Today's Top Stories | By Tracy Staton |  Comment |  Forward | < a href="http://links.mkt1985.com/ctt?kn=81&ms=MzU0NjU4OQS2&r=MjM2NzI3MjAzMjcS1&b=0&j=MTExNzYyNjEyS0&mt=1&rt=0" name="api_addthis_com_oexchange_XdtDBUzqKNTm8pnrY0yQ" > Twitter |  Facebook |  LinkedIn | Layoffs are not a happy business in the best of circumstances. But when workers think they're being treated unfairly, tempers can really run high. Take the job cuts at Novartis' ($NVS) facility in Horsham, England. The company announced in March that it would slice 550 positions from the plant's workforce. And as the cuts move ahead, employees are protesting. As the West Sussex County Times reports, 150 workers at the Horsham facility are balking at their severance settlements. The workers have been offered two weeks' pay for each year served--which might have been fine, had they not heard that downsized employees at Novartis' Liverpool facility were offered twice that much. The difference, the workers claim, is that Liverpool's staff is unionized, while Horsham's is not. In Liverpool, 190 workers face losing their jobs, but the UNITE union negotiated a four-weeks-per-year-of-service severance deal with the company. The Horsham workers filed a grievance to protest the difference, saying that the company had discriminated against non-union employees. After a three-month review process, the company determined that there was no discrimination, the Times reports. The reported discrepancies have angered and disillusioned workers and the local community. In the past, Novartis has been praised as a good corporate citizen and an "exceptionally good employer." The company will continue to operate at Horsham, with a workforce of at least 330, The Argus reports. For its part, the company issued a statement to the paper. "[A]ll redundant employees will be offered a severance package that will be enhanced from that required by statute." The company said it had considered "all counterproposals" made by employees, and that other assistance will be provided, including outplacement services and opportunities for alternate jobs elsewhere. The severance packages now await final approval, the company said. - read the County Times story
- get more from The Argus Related Articles:
Merck job cuts set to accelerate
Novartis dismisses senior staffers for misconduct
Novartis to slice 500 jobs from UK facility Read more about: Novartis, pharmaceutical layoffs
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 | An Expert Briefing: Biotechnology 101- An Industry Overview for the Non-Scientist - Tuesday, July 26th, 1 pm ET / 10 am PT
Join us as we define biotechnology and briefly explore the various biotechnology sectors. We will also focus on the healthcare sector and explain how basic science and technology are used during the drug discovery process.
Topics include: DNA, Proteins, Recombinant DNA, Small and Large Molecule Drugs, and more Register today. |
When do a CEO's personal problems become worrisome to investors? Well, it depends on the problem. In the case of Medicis Pharmaceutical chief Jonah Shacknai, the answer is, "Almost immediately." Two days after his 6-year-old son suffered critical injuries from a fall down a staircase at his Coronado, CA, house, Shacknai's live-in girlfriend was found bound, nude, and hanging from a balcony there. Within hours of the news, the company's stock plummeted. Word is that Shacknai and his ex-wife were at the hospital with their injured son when the woman was found. Shacknai's brother Adam, who was staying in a guesthouse on the property, cut the woman down and called police, the Los Angeles Times reports. After initial evidence-gathering, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and Coronado Police were saying they didn't know whether the death was murder or suicide. They have found no link between the boy's fall and the woman's death. "We have not determined if this is criminal or if this is a death investigation," Capt. Tim Curran of the sheriff's department told the Wall Street Journal. "Whether it is a homicide or a suicide, it is one of the most bizarre and unusual cases we have ever seen." Piper Jaffray analyst David Amsellem called the stock drop "just a little panic selling," Bloomberg reports. "There's no question that Jonah is very much the face of the company and very much a part of the overall vision and strategy," Ansellem said, but added that the company's day-to-day operations aren't likely to be affected by the Shacknai tragedies. Medicis has "very good bench strength," he said. - see the WSJ coverage
- get more from Bloomberg
- read the LA Times article
- check out the Reuters news Related Articles:
Allergan, Medicis lobby hard against 'Botax'
Medicis, Allergan fight for wrinkle-fighting consumers Read more about: Medicis Pharmaceutical, Jonah Shacknai
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Remember the reports that the U.K.'s cost-effectiveness watchdog would be shunted aside as the country adopts value-based pricing? Well, scratch that. As the government rethinks proposed National Health Service reforms, it's also reconsidering its overhaul of the drug-pricing chain of command. Yes, the U.K. health system will be moving to value-based pricing--whatever that turns out to mean--by 2014. But the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence won't become an advisory body whose decisions about cost-effectiveness are only, well, advisory. NICE will keep its teeth, agency chief Andrew Dillon told Reuters. It will still have the authority to decide which treatments should be used by NHS. So, how might NICE work in the value-based pricing era? The new scheme will aim to put higher prices on drugs that are most effective, most innovative and address unmet medical needs. NICE is likely to set up a series of cost-effectiveness brackets to help companies determine where new products are likely to fall, Reuters reports. "The government wants a system that is as predictable as possible...so that it will be very easy for companies to work out whether or not the NHS is likely to find their price acceptable," Dillon said (as quoted by the news service). And if NICE doesn't accept a company's proposed price? All this has yet to be worked out, but Dillon took a stab at it. "[I]f the price is beyond the relevant threshold," he said, "then my assumption is that would trigger negotiations between the government and the pharmaceutical company." - get the Reuters news
