Are Some Degrees Better than Others for Big Pharma Leaders?
Summary
There can be no doubt that the industry is in flux as a result of pricing pressures from insurance companies, changing patent regulations and expirations, healthcare reform, and an increased focus on proving significant clinical benefits.Sadly, this is all taking place at a time when the largest biopharma companies have developed a black eye as a result of a seemingly endless series of ethical transgressions, including off-label drug promotions, hidden clinical trial outcomes, bribes and kickbacks for writing prescriptions, manufacturing breakdowns, and lawsuits tied to numerous medicines pulled off the market.In addition, added complexity results when one attempts to compare traditional Big Pharma companies with biotechs, which I think are more likely than their much larger brethren to be run by PhD or MD scientists.I set about answering these questions by looking up the biographies of the titans who ran this industry during a period when it was the envy of Wall Street, as well as more recent years when it has labored to find its footing.I looked up other 1990 CEOs and found lawyers [American Home Products’s John Stafford, JD, George Washington U.; Schering Plough’s Robert Luciano, JD, U. Michigan], another business degree [American Cyanamid’s George Sella, MBA, Harvard], as well as pharmacists [Warner Lambert’s Joseph Williams, BS Pharmacy, U. Nebraska); Syntex’s Paul Frieman, BS Pharmacy, Fordham] and a chemist [Upjohn’s John Zabriskie, PhD Organic Chemistry, U. Rochester].