Pharmacia chief tipped for Schering role
pharmafile | October 27, 2003 | News story | |Â Â Â
Current Pharmacia Chief Executive Fred Hassan has been tipped to take over the top job at Schering-Plough once the Pfizer/Pharmacia merger is completed.
Mr Hassan is credited with transforming the fortunes of Pharmacia, and is now said to be demanding a free hand to perform a similar feat at sluggish Schering.
Richard Kogan was forced out as the company chief executive in December after presiding over two years of falling profits, a $500 million FDA fine for manufacturing irregularities and an investigation by US watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission into its financial disclosures.
Mr Hassan entered into talks with the company at the end of 2002, and will not take the post without assurances that sweeping changes will not be resisted at board level.
Pharmacia was turned around by the drafting in of new management talent and an aggressive acquisition strategy, with rights to its top seller Celebrex gained through buying out Searle. Shareholders are keen to see Schering undergo a similar turnaround its current $11 billion revenues considered not sufficient to compete with industry leaders such as the soon to be combined Pfizer/Pharmacia, with estimated 2003 revenues of $53 billion.
The merger cleared the first significant hurdle with shareholders of both companies voting overwhelmingly in favour of the proposed $60 billion merger, and is now waiting clearance from regulators in Europe and the US.
Hank McKinnell, Pfizer Chairman and CEO, said he was "gratified" with the strong shareholder support. "Pfizer and Pharmacia represent a compelling strategic combination, with the innovative products, R&D and financial resources to sustain global leadership in our industry for many years to come," he said.
The European Commission recently announced it would delay its month-long review of the merger to give the companies more time to provide information on the markets that would be affected by the deal. Analysts have, however, not foreseen any significant overlaps in products that would raise monopoly concerns.
Despite the delay to the European approval proceedings, the companies say they are happy with the progress being made.
Hank McKinnell said discussions with both US and European regulatory authorities continued to be productive and was confident the deal would be closed on schedule in the first quarter of the year.
Once the deal goes ahead Pharmacia shareholders will receive 1.4 Pfizer shares for every one of their Pharmacia shares, which works out as a total of around 1.8 billion Pfizer shares.
