Would you want to be a CEO of a pharma company?

Aug/25/2008 09:16 Filed in: Pharma Business
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There has been a lot of talk in the media about the compensation of CEO's today but to be honest with you would you want to be a CEO of a pharma company today? First you have investors breathing down your neck to get the stock price higher, than you have to satisfy the Board of Directors, and then on top of all this you have to guide your company through the rough waters of product development and business decisions. It has become a very hard job indeed.


Sidney Taurel, the ex-CEO of Lilly, has a really tough time of it while he was at the helm. In addition to losing patent on Lilly's biggest drug, Prozac, he had to deal with a lot of litigation and allegations concerning Zyprexa. However Lilly survived and is now starting to introduce new products, make acquisitions, and grow existing sales of current products like Cymbalta and Cialis. Here on the West Coast Kevin Shirer, Amgen's CEO, has had to deal with similar setbacks to Amgen's top selling drug yet Amgen is bouncing back with new drugs on the horizon and investors seem to be pleased. These two CEO's weathered the storm and have managed to keep their company ships afloat and prosper during these touch times.

In addition to keeping investors and analysts at bay the pharma CEO has to make a business and financial decision on which drugs get funding for development and which drugs are put on the back burner. This has to be a business and moral decision and one that a pharma CEO has to live with until he leaves the company. It's a tough choice and I am not sure that a hell of a lot of people could make this choice. Most pharma CEO's stay with pharma companies for a short time and as they leave they are remembered as good CEO's if the stock went up or poor CEO's if the stock goes down. It's a stressful job that can add years of stress in a short time.

People in pharma are usually well compensated as are the CEO's and I believe they deserve every dollar they get. It's time to look at how many people would not be here if there were NOT drugs to treat their medical conditions as well as how the ROI of shares have done over time. Mr Taurel left Lilly healthy and headed in the right direction...Mr Shirer has positioned Amgen ready to weather the brief storm of setbacks and still grow its business and that is one hell of a test to pass ! The CEO of Pfizer is making changes to the organization that should help Pfizer be more competitive in the future although investors want instant gratification.

This industry is surely in transition but one fact remains...new products will drive and grow business. With the FDA scrutinizing every NDA this means that a lot more compounds may not make it to market but the ones that do have great potential. It would be interesting to get 3 or 4 pharma CEO's together for an "off the record" talk around some beers to hear what they have to say but then again that might be a very long night !!
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