I always thought BW was a good company -- good people, intelligence and good products. Yet, the sum of all of those things didn't make a difference in the end. What was it that BW did, did not do or should have done to avert the end game they expereinced? Sir John Rob likely didn't give a damn other than to get the company sold and get a parachute. Did the Foundation not want the hassle and angst of competing in a global business? What was it?
Robb wasn't consulted. Glaxo went straight to the Foundation, who were duty bound by their charter to get the most money they could to fund the medical charity. Sadly it all went very wrong for us old Wellcomoids, the Glaxons won....but look at what they created, sad, very sad indeed
It was a great company but by its design, a company owned by a charitable research trust, would not allow it to survive in the business climate of the past decade
In my opinion, BW failed because of a few major but strategic errors in judgement. Think back and look at all the resources (Time, money, etc.) which were expended on Tracrium and other NMBs. If I'm not mistaken, at that time, the TOTAL NMB market was worth about $150 to $200 million. On the other hand, we vastly under-funded Wellbutrin. How much was THAT market worth at the time? Around $2 billion maybe? I agree that BW was well known for its research; however, what did they produce? Pedro Cuatrecassas (sp?) was a dismal failure. Really, when you think about, what did D&D produce after Hitchings and Elion stepped down?
Good science falling in the forest. No real grasp of the Industry or marketing. Just take the case of Bupropion. Languishing on the shelf at barely $50 mm a year. No interest in pursuing the smoking claim. Ended up as a billion dollar product with two very successful follow-on products. The egg heads of BW would have just let it rot and die.
Some satirical observations on the failure of BW were recently made <a href="http://pharmagiles.blogspot.com/2010/12/gsk-christmas-carol-continued_18.html">here</a>...
Who said BW had no good products? Wellbutrin turned out to be a great product as did Lamictal. What BW lacked was a good marketing department. Once Glaxo bought BW they realized what good products they had bought and turned both into $2 Billion+ products. It all turned to crap when the merger with SKB occurred.
In the end, the end came about because the board members of the Wellcome Trust were not convinced that BW Co. was best source for their investments and ROI. Glaxo convinced them that they could generate a better return by taking the cash and invensting elsewhere. They just did not see stability and continued returns in BW. The decision was not a bad one---the Wellcome Foundation remains the largest charitable medical trust in the world.
