Monday, March 16, 2015

"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"

From former Pfizer R&D president John LaMattina, a focus on the "silver lining":
...Clearly, the consolidation of the biopharmaceutical industry has not been good for new drug discovery and development. The reduction in R&D jobs, the time lost due to organizational redesigns, and the personal toll incurred by family dislocations or the need to find a new job have been terrible. However, in talking to people, particularly those who have found new opportunities, they have found their new challenges stimulating and the translation of their experience to new organizations rewarding. Whether the Roche Nutley site (or other sites being abandoned) can undergo the same transformation seen in Sandwich or Ann Arbor remains to be seen. But amid the carnage of research site closures and job losses, some benefits have emerged.
This article was written in response to John Carroll's piece about visiting Roche's Nutley site.

Let's leave aside the "personal toll incurred by family dislocations" and focus on this - what percentage of former pharma workers will have salaries and benefits equal to (or greater than) those offered by pharma? Not many, I wager. 

8 comments:

  1. And how many of those jobs has LaMattina been responsible for? Oh, that's right, he was just following orders....

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  2. If the cost of my omelet is your eggs, well of course that's a price worth paying.

    The fact that there doesn't actually seem to be an omelet is a minor issue.

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  3. You know what they say...

    You can't make an omelet without first consolidating all your eggs into one basket.

    Or something like that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You know what they say...

    You can't make an omelet without first consolidating all your eggs into one basket.

    Or something like that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And dropping half of them on the floor when you do. And then complaining that no one wants to become an egg after that.

      Delete
  5. I'm going to make a modest proposal that we remain silent the next time we hear someone trashing the big, greedy pharma companies that know how to cure cancer and keep it secret as part of their evil plan to make more money. I'll be willing to defend them again when they start valuing scientists.

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    Replies
    1. I just try to keep some dignity and tell people I work in porn.

      Delete
  6. I imagine it's much easier to adopt such a sanguine view after having received a multi-million dollar severance package (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/78003/000007800307000122/pf8k0518.htm).

    “Sandwich Discovery Park”, does sound like a great name for a takeout restaurant.

    ReplyDelete

looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20