AbbVie Science Chief to Retire With No Successor in Place

[Anonymous]

Wow....

 

[Anonymous]

AbbVie Inc. long-time head of research will retire from the drugmaker, leaving the newly spun off company without a leader for its efforts to develop new medicines and buttress its future prospects.

Chief Scientific Officer John Leonard, 55, will retire in the next few months, North Chicago, Illinois-based AbbVie said today in regulatory filing. The company didn’t name a successor to Leonard, who has been with AbbVie and its parent, Abbott Laboratories (ABT) for about 21 years.

The drug company has been trying to diversify its products past Humira, a rheumatoid arthritis injection that sold $9.27 billion last year and made up 50 percent of sales. One top product, a kidney drug called bardoxolone methyl, failed in final-stage clinical trials last year. Another treatment for the viral infection hepatitis C is in the last stage of testing.

Leonard “will be involved in the transition process for naming his successor,” the company said in the filing. AbbVie split from Abbott at the beginning of this year in a move to let each company focus on its core product lines of drugs and medical devices, respectively.

Jennifer Smoter, a spokeswoman for AbbVie, declined to elaborate further on Leonard’s departure. “We will announce future organizational plans at a later date,” she said in an e-mail.

 

[Anonymous]

This is when you know the end is near. Really only 55 and retiring? I'm sure this person is well compensated. The only reasons you would retire from such a high paying position is that you know the bottom is about to fall out of this company and you want to lock in your retirement, or you have health concerns and have to quit. Which one is it? My guess its the first reason.
. Maybe he is faking a diagnisis of cancer like little ricky did? I smell a rat!

 

[Anonymous]

This is when you know the end is near. Really only 55 and retiring? I'm sure this person is well compensated. The only reasons you would retire from such a high paying position is that you know the bottom is about to fall out of this company and you want to lock in your retirement, or you have health concerns and have to quit. Which one is it? My guess its the first reason.
. Maybe he is faking a diagnisis of cancer like little ricky did? I smell a rat!

This is no suprise, abbvie continues abbotts tradition of being unable to bring anything to market. This company runs on Humira ( someone elses drug) Androgel (someone elses drug) etc. Even CC which will be shut down in June, was and is running on other companies drugs ( Niaspan/Trilipix ) Simcor really cant be called a abbott discovery. So this is no suprise. Abbv was meant to be split off then trimmed so lean to milk it out over a few more years then dissolve it, sell it, etc Only reason to do so. Nobody can expain the need to split the pharma company out of the Parent company for any other reason.

 

[Anonymous]

Or maybe he is being forced out for not bringing a single new drug across the finish line.
Ricky put him on a PIP.

 

[Anonymous]

Or maybe he is being forced out for not bringing a single new drug across the finish line.
Ricky put him on a PIP.

Or, Maybe they found out he didnt have the education He claimed to have, and did the right thing..oh shit, forget that....Who knows

 

[Anonymous]

Or maybe he is being forced out for not bringing a single new drug across the finish line.
Ricky put him on a PIP.

Or maybe they found out how cozy he seemed to be with the Feds? There was some reason he was making almost as much as ole Rick here at AbbVie. Nah, they can't be goin' all ethical on us suddenly, could they? No, maybe he just got caught and they don't like fools that get caught.

 

[Anonymous]

1 billion f@#& up of bardoxolone to talk about the latest no wonder... it's about time to keep people responsible for the failures...Good job RG now you need to do more cleaning

 

[Anonymous]

Agree, Leonard never put anything over the finish line, nothing but drug failures. We need to bring in Jeff Leiden to do massive house cleaning in R&D! Better yet, just have the pipeline filled with acquisitions and dump internal R&D! Informed Abbvie Employees Union

 

[Anonymous]

This is no suprise, abbvie continues abbotts tradition of being unable to bring anything to market. This company runs on Humira ( someone elses drug) Androgel (someone elses drug) etc. Even CC which will be shut down in June, was and is running on other companies drugs ( Niaspan/Trilipix ) Simcor really cant be called a abbott discovery. So this is no suprise. Abbv was meant to be split off then trimmed so lean to milk it out over a few more years then dissolve it, sell it, etc Only reason to do so. Nobody can expain the need to split the pharma company out of the Parent company for any other reason.

One big reason is that now Abbott can fully compete in the growing generic market and cannibalize all the drugs it purchased from other companies. As always, just a drug brokering company.

 

[Anonymous]

Agree, Leonard never put anything over the finish line, nothing but drug failures. We need to bring in Jeff Leiden to do massive house cleaning in R&D! Better yet, just have the pipeline filled with acquisitions and dump internal R&D! Informed Abbvie Employees Union

Quit picking on R&D!! Our IQs are at least double that of sales reps!

 

[Anonymous]

Quit picking on R&D!! Our IQs are at least double that of sales reps!

Ha, ha, ha, ha! You're so funny

 

[Anonymous]

Quit picking on R&D!! Our IQs are at least double that of sales reps!

Your IQs may be high, but you still just sit on your fat asses all day and accumblish nothing.

 

[Anonymous]

Agree, Leonard never put anything over the finish line, nothing but drug failures. We need to bring in Jeff Leiden to do massive house cleaning in R&D! Better yet, just have the pipeline filled with acquisitions and dump internal R&D! Informed Abbvie Employees Union

Leiden is already the CEO of Vertex. That ship sailed.

Maybe in this atmosphere of accountability, Rick held Leonard accountable for all the failures the last several years...

 

[Anonymous]

R&D is filled with people that work from 9 till 2 only. Trust me, i know it.

 

[Anonymous]

I've got to get me one of those R&D jobs. The one I have at Abbvie has me there from 7 am to 6 pm. With a bunch of other R&Ders working those hours as well...

 

[Anonymous]

I've got to get me one of those R&D jobs. The one I have at Abbvie has me there from 7 am to 6 pm. With a bunch of other R&Ders working those hours as well...

It doesn't matter how much you guys work or how smart you guys think you are. End products are all that matter, and hands down AbbVie R&D is the least productive group in the entire industry. There is something very wrong with you guys, and your own failure to admit this is a major part of the problem.

 

[Anonymous]

Is this fella also responsible for Tarka 1/240 mg?

 

[Anonymous]

The most damaging was the failure of at least four Phase III compounds under his watch. Just unacceptable by our industry norms. Major failure by Abbott/Abbvie leadership to keep him around for so long

 

[Anonymous]

yep