Heart Disease Fibromyalgia High Cholesterol Danger? Toxic Metals Free Radicals -- Primer IV Chelation Therapy Wrong Diet Causes Diabetes	Vibrant Life Home Web Family Of Three Oral Chelation Formulas The Wednesday Letter The Hubbard Human Detoxification Program Hopeless Diseases -- Invented to Sell Drugs Wrong Relationship Cause of Disease Brain Chemical Imbalance Dr. Garry F. Gordon	Ultimate Resource On Chelation Therapy Home Page Shopping Cart	Separate Search Page or search below
Prevent Cancer	Oral Chelation Therapy Other	Karl Loren's Policy On Psychiatric Drugs Destruction Of American Education	Write To Karl Loren	Table Of Contents

Merger Fulfills Hassan's Vow To Bring About a 'Powerhouse'

Source

July 15, 2002

U.S. BUSINESS NEWS

Merger Fulfills Hassan's Vow To Bring About a 'Powerhouse' By RON WINSLOW and GARDINER HARRIS Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL   The last time Fred Hassan was involved in a blockbuster drug-industry deal, he was decidedly on the defensive. Two and a half years ago, the Pharmacia Corp. chief executive officer had agreed to merge with Monsanto Co., and investors gave the announcement a Bronx cheer. Mr. Hassan stuck by his belief in the deal. "We are going to make this into a pharmaceutical powerhouse," he declared at the time of the acquisition. In agreeing to sell Pharmacia to Pfizer Inc. for $60 billion in stock, he has in a fashion delivered on this promise -- helping to create by far the world's largest drug company. And he has established himself as a successful industry-turnaround artist. "Fred Hassan has made a career out of taking broken pieces and putting them together and making them work," a person familiar with the deal said. For Mr. Hassan, the Pfizer offer represented a way for Pharmacia and its shareholders "to participate in the biggest, and the best and hopefully the fastest-growing company that could bring the most new products to market the soonest," this person said. It was through Monsanto's Searle unit that Mr. Hassan acquired the blockbuster arthritis drug Celebrex that both revived Pharmacia's financial performance and set up a relationship with Pfizer that ultimately led to the current transaction. But Mr. Hassan has never made a secret of his desire to continue his deal-making. Almost as soon as the ink was dry on the Monsanto merger, he began talking openly of yet another deal. The object of his desires: Wyeth, where he spent years as a senior executive. In private conversations, Mr. Hassan often said he would love to merge Pharmacia with his old company. When Wyeth -- then known as American Home Products Corp. -- lost out to Pfizer in its bid to acquire Warner-Lambert Co., Mr. Hassan seemed poised to step in as a rebound suitor. It didn't happen. Through a mixture of luck and good science, Wyeth has recovered and no longer needs a partner. So Mr. Hassan had to look elsewhere to build the behemoth he has envisioned much of his career. Going with Pfizer, he has agreed to surrender control of his company: Pfizer's Henry McKinnell will remain as chairman and CEO. Mr. Hassan will be vice chairman. Pfizer to Buy Pharmacia1   When Mr. Hassan left a top post at AHP in 1997 to take the helm of Pharmacia, the company was known as Pharmacia & Upjohn and it was in deep trouble. Sales were declining and the company -- with operations in Sweden, Michigan and Italy -- was still reeling from the 1995 merger in which it was formed. Mr. Hassan persuaded the board to relocate the company's headquarters to the U.S., eased out recalcitrant executives and ordered up a list of experimental drugs in development. He cut several projects he didn't think would be clear winners in the marketplace and then set about trying to diversify the company's product line beyond Celebrex. Indeed, even before the Monsanto acquisition, Pharmacia acquired Sugen Inc. to bolster its cancer franchise, currently dominated by the chemotherapy agent Camptostar. Two years ago Mr. Hassan took direct control of Pharmacia's fierce battle to maintain Celebrex's dominance over Merck & Co.'s rival pill, Vioxx. Merck appeared to be on the verge of winning that war. Through a no-holds-barred negative campaign against Vioxx-and with a lucky break from a highly publicized study that suggested heart concerns with Vioxx but didn't suggest any with Celebrex, the Pharmacia product not only stayed on top of Vioxx but also is now pulling away again. As for the reason the Monsanto deal caused so much investor consternation? There wasn't a premium for investors, who also worried that Monsanto's agriculture business would be a drag on pharmaceutical business performance. Before any deal with Pfizer closes, Pharmacia is moving forward with plans to spin off the 83% of Monsanto it still owns. -- Scott Hensley contributed to this article. Write to Ron Winslow at ron.winslow@wsj.com2 and Gardiner Harris at gardiner.harris@wsj.com3 URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1026694122307713440.djm,00.html   Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1026684057282753560,00.html (2) mailto:ron.winslow@wsj.com (3) mailto:gardiner.harris@wsj.com Updated July 15, 2002

