Plenty of industry-watchers didn’t expect to see embattled Valeant CEO J. Michael Pearson return to the helm after a two-month bout with severe pneumonia. And as it turns out, he almost didn’t.
At one point, the company’s board–which talked with a slate of potential CEO replacements–was leaning toward ousting Pearson, The Wall Street Journal reports. And former Sanofi CEO Chris Viehbacher, interim Valeant CEO Howard Schiller, and former Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan, who also had served as chairman of Valeant subsidiary Bausch & Lomb, were on the short list to fill his shoes.
But as high-profile PBMs made moves to freeze out Valeant products, Pearson insisted that his close ties to those companies, as well as insurers and doctors–and his knowledge of what drug discounts the company could afford–made him indispensable, sources told the paper. And the argument worked.
Pearson took back the reins in late February, promising, among other things, to bolster the Canadian drugmaker’s relationships with payers, regulators and government officials. And in his first week on the job, he held drug-pricing talks with reps from Express Scripts, which stopped covering pricey Valeant diabetes med Glumetza once a cheaper generic hit the scene, according to the WSJ. He’s expected to meet with other key Valeant customers in the weeks ahead.
Of course, Pearson’s PBM connections weren’t the only factor working in his favor when it came to re-securing his job. Valeant would have been on the hook for $200 million in deferred stock compensation for him if they’d sent him packing, the Journal notes, and that hefty golden parachute could have sparked investors’ ire.
Since returning, though, Pearson hasn’t taken over all his old responsibilities. The title of chairman now belongs to Robert Ingram, who filled that post while Pearson was out sick. And the company’s board has also kickstarted a search for his successor so it can have a back-up plan, sources told the WSJ.
Meanwhile, Pearson has plenty on his plate aside from the payer negotiations. Congress and politicians still have beef with Valeant over its price-hike strategy, and the SEC is investigating the company’s relationship with former specialty pharmacy Philidor. On top of that, Valeant is behind on its financial reporting, thanks to a Philidor-related earnings restatement and Pearson’s comeback.
By Carly Helfand
Source: Fierce Pharma
A monkeypox outbreak is emerging in the U.S. and Europe, and at least one country is amping up countermeasure preparedness. Bavarian Nordic has secured a contract with an unnamed European country to supply its smallpox vaccine, called Imvanex in Europe, in response to the emergence of monkeypox cases, the Danish company said Thursday.
Moderna’s recent chief financial officer debacle—in which Jorge Gomez departed on his second day on the job—raised questions about the company’s hiring process given its rush to global biopharma prominence. The most obvious one: How was it possible for Gomez to be hired when he was under investigation by his previous employer, Dentsply Sirona of Charlotte, N.C.
Merck & Co. is plucking a cancer project from the branch of Chinese-based Kelun Pharmaceutical for up to $1.4 billion, but details from the New Jersey-based Big Pharma have been hard to come by. The deal, first disclosed Monday on the Shenzhen stock exchange, has Merck handing over $47 million in upfront cash in exchange for ex-China rights to a “macromolecular tumor project.”
