Today is only Wednesday, but this may qualify as Quote of the Week:

“We are not in a crisis, that’s for sure,” Amgen ceo Kevin Sharer tells The New York Times with characteristic bravado. “People don’t know what to do. People’s hair is on fire. Confidence is challenged. We’re not there.”

Really? Then please explain, Kevin, why a ceo known for being demanding and mercurial, a ceo who keeps a portrait of the famously stubborn English admiral Horatio Nelson in his office, a ceo who declined for months to tell anyone about a failed clinical trial, should suddenly open up and grant back-to-back interviews to two large newspapers (the other was The Los Angeles Times).

No, Kevin, you’re facing a crisis. Here’s why: Amgen stock is near a two-year low. The FDA issued strict warnings on Aranesp and Epogen. Congress is investigating the marketing and safety of your drugs. The Securities and Exchange Commission is probing your failure to tell Wall Street that a key clinical trial ended over safety concerns, which only became known after an industry newsletter embarassed you by publishing the details. Medicare may reduce reimbursement for your drugs. You’re postponing a $1 billion plant in Ireland. And your cfo ‘resigned’ unexpectedly last week.

No one expects you to admit to being in a crisis, but denying the truth by calling these last few weeks ‘choppy waters’ is a stretch. Your sudden emergence in the papers is called crisis control. Your hair may not be on fire, but your pants are. And only Admiral Nelson would be proud.

Further reading…
The New York Times (registration required);
The Los Angeles Times.
[tags]Amgen, Kevin Sharer[/tags]