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Biotech / Medical : VVUS: VIVUS INC. (NASDAQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (3620)	12/13/1997 8:06:00 PM
From: Zebra 365	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 23519

Maybe they should have hired the most experienced operations person in the trans-urethral manufacturing business? Oh, I guess there were no transurethral products being manufactured before MUSE. Here is a reminder of the steps the company took, when they found out they had a problem in November. They knew they screwed up, so they went for help. They gave the guy one week to orient himself to the situation and then they announced the problem publicly: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 3, 1997--VIVUS, Inc (NASDAQ:VVUS) today announced the appointment of Michael I. Levitt to the position of vice president, operations. Levitt, who has 21 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, served most recently as vice president of global Collagen operations and general manager of Lipomatrix, Inc., a division of Collagen Corporation. In his three years with Collagen, Levitt was responsible for global manufacturing and distribution. During 1997, Levitt assumed the added responsibility for the manufacturing and R&D facilities of the Lipomatrix breast implant facilities in Neuchatel, Switzerland. Prior to his tenure at Collagen, Levitt held various positions at Eli Lilly & Co., from 1976 to 1994, most recently as director of production operations. Levitt holds a B.S. degree in pharmacy from the University of Buffalo. "Our challenge in 1998 will be to continue our current level of production in our existing facility while bringing our new manufacturing facility in New Jersey on line as well as completing construction of a significant portion of our facility in Ireland. Mike's broad experience in pharmaceutical manufacturing complete with his general management skills are valuable assets for VIVUS," said Leland F. Wilson, president and CEO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MENLO PARK, Calif., Dec 10 (Reuters) - Vivus Inc, the impotence treatment company, said Wednesday it will be unable to meet its production goals for the fourth quarter due primarily to efforts to expand production capacity into a new plant. "The impact of these factors is likely to result in approximately a 25 percent decrease in product revenues for the fourth quarter as compared with the third quarter," the company said in a release. Efforts to expand production capacity into the 90,000 square foot plant is lowering capacity in other areas of the company, Vivus said. To complete construction of the plant and focus on international and US regulatory approvals, Vivus has shifted existing personnel and exisiting equipment to the facility. In addition, because the existing manufacturing facility has run at full capacity since the company's impotence drug was launched, VIVUS plans to suspend production from Christmas to New Year's in order to complete needed maintenance. The Company anticipates that shipments from its new plant to Europe and the United States will be delayed to the first and second quarters of 1998, respectively. Such shipments will be dependent upon obtaining the required regulatory approvals. Until that time, the Company will continue to be capacity constrained. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So, they went for help, and now they have help. Not end of story but you can hardly say they dragged their feet in recognizing and addressing the problem. And they are hardly floundering and "inexperienced" now going forward. Sometimes those personnel releases mean more than they appear, but hindsite is 20 / 20. Zebra