Tomorrow's print Wall Street Journal will carry a very interesting counter-point to Fred Hassan's recent lament -- also aired on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, just a week ago -- that Hassan just doesn't know what it takes to get a drug approved at FDA, anymore. Ah, the poor dear.
In contrast to Mr. Hassan's proffered befuddlement, UK-based-GlaxoSmithKline PLC CEO Andrew Witty did the apparently-truly-remarkable:
He asked -- asked UK, French, Italian and Spanish regulators. Whoa. Novel concept.
Quoth The Wall Street Journal:
. . . .British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC is taking the unusual step of giving government health-care systems a say in deciding which drugs advance in its research pipeline, a move it hopes will result in more products these customers will pay for.
Glaxo's new chief executive, Andrew Witty, said the effort is part of his drive to help the world's second-largest drug maker adapt to a tough pharmaceutical market. In recent years, soaring health-care costs have led insurers, governments and other drug buyers to tighten their belts.
"I'm going to deal with the pharmaceutical realities of the next 10 years, and they're very different from those of the 1990s," Mr. Witty said in an interview at a company townhouse. . . .
The current Novartis CEO also drew approving ink in the article for consulting with European regulators over pipeline priorities.
Confidential Note to Fred Hassan: This -- the above -- is just a thought. Feel free to ignore it. I mean, it is pretty far "out of the box" thinking to ask some of your most-important payors -- and key regulators -- what each might be most-inclined to approve, and "pay" for, respectively.
But really -- you, and Schering have no need for nutty, stake-holder/customer-focused ideas like these. I mean, you are sitting perfectly "pretty" right where you are, now, right? Right.
It is just so much easier to hold that last, long, wailing note, seemingly-forever, on your lament: "We just don't know what to do with the FDA-a-a-a-a-a--a-a-a-A-A-A-a. . . ."
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