Amgen Besieged: Sharer’s Last Stand?
5 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // April 16th, 2007 // 12:36 pm
Kevin Sharer apparently likens himself to a pair of iconoclastic military men. His office sports portraits of General George Custer and Horatio Nelson, the English admiral. One was known for making a last stand and the other for defying orders. Call them independent thinkers. No doubt, the 59-year-old Sharer does. But is he approaching his own last stand?
Consider his latest challengers. Investors have pushed his stock to nearly a two-year low. Congress is investigating marketing and safety of his two biggest drugs, Aranesp and Epogen. The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing his failure to tell Wall Street that a key clinical trial ended over safety concerns, an embarassment laid bare by an industry newsletter. To top it off, cfo Richard Nanual resigned last week.
“We are certainly facing some unprecedented challenges right now,” Sharer tells The Los Angeles Times. But “we believe several of our pipeline products will be significant breakthroughs for patients and Amgen.”
Sharer is known for doing things his own way. As the paper recounts, he alienated GE’s Jack Welch by leaving when he felt his latest assignment was beneath him and then ticked off his new MCI colleagues by suggesting an overhaul shortly after arriving as the presumed heir apparent. A few years ago, he had an affair with a married Amgen vp and ignored senior execs who implored him to break it off. He didn’t do so until the employee left Amgen in 2001.
Sharer (he’s the one without the hat) says he isn’t fazed by any of this, but prefers not to talk about himself or the $24 million in compensation his received last year. “I think the era of the celebrity CEO of a few years ago is over,” he says. “I’d rather people concentrate on Amgen…The best is in front of us”
Well, Kevin, they are concentrating on Amgen, but perhaps not in the way you intended. You are right, however, no one is celebrating your tenure.
The full story in The LA Times here.
Hat tip to PharmaGossip.[tags]Amgen, Aranesp, Epogen, Kevin Sharer[/tags]
Chris O'Toole
Thinking of “Hubris” as in Greek Tragedy. Does $20bn wiped off Amgen’s market cap since October sound like a tear-jerker?
Anonymous
Hi Chris,
It does if you held Amgen stock.
ed
Amgen Employee
Sounds like it’s finally time for Sharer to go. The company needs new management if it is going to suvive. Too many good Amgen employees are starting to think about bailing out, for fear of major layoffs na d lack of future profit sharing motives. Amgen may be poised to loose too much of its best talented employees if there isn’t some indication that Amgen senior management is due for a change.
Sharer has lead this company to the brink of financial ruin …. it’s time for the Amgen board of directors to find a serious experienced pharmaceutical COE to replace him with.
Amgen is a major large Pharma company now, and needs someone from the pharma indusrty to run it ….. not some “cowboy” who’s come from outside the industry anymore.
Sorry Kevin, but you’ve place the company in harms way and it’s time for your replacement.
former employee
Yes, Kevin, it is time for you to go. And take all those big pharma executives from Rahway and West Point with you.
Former
Dana Thompson
I don’t understand how this idiot thinks he’s all that and a bag of chips when he cheats on his wife and destroys the Jensen family. Sarah Jensen who was his employee was happily married until she cheated on her husband and ruined the lives of their three children. How pathetic for both of them. Sarah makes me want to vomit! Kev, well… he just needs a swift kick in the dick so he won’t destroy anymore families.