When Sanofi-Aventis' new CEO Chris Viehbacher (photo) took the center stage earlier this week to discuss his plans for small and mid-sized acquisitions, he also had a few comments to make on prospective cuts in the company's R&D ops. Nature's blog notes that Viehbacher compared dropping an R&D program to make way for a biotech acquisition to turning his back on one of his own children.
"I love my children better than my nieces and nephews. It's a fact of life," he said. "You can never get far from human emotion, and that's what makes R&D a tricky exercise."
Former NIH chief Elias Zerhouni has been brought on to help Viehbacher undertake a pipeline review. And there's likely to be considerable anxiety in Sanofi's R&D arm after Viehbacher agreed that the pharma giant's pipeline is overstuffed and unfocused. Ouch.
Over at the WSJ's Health Blog, meanwhile, the writers are fixated by the possibility of a bid by Sanofi to acquire Biogen Idec. A takeover would not only give Sanofi its much-needed entry into the biologics world, it would also open the door to the whole R&D scene in the U.S.
- check out the report from Nature
- read the story from the Wall Street Journal