December 14, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
NEW YORK –It’s the time of year that Old Saint Nick brings cheer to the world, but The Street’s Adam Feuerstein is playing the role of Krampus this year by taking several biotech and pharma leaders to the proverbial woodshed.
Feuerstein continues his seven-year history of calling out company leaders for poor management or “executive misbehavior,” as he termed it. This morning Feuerstein laid out his picks for the worst pharma industry chief executive officers in his latest column. Some of the names are not surprising, given the bad news that has followed certain companies this year, like Insys Therapeutics , Valeant Pharmaceuticals and, of course, Theranos.
1. Elizabeth Holmes, Theranos
The founder and CEO of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes has been knocked around plenty this past year, a trend that will likely continue into 2017. But, Holmes has seemed to have dismissed and ignored any criticism aimed at her leadership and the failings of the biotech that was once valued at $9 billion. Holmes is the first female CEO to make Feuerstein’s list. While Feuerstein typically calls out leadership in publicly-held companies, he said Holmes’ poor leadership and lack of humility was reason enough to put her on the list. In fact, he named her the worst CEO of 2016 due to her “loathsome mix of arrogance, incompetence and duplicity.” BioSpace has documented Theranos’ fall from grace—a fall that started in 2015, continued throughout this year and will certainly continue into 2017 as the company faces a number of lawsuits.
“Holmes’ performance as CEO of Theranos was so irredeemably atrocious that it couldn’t be contained within a single calendar year,” Feuerstein said.
2. Michael Pearson and Joe Papa, Valeant Pharmaceuticals
Coming in at second place are the two men who helmed embattled Valeant Pharmaceuticals this year. Pearson was named Feuerstein’s worst CEO in 2015. Feuerstein said Pearson continued that trend running Valeant into the ground until he was fired and replaced by Papa earlier this year. But, Papa has not done much better, Feuerstein said. He said the stock price of the company continued to fall and the core business units are deteriorating. Those same units will likely have to be sold off to meet debt obligations, he added.
3. Tim Wentworth, Express Scripts
Feuerstein does not mince words when it comes to the CEO of Express Scripts. Feuerstein compared the drug negotiating practices by demanding rebates of Express Scripts to the Mafia’s seeking protection money. He said a large portion of the rebates are pocketed by the company and actually contributes to price increases of prescription drugs, rather than a reduction. “When a mobster demands and receives protection money from a local business owner, it’s extortion. When a PBM demands and receives a rebate from a drug manufacturer, it’s perfectly legal and hailed as a victory against rising drug costs,” Feuerstein said.
4. John Kapoor, Insys Therapeutics
John Kapoor—Insys Therapeutics has been under intense scrutiny due to the sales tactics used for its opioid pain medication, Subsys. Several company officials and former company officials have been indicted in kickbacks schemes to allegedly entice doctors to prescribe the pain medication beyond its use for cancer patients. Kapoor, the founder and chairman of Insys, has helmed the company since last year after former CEO Michael Babich resigned before being indicted by the federal government over the kickback allegations. While Kapoor has not been charged with any crimes, it’s his defense of company practices that placed him in Feuerstein’s cross-hairs. He cited a quote by Kapoor that dismissed the indictments to “some issues with DOJ,” but ultimately downplayed the indictments and allegations that the scheme has done more to expand the problems of opioid addiction.
Although not included on his list, Feuerstein included some honorable mentions, such as Chris Anzalone, CEO of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals , who shut down the company’s pipeline to “start over from scratch.” Also, he tagged Eddie Gray of Dynavax for “hiding FDA concerns about the company’s hepatitis B vaccine from shareholders before the vaccine was rejected.” Hans Bishop, CEO of Juno Therapeutics also made his honorable mention list for having two clinical holds on a single clinical trial.
