Huge changes at AAIPharma since 10/10

AAIPharma has gone thru huge changes in the last three months. Wter Street, the owners of AAI brought in the guys from Irvine Analytical - Pat Welsh, Tim Martin, Rob Goshert, Philip Maitre, etc to run the show. They then forced out were 1/2 of the sales team, the former CEO, the heads of solid and sterile manufacturing, the head of formulation and head of HR. Many are nervous about their jobs. I am sure other heads will roll....

 

I hear that they are getting the company ready to be sold to PPD which is also located by AAI's headquarters. Looks like WaterStreet lost it nerve in running this business. They should stick to what they know, businesses that care for old people....

 

Sterile Manufacturing Side of the Business

On the sterile side of the business, Kevin O'loughlin has ran off much of the talent in Manufacturing. Not only that the processing equipment including the sterilizer, lyophilizer, filling machine and depyrogenation oven are all running on a prayer. The long term capital plan originally had this equipment scheduled to be replaced in 08 but upper management from pre rift and now post rift continue to ignore the ongoing equipment problems. Instead making operators work long hours to make up for lost autoclave and depyrogenation loads. And anyone with common sense know what happens when your operators are over worked in the sterile manufacturing business......more mistakes and more lost batches. This leads Mr. O'loughlin to start finger pointing and placing the blame on the operators which creates a negative work environment.

These equipment problems have operator morale at a all time low. This has led to high turnover rates among operators which is not a good thing in the sterile manufacturing business.

 

I Interviewed with the company but word in the bd market is that management is holding, commissions, ops personnel are being forced out and blamed for everything, others are just leaving due to over loaded in order to support departures workloads, thus a brain drain and clients are looking elsewhere.

 

Re: Sterile Manufacturing Side of the Business

aaiPharma management must have taken notice. Word on the street is that Mr. Oloughlin has been moved back to Quality. Now they are relying on the director of technical services to go in and fix all of Mr. Oloughlin's mistakes in Manufacturing. It maybe to little to late. In the mean time the head compounder has been let go. I hear that FJ was really good with the clients and did a good job compounding. Every move management makes is in question by those who serve them.

 

Continued FEAR at AAIPharma

No one know from one day to the next what is going on. Pat Walsh seems to make changes for no reason. My colleagues live in fear about their jobs. Imagine what that is like to work under! I hear the the CFO that joined in 2010 just quit in disgust, but we aren't told anything. The sterile plant was run great until Walsh fired Glen Jennings.

The one thing this company was know for - Quality - has gone out the window. Chris Smith had an incredible reputation and NEVER let quality slip. Now who knows.....What's going on?

Having been a long term employee, this place had its challanges, but was getting better before the new management. This company is being run by incompetents! Didn't they come from another place that had a terrible reputation?

 

I guess Paul worked at Irvine too... Hope the new team does as well as they did at Irvine. How many does that make from Irvine? 6? 7? BTW How many have actually purchased a home in Wilmington?

IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 9 Irvine Pharmaceutical Services, Inc., announced today the addition of Muhammad Asif, Ph.D., and Paul Maffuid, Ph.D., to its staff. Dr. Asif was named Director of Analytical Development, and Dr. Maffuid, Senior Vice President of Operations.

Read more: New Hires to Boost Client Services at Irvine Pharmaceutical Services http://www.medindia.net/health-press-release/New-Hires-to-Boost-Client-Services-at-Irvine-Pharmaceutical-Services-34993-1.htm#ixzz1NIow9CiG

 

This company is the next Azopharma.

Current management has driven off or fired much of the talent, what is left are the people who have no where else to go.

To call them the "Worst management team ever" would be a compliment.

 

With the departure of George Spanos I can only wonder what AAI's clients are thinking. They can't be happy.

It makes you wonder how much more damage Waterstreet will let the current management do before they put an end to this.

 

Re: Continued changes at AAIPharma since 10/11

Well this place continues its downward slide! More decent management has left. Chris Smith is no longer in charge of quality, so expect a rapid decline as they cut costs to cover falling revenue. Can you say 483's? BE FOREWARNED, you place your work here at great risk!!

The CEO (Pat Walsh) has brought in all his cronies and they continue to squeeze out anyone with a brain. What Ludo Reynders tried but couldn't destroy, Pat Walsh has succeeded! STUPID, STUPID Water Street Healthcare Partner (WSHP)!!!! WSHP has been shopping the sale of AAIPharma and no one will touch AAI anymore. In just over 1 year, Walsh has devastated what took 30 years to build. What a POMPOUS ASSHOLE!!!

 

Maybe Fred will buy the place?

It is a shame that Waterstreet let Pat drive off all of the department heads.

