March 4, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
The results are in and the BioSpace masses have spoken: Faheem Hasnain, chief executive officer of Receptos , officially has the Best Hair in BioPharma.
Of the 307 respondents polled, 41 percent said they believed Hasnain has the best hair, followed by 38 percent for Ron Cohen, president and CEO of Acorda ; 11 percent for John Elicker, senior vice president for public relations at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company ; and a scant 9 percent for Patrick Flanigan, vice president of investor relations at Celgene .
The competition for the title of Best Hair in Biopharma is an annual ongoing competition created by well-known biotech analyst Mark Schoenebaum from ISI Group Evercore. He most recently said “John Elicker‘s hair was simply incredible,” in a note to investors, adding, “Sorry Ron Cohen, but you’ve got some serious competition. Who do you think wins?”
The contest most recently had a new contestant at the end of January, after Hasnain was named as a top contender for the prize.
“[When it comes to Hasnain] revel in the beauty of his coiffure (try not to be distracted by the shine from his perfect teeth or the awesome coolness of his open collar),” said Schoenebaum in a note on Jan. 21.
Still, Schoenebaum has long said that Hasnain’s chances are “increasingly competitive”
Flanigan was the previous entrant prior to Hasnain and Schoenebaum was specific about how solid his front-runner status could be if certain measures were taken cosmetically.
“As was widely expected by the Street, Patrick’s hair was beautifully coiffured,” wrote Schoenebaum in a note to investors in December. However, Flanigan could up his chances by using styling products, estimated the analyst.
“Interestingly, I was able to confirm that he, indeed, uses no product,” he said. “The Street is likely to increase Patrick’s chances of winning my ‘best hair’ award should he initiate product use.”
The majority of the 307 respondents in last week’s poll were from the United States, with 92 percent of the 309 participants based in America. The rest hailed from a host of countries including Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore, Sweden, Austria, Turkey, Denmark, Australia, Romania, Vietnam, South Africa, The Philippines, Thailand, Spain, Aruba, Greece, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Two percent of respondents declined to identify their country of domicile.
For states, California led the pack, with 38 percent of the poll’s respondents based in that state. New Jersey followed with 15 percent, then New York at 10 percent. The rest were distributed throughout the U.S.
BioSpace Temperature Poll
Last week controversy erupted over the compensation package for Sanofi’s new CEO, Olivier Brandicourt, with several French government officials decrying the amount, calling it “incomprehensible.” Brandicourt could walk off with as much as $4.5 million in a “golden handshake” payment in addition to making $4.76 million a year. That base figure is comprised by a fixed annual salary of $1.36 million a year, which is supplemented by a performance-related bonus of between 150 to 250 percent, as well as stock options and performance shares.
So BioSpace wants your opinion, what do you think?
