Pharmaceutical Executive-01-01-2003

The federal government's enforcement juggernaut rolls on-and the pharmaceutical industry is squarely within its sights. In recent years, the industry has paid close to a billion dollars in fines, civil settlements, and penalties.

Don't try this at home. That ought to be the common lesson we draw from most examples of pharma's current performance in the public arena.

Years ago, a cereal maker ran a commercial in which children who'd eaten oatmeal for breakfast floated to school, snug in a protective bubble of warmth. Today, the same imagery comes to mind with respect to the country's 85,000 pharmaceutical salespeople.

Fifty years ago, Watson and Crick changed the world by discovering the structure and function of DNA. Twenty-five years ago, Biogen opened its doors as one of the world's first global biotechnology companies. Thirteen years ago, James Mullen joined the company as director of facilities engineering and seven years later was promoted to international vice-president. Four years after that, in June, 2000, Biogen appointed Mullen president and CEO, and-in an uncanny continuation of its half-life evolution-named him chairman of the board after James Vincent vacated that seat midway through 2002.

New dynamics are forcing the industry's human resource departments to rethink their operational game plans. The drivers-consolidation, globalization, scientific advances, public policy, and competition-have pushed HR leaders into new territory to address business needs.

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