Pfizer: A sudden change at the top
Pfizer Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Kindler resigned unexpectedly this week, citing the “extremely demanding” nature of his job, said Simon Kennedy and Sarah Turner in Marketwatch.com. Ian Read, 57, a 32-year veteran of the company who heads the drugmaker’s global biopharmaceutical operations, will succeed him. Kindler, 55, faced a daunting set of challenges when he became CEO in 2006, including “big changes to the health-care marketplace and the upcoming expiration of major patents, including blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor,” one of the world’s best-selling drugs. He spearheaded last year’s $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth “in part to compensate for Lipitor’s loss.”
The sudden announcement of Kindler’s departure—on a Sunday night, no less—“was suspicious,” said Linda Johnson in the Associated Press. Analysts say Pfizer’s board fielded complaints from institutional investors “frustrated” by Pfizer’s stock price, which is down some 30 percent since Kindler became CEO. “This is probably a wake-up call for every other CEO that thinks they can buy their way out of a problematic health-care market,” said Steve Brozak, an analyst with WBB Securities.
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