Bernie will take over from Bob as of January 1, although Essner will remain chairman for an unspecified period of time (see statement). The move is hardly shocking and, in fact, was telegraphed back in January, when Poussot, 56, was promoted to chief operating officer. At the time, he was already president and vice chair.

Despite its troubles, Wyeth continues to tap current execs as ceo. Essner, 59, a marketing veteran, succeeded Jack Stafford in May 2001, four years after the drugmaker withdrew the Pondimin and Redux diet pills that were at the center of the fen-phen scandal that resulted in $21 billion in charges. Since then, Essner has managed to steer Wyeth past the difficulties - until this year.

Over the past few months, Wyeth has suffered one setback after another trying to get new drugs approved by the FDA. There were also severe and long-running quality control problems at a manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico, which was finally resolved a few months ago. Poussot, who joined Wyeth in 1986, was the No. 2 exec during this whole stretch. So it will be interesting to see if he has any new ideas about transforming Wyeth - or if he’ll just sell the company. Who would be interested?

Wyeth stock has dropped 23 percent in the last three months, following the approval setbacks. And except for a few months earlier this year, Wyeth shares have hovered in the mid-40s, which helps explain why the drugmaker also announced plans to expand its stock buyback to $5 billion and increased the dividend.

By the way, Poussot’s total compensation last year was about $14.4 million, while Essner pocketed $32.8 million, including options, according to the Wyeth proxy.