Anyone who truly knows Mohand Sidi Said not only knows the results that he acheived but also how they were achieved. Shame on Pfizer and its Board of Directors.

To call these leaders “Ian’s posse,” by the way, is hard to support with facts. Olivier Brandicourt came from Warner-Lambert and was hired at Pfizer by Mohand Sidi-Said, one of the Pfizer leaders who produced the great results in the 90s that PYL refers to. Pedro Lichtinger came from SmithKline’s animal health business and never worked in human pharmaceuticals until Jeff and Ian brought him into that business two years ago. Dave Simmons used to be in the steel industry before producing an outstanding record in Pfizer’s international business. Jean-Michel Halfon originally joined Pfizer 30 years ago but left and worked for Merck before returning to Pfizer years later. And Garry Nicholson just joined Pfizer from Eli Lilly earlier this year.

Lastly, it seems PYL has missed the fact that our Worldwide Research and Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center remain wholly independent of our commercial organization. It is only after these research organizations have produced a compound proven to work in early stage development that the decision to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in late-stage trials shifts to business unit leaders. These leaders will have to live with the results of those decisions once the compound reaches the market. This shift means that the people responsible for deciding how much to invest in expensive late-stage trials also have the responsibility for selling the products those trials produce - medicines that patients need. I would suggest those new medicines, and the patients that they help, be the measure by which we are evaluated.

Michael Hubert
Pfizer

When he led Eastern Eurpope for Pfizer (Human), Alaix came as close as anybody has to being fired for not carefully hiding Pfizer’s illegal and unethical business practices, including multiple violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. A Read sidekick, he was hidden away in Animal Health where such practices are more accepted and don’t often involve foreign government officials.

Brandicourt talks a good game when Read is not present, leading observers to believe that he is ethical, however he is yet another person in Ian’s presence. Survival, I guess.

Halfon is a dull bulb, a lap dog. That is the best I can say about him.

Henninger and Hill, representing Finance and Human Resources, are keepers of Ian’s secrets. They will stop at nothing to protect him and are summarily rewarded. I don’t know the whole story but I have it on good authority that they worked to support Hank McKinnell, Quentin Heim, Ben Valentini, Bob Brown, Jeff Kindler, Dudley Schleier, and others to bury part of of the Pfizer Japan leadership team for following senior management direction to bring that operation into legal (U.S. and Japan) compliance. I’ve heard that McKinnell was confident that they could continue as they had and didn’t want to risk losing business by reducing bribes and kickbacks, the natural course of business. I don’t know the individuals involved personally but I’m told that they were paid off and signed contracts not to disclose the facts. Shameful. The SEC and/or the Justice Department should investigate.

Some of the rest are the best of a sorry lot; others are good (e.g., Olsen, Simmons) and just hanging on too long. I don’t know Nicholson; I assume that he joined the company relatively recently without full information.

Peck by the way is the biggest joke of all. Totally over her head!

Bessie Braddock: “Sir, you are drunk.”
Churchill: Madam, you are ugly. But in the morning I shall be sober.”

Anyway, I think we’ve made our points.