Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing Articles

Andrew Witty barely got his feet under the chief executive's desk at GlaxoSmithKline before starting to implement major changes to the way the business operates—at both ends of the product life cycle.

Each year, scores of books are published on the subject of leadership. They're written by academic giants like Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis, great CEOs such as A.G. Lafley, and by sports legends like Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. I wrote a bestseller called The 100 Mile Walk...A Father and Son on a Quest to Find the Essence of Leadership.

M&As have become as essential as R&D to pharma's future, and this year is no exception. According to life-science investment bank Young & Partners (Y&P), 19 major deals have been inked so far, worth a total of $22.7 billion, indicating that 2008 is on track to match 2007's in volume (44 M&As), though not its dollar value ($79.5 billion).

On page 46 of this issue, consultant Zhu Shen describes the explosion of pharmaceutical activity in China, especially the burgeoning entrepreneurism of the "sea turtles"—Chinese who have lived and worked in the West before returning to start businesses in China. It's an impressive story, but one that ought to give the US industry pause.

Jill Wechsler

If last month's Olympics marked China's "coming out" in the global media, last year saw a similar (if less extravagant) emergence of China's pharmaceutical industry. Insiders took note of two signal developments: WuXi Pharmatech's IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in September, and the R&D collaboration deal between Hutchinson Medipharma in Shanghai and Eli Lilly.

It is not common for the head of manufacturing to have a seat on the top-level management committee at large pharmaceutical companies. Manufacturing issues are rarely discussed unless they have to be—most often as a result of such painful events as product stock-outs, large capital expenditures, or regulatory compliance issues.

A big deal, but a safe bet. That's one way to characterize Roche's bid to acquire Genentech. Even with the hefty price tag—and putting company culture aside—the move to lock up Genentech's powerful portfolio of oncology drugs makes a lot of sense. It's part of a growing trend that some industry watchers have characterized as a safer, more cautious approach to deal-making.

Pharm Exec’s seventh annual Industry Audit analyzes
the 2007 performance of 16 companies that are publicly
traded on stock exchanges and file 10-K reports
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (or 20-F reports
in the case of foreign companies). As in past years, the
Audit goes beyond standard accounting and financial statements,
drawing on newer and—arguably—more meaningful