Sanofi-Aventis Chief Financial Officer, Jerome Contamine said that as a result of lower revenue, the company could cut staff in such areas as marketing in order to cut costs.

Novartis AG CEO, Daniel Vasella said that the company will not acquire the remaining stake of Alcon Inc. one of the most important ophthalmologic company´s of the world.


In a Bloomberg interview, Novartis Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Vasella, said that they will not acquire the remaining stake of Alcon Inc. Swiss based and currently controlled by Nestle, Novartis acquired minority share last year.


Last April 7th. 2008, Novartis paid 11 billion dollars or 143 dollars per paper to acquire 25 percent of the company controlled by Nestle and specialized in ophthalmic drugs. At the same time, Novartis agreed that they could acquire the remaining 52 percent between January 2010 and July 2011 for 181 dollars per paper, or the equivalent of 28.2 billion dollars.


The problem is however that since the deal was announced last year, Alcon´s current stokes went down to 111.45 dollars on June 2 2009. Novartis would have been buying Alcon at a premium price 65 percent higher than its actual value.


Vasella said “From the point of the fundamentals, of the fit of the business, of the strategy, all that has not changed, but you cannot look at that in isolation. It is in a context of financial terms. I hope that it can be done, but obviously there are also significant uncertainties.”
Analyst believe that Novartis will end up buying the remaining 77 percent of the company (23 percent is publicly traded) Nestle could request Novartis to buy Alcon at a Premium price of 20.5 percent, to a maximum of 181 dollars. From other point of view the Alcon complete buy out could bring some future relief to Novartis drugs, as in a few more years many blockbuster patents will expire such as Diovan (High blood pressure) and Gleevec (Leukemia).


At time when Pfizer acquired Wyeth, and Merck & Co bought Schering-Plough and Roche Holding AG a mayority stake of Genentech. Both Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline Plc kept a very low profile.

Pfizer's CEO, Jeffrey Kindler, told the Financial Times that it is willing to buy a competitor in order to grow revenue. Analyst, however, said that merger is just speculation

William Burns, Roche’s head of pharmaceuticals, said in a conference in London that direct-to-consumer promotion was the single worst decision for the industry, because undermines the reputation of the sector. Further details.

At a meeting with analysts in New York, Amgen management said they expect two drugs, Sensipar and denosumab, to reach blockbuster status within five year. The meeting was the company’s first major business review since January 2006.

French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis announced the appointment of GlaxoSmithKline executive Chris Viehbacher as its new CEO, replacing former research head Gerard Le Fur, who will continue to work in scientific areas within the group.

Swiss biotech Actelion´s CEO, Jean-Paul Clozel, is upbeat on several fronts: its recent licensing deal with GlaxoSmithKline Plc and the coming Phase III trials with its drug Tracleer for use in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). If approved, it “means doubling Tracleer sales,” he said in an interview with Reuters.

Slovenian generic drugs company Krka may take over a larger company, CEO Joze Colaric told Slovene daily Dnevnik, paying up to $ 2.33 billion dollars. Further details.

Pfizer Inc´s CEO, Jeffrey Kindler, gave an update on the company´s pipeline and R&D products at a meeting with market analysts. Exclusive details.

CEO Andrew Witty may consider spinning off early-stage drugs that do not fall into Glaxo’s core focus areas into a separate company

In a move to boost sales in the increasingly taxing pharma business, Chief Executive Andrew Witty told The Wall Street Journal Glaxo is taking an unconventional step: the drugmaker will give government healthcare systems a say in deciding which drugs should make it to late stage development

Roche’s new CEO Severin Schwan sees the pharma giant shift its focus to new therapies for primary care to be used by general practitioners to fight chronic diseases such as diabetes. In an interview with the Financial Times, Schwan stated the company will not diversify into generics or consumer-health businesses

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) CEO William Weldon stated that although currently the company is committed to research of new medicines, it does not rule out going into the generic business, noting big opportunities “in the future.”

MedImmune CEO plans to leave at the end of July, one year after selling the biotech firm to AstraZeneca in a $15.6 billion deal. According to AstraZeneca, Mott steps down for personal reasons

Founder of Canada´s beleaguered Biovail Corp Eugene Melnyk plans to start a new drug company if his attempt to replace Biovail's board of directors fails. Given that in yesterday´s shareholders meeting, Melnyk´s proposed slate of directors was rejected, Melnyk is also threatening a court challenge.

Contenders for Canadian drugmaker Biovail´s highest executive positions continue to spar – current CEO Bill Wells has released a “fight letter” in order to dispute company´s founder and majority-shareholder Eugene Melnyk´s strategy to replace the full board of directors in the June 25th meeting, when shareholders will be choosing between the two boards proposed. Further details.