Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla is in a tough spot as activist investor Starboard Value continues to call for a change in the company’s leadership. However, analysts are supportive of the embattled executive.

Activist investor Starboard Value is baring its teeth at Pfizer management, more openly going after CEO Albert Bourla’s job.

Starboard has called on Pfizer’s board to “hold management accountable” for what the hedge fund described as poor revenue returns on investments in R&D and M&A, according to a new presentation (PDF) for the 13D Monitor Active-Passive Investor Summit in New York.

From Southwest Airlines to Disney and JetBlue, activist investors have been increasingly willing to attempt a corporate coup. Pharma giants are also feeling the squeeze. Pfizer this month has been fending off the hedge fund Starboard Value, which took a $1 billion stake in the company during its post-pandemic slump.

Activist investor Starboard Value, which picked up a $1 billion stake in Pfizer earlier this month, now reportedly has Johnson & Johnson’s consumer health spinout Kenvue in its sights.

It’s likely all over but for the shareholder vote and regulatory approvals now.

After Bristol-Myers Squibb’s largest shareholder startled Wall Street with its outright opposition to the big Celgene buyout, the activists at Starboard Value helped make it interesting with their own intense — but short-lived — campaign to squelch the deal.

Bristol-Myers Squibb execs and Starboard Value are back at it today, exchanging broadsides for and against the $74 billion buyout.

Activist investor Jeff Smith inserted himself into the M&A dance between Bristol-Myers Squibb and Celgene at the beginning of this month, when Bloomberg reported that his hedge fund, Starboard Value, had invested an unknown amount of cash into the pharma giant. And now Starboard is making a move on Bristol-Myers’ board, stoking fresh speculation about his intentions regarding the $74 billion buyout.

Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP has asked a proxy solicitor to probe the level of support among Bristol-Myers Squibb Co shareholders for the U.S. drug maker's $74 billion deal to buy Celgene Corp, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.

Activist hedge fund Starboard Value is “certainly interested in the story at Bristol-Myers,” according to its leader. But that doesn’t mean it’s getting involved.

As Starboard’s CEO, Jeff Smith, told CNBC on Tuesday, Bristol-Myers Squibb “might fit” the profile of a company on which Starboard thinks it can have a positive impact. But “it might not fit that profile. We haven’t made that decision,” he said.

Starboard Value has taken a stake in Bristol-Myers Squibb, the pharmaceutical giant that agreed to acquire Celgene Corp. in a record $74 billion deal last month, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The size of the stake and any plans that Jeff Smith’s activist hedge fund might have for its investment in the $81 billion drugmaker couldn’t immediately be learned.