“Perhaps the timing caught some of you by surprise because we didn’t engage in the drama of a public horse race for succession that some of our competitors have been involved in,” Wyeth CEO and short-timer Robert Essner told analysts this morning during an earnings call.
He was comparing his company’s decision to name Bernard Poussot as Essner’s replacement with the recent high-profile bake-offs at GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer. Despite the lack of public fanfare, Essner said, the selection process started five years ago and “involved a thorough and long-term evaluation of the character, track record, and potential of several candidates,” according to a transcript of the call from Thomson Financial.
Poussot himself spoke on the call, suggesting a recent loss in a legal fight over the company’s heartburn drug Protonix doesn’t mean the company is in immediate risk of generic competition. “For the time being we see no commercial activity on this front,” Dow Jones Newswires reports.
Some observers had speculated that Wyeth might settle with Teva and Sun, the generics companies Wyeth is fighting in the case. But Poussot’s comments indicate Wyeth may be in no hurry to settle.
His remarks came as the company announced third-quarter earnings. Revenue was up compared with the year-earlier period, but earnings were down because of special charges that included closing a factory.
The earnings were yet another sign that vaccines and biologicals are where the growth is in the industry. Sales of Wyeth’s vaccine Prevnar rose 24%. And sales of Enbrel, a biotech drug for arthritis and other conditions that Wyeth co-markets with Amgen, were up 39%.
