[UPDATED: 10.21.09 @ 7 PM EDT -- The Phoenixed-Version® of Pharmalot, that king of this particular genre, has hat-tipped this story! Cool!]
That nugget is buried, at the end of the interview released this morning, to the web -- 60 percent of Schering-Plough's management will not be brought over to "New" Merck. [Click the image at right for the background on various AIDS advocates' efforts to reduce Merck's Isentress® (raltegravir) drug costs to patients.] Do go read the entire Fortune article, but CEO Clark is (as one of the headlines for the interview) sounding a very encouraging, and laudable, note on health care reform, here:
. . . .Q: How will health-care reform impact the pharma industry?
CEO Clark's Answer: We support President Obama and what he's attempting to do with health-care reform. It's unacceptable to have Americans who don't have coverage, and they don't get the care they need. I'm cautiously optimistic that we will have health-care reform this year.
Our hope is that the health-care reform continues to support innovation, that it continues to be a market-based approach, and that intellectual property is protected around the world.
The next step is to make sure from a preventive and a wellness standpoint that we get ahead of the game, so that we don't treat just chronic disease in this country. . . .
[Much later:] We're bringing in 40% of the Schering-Plough leadership into the company. . . .
Not that the 60-40 ratio is surprising, but it is sobering to see it in print -- as the reverse merger process begins to wind toward a closing date, perhaps in December or January.
2 comments:
What happened to the previous statement about a majority being assimilated?
What always happens to such statements: it has been "overtaken" by intervening events.
Of course, the cynic in me would suggest that this 40-60 ratio was known all along to be the reverse of what was "originally" floated.
But (no doubt) it was a needed diversion, to keep most of the Old schering-Plough oars in the water, pulling for their lives.
Namaste
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