Meyers Declines to Comment

AMS

Yesterday's FDA panel rejection of Sanofi's weight loss drug Acomplia could mean trouble ahead for Pfizer and Merck, which are now in Phase III testing of drugs with similar modes of action (targeting endocannabinoid receptors), The Science Daily reported yesterday. 

FDA data showed that Acomplia offered clinically significant weight loss results,  but psychological side effects that included suicidal thoughts.  Derek Lowe wrote about this in On the Pipeline earlier this week.

But Acomplia's rejection has also revived rumors of a potential merger between Sanofi and BMS.

PharmaTimes had the following to say this morning.

"...Sanofi's hopes that rimonabant would be a blockbuster have been dashed somewhat and if any US approval of the drug, which would be called Zimulti there, does take place, it is "unlikely until the next decade at the earliest," said Bear Stearns analyst Alexandra Hauber in a research note.In another note, Paul Diggle of Nomura Code said that "if we assume the drug stays on the market outside the USA with a tougher label or is approved as a secondary product, sales won't be the $3 billion to $5 billion some people expected." He added that Zimulti was the most important product in Sanofi's pipeline, which has "relatively few growth drivers."JP Morgan downgraded the stock from 'overweight' to 'neutral', while reducing their estimates from 78 to 65 euros, noting that Sanofi is also facing the risk of generic competition for its anticoagulant Lovenox (enoxaparin), and the rumours that Total and L'Oreal are expected to dispose of their stakes in the Franco-German drugmaker will exert even more pressure on the company's share price.

Sanofi's current plight has seen speculation grow that the firm may tread down the merger road and try to tie up again with Bristol-Myers Squibb. The company has underperformed its European peers by some 15% over the last year, and it still has a patent dispute over the antithrombotic blockbuster Plavix (clopidogrel) preying on its mind so long-time partner B-MS, with its reasonably healthy pipeline is looking attractive again..."