MZ:
You're correct, "profit can kill science (AMGN)". It need not be that way. We, as investors, need to continuously scan for companies that look outward for vision. If a non-biologist is hired as CEO, we should consider it a potential red flag until we see that arrogance won't block a relative capacity for innovation.
Let me make it clear that I think Schleifer, ex-AMGN noose, is doing a very good job. I approached Binder, after news of the TKTX litigation, with a plan to mobilize a small portion of that AMGN cash to merge certain programs at CEGE and ARIA when they were low-profile and dirt cheap. AMGN politely considered the outline and rejected it. Hoechst, TKTX's partner, subsequently licensed epo expression technology from CEGE and signed the genomics deal with ARIA.
We need to avoid the "invented here" syndrome. Hopefully, REGN didn't catch the disease.
Binder did an incredible job of managing regulatory and marketing. He has failed miserably at managing R&D. We needed two years of Binder transitioning to a hybrid of Binder/Rathman. Too bad.... AMGN could have carried, with relative ease, the sector flagship role forward to make a serious impact on where dollars flow in the pharma sector.
We all know that 3-ring binders contain and organize your best efforts, protecting them from outside elements.
Cheers! Rick |
