TRENTON, N.J. - Schering-Plough Corp.'s chief executive told shareholders Friday the company remains on track five years into his rebuilding program, with a wider range of products and more drugs in late-stage development.
CEO Fred Hassan said sales have risen by US$6.6 billion in four years, to about $12.7 billion. That includes revenues from Organon BiosSciences, a big biotech firm acquired last year that made the combined company a world leader in women's and animal health products.
Schering-Plough, based in Kenilworth, N.J., now has- experimental drugs in final human testing, up from five in 2003, he noted.
But Hassan, speaking at the annual shareholder's meeting, said the business has been affected by negative reports about a study of key cholesterol drugs it jointly markets with partner Merck & Co.
The study found their pricey combination cholesterol drug Vytorin was no better at preventing artery clogging than a cheap generic, and the long delay in the study's release has led to multiple probes by congressional committees and state and federal investigators.
Last month, Hassan announced another major restructuring - to cut about 10 per cent of jobs and $1.5 billion in annual costs - after the Vytorin flap started cutting into sales.
When Hassan took over in spring 2003, the company was in big trouble, with profits and the stock price down and federal regulators ordering it to pay a huge fine and clean up and upgrade its manufacturing plants. The prior CEO had been forced out amid those problems and the loss of most revenues from then-blockbuster allergy pill Claritin, which had brought in about a third of total revenues until it became available in non-prescription form.
"We resolved to never again become aligned to a single product like Claritin," Hassan told the shareholders.
He said Schering-Plough now gets more than 20 per cent of its revenues from consumer and animal health products, and only about 12 per cent of revenues from its cholesterol franchise.
The meeting was held in Memphis, Tenn., where the company has the research and development centre for its consumer health business, which makes Claritin, Dr. Scholl's foot products and the Coppertone sun care line.
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