Pfizer vs. J&J: Antithesis to Synthesis
Executive Summary
The two polar opposites of pharmaceutical strategy--Pfizer with its primary-care, highly centrallized approach and J&J with its niches and decentralization--are testing the limits of their models' capabilities. But these two antitheses are now beginning to move towards a synthesis.
You may also be interested in...
Pfizer R&D: The Biggest Pharmaceutical Experiment
In an interview, Peter Corr, the new head of the industry's largest R&D organization, argues that scale, properly managed, can solve the key problem for innovative R&D organizations: the ability to feed both early- and late-stage development. Smaller firms create unbridgeable pipeline gaps by having to focus on the late-stage and starving the early work. Moreover, Pfizer is making a huge investment in attrition-reducing early-clinical technologies, especially imaging, to find biomarkers which will tell researchers whether a drug is working in humans before it begins more expensive trials. Again scale is crucial: Pfizer's investment can be amortized over a large number of projects, making it financially more affordable and productive for Pfizer than a similar investment would be for smaller companies. To increase the utilization and productivity of this investment, Corr wants to increase Pfizer's in-licensing of preclinical and Phase I compounds--a dramatic change in Pfizer's licensing habits, which have focused on late-stage opportunities and the acquisition of discovery platforms.
Abbott's ‘Bedrock Of Good Health’ Nutritionals Business Faces Mounting Infant Formula Litigation
Nutritional product business had 5.1% Q1 sales growth and is like Abbott’s other segments, “super well-aligned to the global demographics and trends in health care,” says CEO Ford. But as it defends complaints of damages from powder formulas made at facility found with unsafe levels of bacterial contaminants, Abbott’s also targeted in litigation alleging failure to warn about risk of infants born prematurely developing necrotizing enterocolitis if fed cow’s milk-based formula.
‘Core Pillars’ Of Safety And Innovation Take Center Stage In FDA Reports
The US FDA has issued a pair of reports focused on device safety and innovation. The reports describe recent steps the agency has taken to improve in the two areas, and what it plans to do next.