Last week, you may recall, the Pfizer vice chairman announced his Dec. 31 retirement after a 31-year career, a good portion of which was spent as a cfo with considerable credibility on Wall Street. The decision, however, came a bit sooner than some expected. Granted, Pfizer’s latest cfo, Frank D’Amelio, just arrived to replace the last one, who departed in the spring, but the timing may have been nothing more than a matter of convenience for Shedlarz.

Apparently, his retirement was precipitated, in part, by other events inside the beleaguered drugmaker, according to sources. And these reflected key strategic decisions about Pfizer’s direction. One involved a debate earlier this year over whether to make a bid for for Biogen, which more recently put itself up for sale, and another was the way the recent Exubera debacle was handled, which wasn’t pretty. Pfizer spokespeople haven’t responded to several messages, so we couldn’t ask Shedlarz for official comment.

The Biogen debate occurred as Kindler & Co. looked at boosting revenue and moving into biotech quickly. At issue was whether Biogen could become an incubator and how such a purchase could be integrated, we are told. As already noted, Biogen isn’t a slam-dunk acquistion - revenue from its key drug, which generated 60 percent of sales, is projected to slow. And so that was one strike against a deal.

Another was how Biogen could be folded into Pfizer - should it become mostly integrated or allowed to stand alone, much as Genentech does from Roche? We are told that Shedlarz believed a separate framework could be achieved, but concerns among some board members ultimately nixed the idea. “They wanted a traditional vertically integrated company,” a source tells us. Now, of course, Biogen has gotten more expensive.

The other contributing factor was the way Pfizer handled the Exubera announcement - the drugmaker didn’t give Howard Robin, the ceo at Nektar Therapteutics, advance notice. Instead, he read it in the same press release as everyone else. We are told the move was a form of payback. Earlier this year, Robin criticized Pfizer’s marketing, both to analysts and, we are told, in private communications to Pfizer execs. And he’s been quite pointed, calling it one of “the worst performing products for a new launch.” Last May, for instance, Robin sounded off during a conference call, just four months after becoming the Nektar ceo:

“Has Pfizer done a great job? No, we know they haven’t. Will they start to do a great job? I believe they will. Now, if they don’t, are there options for us? There’s lots of options that we can consider if Pfizer’s performance doesn’t improve…We know the problem has been a lack of marketing. The problem is not with the product. The product is actually quite excellent…We are extremely aggressive in how we behave with any of our collaborators, including Pfizer.”

What has this to do with Shedlarz? As vice chairman, his portfolio includes business development. No Pfizer exec was happy with the product’s progress, but how does one develop new business if old partners are going to be treated shabbily? Robin may have rubbed some people the wrong way, but the Exubera announcement left Shedlarz with a bad hand to play. Of course, walking away with an estimated $43 million isn’t a bad consolation prize.