David L. Shedlarz' recent claim to fame was being passed over for the position of chief executive at Pfizer last summer.
Now, as vice-chairman, he's got what might be an equally tough assignment.
Following a debacle in which the company was forced to halt work on its most promising new heart drug torcetrapib, Shedlarz is in charge of overhauling the process of licensing and co-developing products invented by other drug companies. Such deals represent Pfizer's best chance for restocking its drug pipeline before 2011, when its $12 billion cholesterol treatment, Lipitor, loses patent protection.
For starters, Shedlarz plans to shatter the barriers that have prevented several proud Pfizer units from functioning as a team. That should unclog communications channels so that executives can spot unpromising deals and nix them early on. He'll also closely monitor what Pfizer's competitors, large and small, are doing in the same treatment areas. Shedlarz will broaden the definition of collaboration beyond mergers and licensing to include co-promotion deals, equity investments, and other options. These changes, he says, will allow Pfizer "to better assess opportunities and be more disciplined in the amount of money we put on the table."
Pfizer's old approach was disjointed and bureaucratic.
One group of executives responsible for licensing drugs from other companies reported to research and development. Acquisitions were handled through the finance department. And a separate venture capital team was assigned to find and fund innovative startups. As Shedlarz admitted at a Nov. 29 meeting for Wall Street analysts: The structure "didn't serve us well."
So far Wall Street has greeted the new plan with yawns.
"You go to analyst meeting after analyst meeting, and everybody tells you they're trying to be more efficient," says Stephen M. Scala, an analyst with SG Cowen & Co. "Pfizer's restructuring is not dramatically different from other companies'."
More at BusinessWeek
No comments:
Post a Comment