JP Garnier: In His Own Words
3 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // July 25th, 2007 // 7:21 am
The Glaxo ceo sits still for a chat with The Philadelphia Inquirer and discusses a smattering of topics. Here are a few of his remarks:
On John Buse, the University of North Carolina endocrinologist who criticized Avandia and, for his candor, was threatened with a $4 billion lawsuit: “Dr. Buse made peace with the company. He has worked with the company since.”
On Steve Nissen’s meta-analysis of Avandia: It’s “a good diagnostic tool. It can raise questions; it cannot provide answers.” And he offered that Glaxo conducted more thorough tests, in which “Avandia looks pristine.”
On Glaxo’s Cervarix HPV vaccine and a royalty dispute with Merck: “In vaccines, you only get protection once.There has never been a vaccine with a potential audience this big. Nothing comes close…It would have been unethical to block Merck. The vaccine could save lives.”
On SiCKO and the single-payer healthcare: “I’m sure (the movie) has entertainment value. The model of health care is Canada, Cuba and France? That can only have entertainment value…Frankly, (single-payer healthcare) has failed in most countries.” But he does think the US should establish “a minimum safety net for everyone” to cover catastrophes.
On the Glaxo political action committee and the 5,400 employees who donate. JP says 20 employees on the PAC board decide who gets the money. “It’s the employees who decide what they want. It’s like United Way. We are totally neutral. We care about issues. We don’t have a political color…I give contributions to people who support our positions on issues.”
Lisa Van Syckel
Is this the softer side of JP!….
Hank
Pretty typical CEO talk. During the week before the November ‘04 Senate Finance Committee on Vioxx/FDA, Ray Gilmartin (then Merck CEO) toured the country giving similar nostrums. Many of us will remember the full-page ads in the NYT and WSJ as well. I think they call this a ‘public relations offensive.’ But it will be described as a ‘chat,’ as here.
Ed Silverman
Hi Hank,
In the interest of full disclosure, ‘chat’ is one of Pharmalot’s favorite words. We will chat with just about anyone, given the chance. Of course, we recognize that such warm and fuzzy terminology masks the mission of the primary chatter, but we hope readers and viewers understand that we try to be informal sometimes.
For those interested in such things, we met today with Fred Hassan - in person - for such a chat. And yes, Fred began by reading from a script. That’s a required move in these settings. But there was some time to try to get him ‘off message’ and have a real conversation. I mean chat. :)
Best,
ed