- see the InPharm coverage ALSO: Novartis failed to win approval from the U.K.'s health-cost agency for its drug Lucentis in diabetics who suffer an eye condition. Report Related Articles:
U.K. doc says GPs don't want NICE's job
U.K. earmarks £200M for NICE-rejected drugs
NICE to be sidelined, minister confirms Read more about: drug prices, NICE, United Kingdom
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Time to update your sales-rep overtime scorecard. A federal judge has ruled that a Boehringer Ingelheim rep is not exempt from overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Pharmalot reports. It's just the latest decision in the ongoing legal battle between salespeople, who say they deserve OT, and drugmakers, who consider their reps "outside salespeople" who don't qualify. In the Boehringer case, Judge Ursula Ungaro determined that plaintiff Graciela Palacios not only was not an outside salesperson, but that she did not fit the FSLA's administrative exemption, either. That exemption applies to management and professional types who are able to act on their own discretion and use independent judgment at work, as Pharmalot notes. Ungaro said the Boehringer rep's job did not fit that description. The summary judgment comes after the U.S. Supreme Court passed on an opportunity to review appeals court decisions granting overtime to reps for Novartis and Schering-Plough. That choice essentially ratified the Second Circuit's ruling, which means that similar lawsuits in that Circuit--such as those pending against Pfizer, Abbott Laboratories and Bristol-Myers Squibb--are likely to go the same way. But another circuit court--the Ninth--has ruled for GlaxoSmithKline in an OT dispute with reps. Amgen and Johnson & Johnson's Ortho-McNeil unit are on the no-overtime side of the ledger, too. How all the different suits in different jurisdictions will shake out remains to be seen. But some legal experts expect the Supreme Court to end up intervening at some point. - see the Pharmalot post Related Articles:
Laid-off Pfizer reps join OT lawsuit
Sales reps win as Supremes refuse overtime appeals
Labor agency jumps into another sales-rep overtime case
The tough life of a pharma sales rep Read more about: lawsuit, Supreme Court, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pharma sales reps
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Anyone who's been watching pharma knows that the number of big new drugs has been dropping. That's obviously a problem for Big Pharma. But it's going to become a problem for branded drugmakers' major nemesis: the generics industry. Makers of copycat meds like to knock off blockbusters because they stand to deliver more return on the up-front investment. As branded drugmakers increasingly turn out smaller, more specialized meds, there will be fewer big drugs to copy. Much has been made of the fact that Big Pharma's patent losses over the next few years will be the generics business's gain. Drugs accounting for billions in sales are falling off patent, and copycat drugmakers will reap the benefits from that steady stream of big new products. It's like a baby boom; after the boom generation moves through, there's a bust. The difficulty branded drugmakers have had in getting new meds approved means that there will be fewer products for generics makers to copy as time goes on. "What has happened is that the approval of new products over the last many years has not gone significantly beyond 25-30 per year. And not many of these products have become very large," Sun Pharmaceutical Chairman Dilip Shanghvi told MarketWatch. "All of this has created a challenge both for Big Pharma as well as the generic industry." And what do leading generics companies plan to do to deal with that eventuality? The strategies will sound familiar. They're eyeing geographical expansion in emerging markets and preparing for possible consolidation through M&A. And they're also looking to build up businesses in brand-name specialty drugs. All strategies that Big Pharma is using right now to deal with its own blockbuster withdrawal. In his interview with MarketWatch, Shanghvi talked about possible acquisitions in emerging markets, as well as organic growth in those countries, partly through a partnership with Merck. Brand-name specialty meds are in his sights, too. "[I]t's natural for us to also look at growing by becoming a specialty pharma company," he said. "Because then we can introduce our own products and use those for future growth." - read the MarketWatch interview Related Articles:
Generics, emerging markets to take over pharma growth
New generics quickly grab 80% of sales volume
U.S. drug spending grows at anemic 2.3% in 2010 Read more about: Brand Name Drugs, Generics, Generic drugs, emerging pharmaceutical markets
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Notice the physician survey we ran in yesterday's FiercePharma just below this space? Readers can now expect the same exclusive insight into physician sentiments every Wednesday thanks to an innovative new partnership we've struck with Sermo.
@FiercePharma: Note to Pfizer: Bayer shopping for vet buys. 