So far the heads of Solid Dosage Manufacturing (Richard Greene), Sterile Manufacturing (Glenn Jennings), Analytical (George Spanos), Biotech (William Bakewell), HR (Robbie Smith), Finance (Phillipe Matrie), IT (Eli Bianchi), Metrology (Rob Dawson), Facilities (Karl Yeager and Brian Dineen), Quality (Chris Smith) and many other senior people have left.

What Walsh does not understand is that the people who ran the labs ARE the business and that his pals are not an adequate substitute for the talent that he drove away. I am sure the clients are very worried about their studies.

 

Re: Poke AAIPharma with a folk! American Pie

I called to confirm and YES all these folks are gone. AMAZING!!! The only group untouched has been Formulation, but they are out looking for jobs too... BYE BYE AAIPHARMA

Reminds me of the song - BYE BYE MISS AMERICAN PIE:

A long long time ago
I can still remember how
AAI used to make me smile
And I knew with Lee Karras in-charge
That he could make those people dance
And maybe A A I be great again

But Pat Walsh made me shiver
With every asshole he'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
The revolvin' door kept a spinin'

And I remember that I cried
As more assholes came inside
And fear gripped the "mice" left behind
**The day that AAI died**
So

[Chorus]
Bye, bye A A I Pharm
Tried some workin, but not workin when idiots do harm
Pat's good ole boys were drinking whiskey in Rye
Singin' we'll bleed Water Street Dry
Singin' friends and I will bleed them dry

 

The news is a large Lab expansion with one of Pat Walsh's cronnies Ralph Varrato at the wheel.

http://www.judgeyvettekane.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Motion-to-Dismiss.pdf

This company still continues not to do their home work. Past lessons from the likes of Dave Hurley did not teach them anything.

 

Waterstreet can't make any changes now, it is too late. The damage is done. Waterstreet (Tim Dugan) is not going to admit that bringing in Pat Wash was a HUGE error.

And so AAIPharma ends "not with a bang but with a wimper".

There is nothing to sell but old equipment. The client base is destroyed along with AAI's reputation, there is no business left to sell.

Good job Pat.

I am sure you will tout what you did at AAI as a "success" when you start destrying the next company.

 

I think Walsh is trying but he does not get the real picture of whats going on with operations relayed back to him. His upper management team does not want to admit issues or have a good understanding of what is going on. It's much easier to point the finger and fire people, but they are running out of AAI old timers to fire and most of the new hires are not doing any better. Most will agree all groups are way too under staffed and just too many changes are going on at a rate most can not keep up with, much less trying to maintain the day to day work load. The attitude is perform or be terminated, yet there is very little direction on how to improve other than just make some changes and quickly. The new hires are coming in with an attitude that they can perform and then hit the famous "AAI wall" poor communications, personal agendas, under staffing, little to no training and NO funding to make needed changes.

Walsh has hired a few good people and some that are terrible. His current team needs some rethinking. Some have no ethics and or people skills to motivate or build a postive performing company.

VERY TENSE enviroment right now and the performance is showing.

 

Re: AAIPharma continues the downward slide

Pat know exactly what he is doing! Right from the start, he created the kingdom of fear! He runs around behind people's back and checks up on them. He quickly forms opinions (wrong ones mostly) and then belittles the person until they are chastised by others, making them ineffective. They either quit or Pat has them fired. Others are fearful and won't speak up. The only ones safe are his cronies. This place is TOXIC and it is a matter of time until the FDA 483s start. People under fear make mistakes...

Water Street (with Pat's help) got rid of the only Board member who knew about Pat's games (promoting friends, making up numbers, intimidation, etc) that held him accountable. The rest there (WSHP) are idiots for hiring this unethical SUIT. This will be a rare case of getting what they deserve....

 

Wow, AAI just bought two low end labs from Celsis. I guess they borrowed money to do that. Raw material testing is a low margin commodity business. In this tough economy you can bet Celsis has been struggling to make ends meet. I hope AAI got them cheap. To top it off the cost of doing business in NJ is really high, you have to pay even entry level people a higher salary. Bad idea, this is going to be an ugly ending for AAI.

 

I hear that AAIPharma Services just got some 483s. Can anyone confirm? Hasn't made it to the FDA website yet. I also hear that the revolving door continues - Firing and hiring making it appear that they are growing, but it just to replaces those who speak up and get fired. They tell their people to tell the outside world that AAIPharma Services is doing great so that Water Street will be able to sell them this year or next but the reality is continued sales decline being propped up by sales thru Celsis. Amazing how they can hang on with such BAD leadership...

 

We never got a 483 when Chris Smith was running QA. That is what happens when you fire or run off the talented people. It does not destroy the company right away; that happens slowly. The good customers fade away and we are left with crap.

 

We got a 483 years ago because Fred could not keep his mouth shut. Not too many people are left that remember that....or the Jack in the Box.

Wonder who will get fired?