SUBSCRIBE:  The Wednesday Letter is a free electronic monthly newsletter written and published by Karl Loren.  You can view more than 50 back issues of this publication by clicking here.  The Wednesday Letter subscription list is maintained on a secure server, no name is ever given or sold to anyone, and it is never used except for this Newsletter.  It is automatically published on the Tuesday night just before the first Wednesday of every month.  You can subscribe to this free monthly electronic letter by entering your eMail address and name below.  You will then automatically receive a request for confirmation, sent to whatever address you have entered.  If you do NOT receive this confirmation request, then you will not be subscribed.  There may have been an error with your address and you should resubmit.  The letter is never sent twice to the same address -- so you do not have to worry about a duplicate subscription.  When you receive this confirmation request you must reply to it, or your subscription will not become active.  No one can subscribe your name, and address, without you being notified, and if you get an unwanted notice of subscription you only need to DO NOTHING and the subscription will NOT be active.

REMOVAL:  You can remove yourself from the subscription list in several different ways.  Click here to read about this entire newsletter system.  Every edition of The Wednesday Letter is delivered to your address with YOUR name and address in view on the letter, with a link that allows you to remove THAT name from the subscription list.  If you try to send this removal message from an address different from the one you used to send in your original confirmation, then you will get a warning notice first, sent to the subscription address, asking you to confirm that you want to be removed from the list -- by replying to THAT request for confirmation, you will then be automatically removed.  Thus, no one else can unsubscribe you, from some other computer, without your knowledge.  But, if you send in the unsubscribe notice from the same machine used to receive the Letter, then the removal from the subscription list is automatic.

Personal Message:  When you send a personal message to Karl Loren, you will receive a personal reply as per his instructions.  Karl pledges that every personal message will get a personal answer. When you provide your mail address, we will send you free information including our free catalog and a cassette tape lecture by Karl Loren about heart disease, no charge, by mail, even if outside the US.  You can select particular information you would like to receive, along with the free cassette tape and catalog.

You can reach Vibrant Life in many ways, including by mail to Vibrant Life, 2808 N. Naomi St., Burbank, CA 91504.  Within the US and Canada, use the toll free number:  (800) 523-4521, the local number:  (818) 558-1799, the FAX:  (818) 558-7299, eMail to kimberly@oralchelation.com or any one of the hundreds of message forms throughout the 50 web sites.  Vibrant Life normally ships the same day we get an order.  There are message forms on each of the 100,000+ pages on this and other sites where you can communicate with Vibrant Life.  Check out our companion site, at:  http://www.oralchelation.net where Karl's 2000 page book is published.  Karl Loren is the author and webmaster for this BOOK, as well as for another web site about ORAL CHELATION.  His personal philosophical articles are at PHILOSOPHY. 

Copyright © May 20, 2008 6:24 AM by Karl Loren on behalf of Vibrant Life, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  Permission is granted for non-commercial downloading, copying, distribution or redistribution on two conditions:  One, that some form of copyright notice is included in every copy distributed or copied, showing the copyright belonging to Vibrant Life, Burbank, CA, at www.oralchelation.com . The second condition is that the material is not to be used for any purpose contrary to the purposes and objectives of this site.  This permission does not extend to materials on this site which are copyrighted by others.