Future of Lundbeck

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anonymous

Guest
Leadership at Lundbeck is inept. Neuro is a joke, JA and Peter were forced out because of this amateurish purchase and the skeleton crew that remains will most certainly run straight into a wall.
The efforts with Rexulti and agitation are being forced by Otsuka and will negligible results on revenue.

We serve as a contract organization for Takeda and Otsuka and that revenue will dry up soon, then our wanna be baseball player leader will be looking for a job like the rest of us. Management realizes this which is why we have no real home office support staff. If you have 2-3 years until retirement, ride it out. Otherwise better start looking.
 






When Stefan left years ago, that was the start of the brain drain. Others followed. Our neurology drugs were going great until they lost their patents. Our CEO was let go due to illegal stock transactions, and then Kare came in. I believe I have the timeline right. Kare immediately had a significant layoff. The pipeline began to fail as well, and has been an utter disaster ever since. Every single drug failed in the pipeline. R&D was a joke. We launched Trintellix with Takeda, I believe in January 2014. Then Otsuka came out with Rexulti and we were already selling Maintena with them. Both drugs are me-too.

Now, all that is left is Vyepti, Trintellix, AM, and Rexulti. All old, none unique. A pharmaceutical company’s life is tied to its pipeline. As long as we can squeeze enough money out of the 4 drugs we have, pay the bills, we can trudge along until the patents start disappearing, then it will be over. They think agitation will save Rexulti until it goes off patent. They are wrong. We will find out that docs that use atypicals for agitation have been using generics like Seroquel for years. Oh it will get some business, but how much is unknown.

The future at Lundbeck is dim, but I will stick around to see where it goes.
 












anonymous said:
When Stefan left years ago, that was the start of the brain drain. Others followed. Our neurology drugs were going great until they lost their patents. Our CEO was let go due to illegal stock transactions, and then Kare came in. I believe I have the timeline right. Kare immediately had a significant layoff. The pipeline began to fail as well, and has been an utter disaster ever since. Every single drug failed in the pipeline. R&D was a joke. We launched Trintellix with Takeda, I believe in January 2014. Then Otsuka came out with Rexulti and we were already selling Maintena with them. Both drugs are me-too.

Now, all that is left is Vyepti, Trintellix, AM, and Rexulti. All old, none unique. A pharmaceutical company’s life is tied to its pipeline. As long as we can squeeze enough money out of the 4 drugs we have, pay the bills, we can trudge along until the patents start disappearing, then it will be over. They think agitation will save Rexulti until it goes off patent. They are wrong. We will find out that docs that use atypicals for agitation have been using generics like Seroquel for years. Oh it will get some business, but how much is unknown.

The future at Lundbeck is dim, but I will stick around to see where it goes.
Click to expand...

Great summary! Unfortunately, very accurate too. I too remember Stefan, and talked with him at my first meeting. Very nice guy. Think he got pissed because he didn’t get the CEO job. He was definitely the first key man to leave. PA and JA did the best they could I guess, but there is just no way to motivate a sales force with the drugs we have. This is probably the most complacent, bored, dispassionate, unethical, poorly managed and checked out sales team I have every seen. If they think agitation is our savior, they are going to be very shocked.

You can’t think of Lundbeck as a place to stay until retirement. It’s just not that type of company. It’s good for awhile, but that’s it. I have just actively started looking and have resigned myself that I will be with several company until I am old enough to retire. C’est La Vie.
 












anonymous said:
When Stefan left years ago, that was the start of the brain drain. Others followed. Our neurology drugs were going great until they lost their patents. Our CEO was let go due to illegal stock transactions, and then Kare came in. I believe I have the timeline right. Kare immediately had a significant layoff. The pipeline began to fail as well, and has been an utter disaster ever since. Every single drug failed in the pipeline. R&D was a joke. We launched Trintellix with Takeda, I believe in January 2014. Then Otsuka came out with Rexulti and we were already selling Maintena with them. Both drugs are me-too.

Now, all that is left is Vyepti, Trintellix, AM, and Rexulti. All old, none unique. A pharmaceutical company’s life is tied to its pipeline. As long as we can squeeze enough money out of the 4 drugs we have, pay the bills, we can trudge along until the patents start disappearing, then it will be over. They think agitation will save Rexulti until it goes off patent. They are wrong. We will find out that docs that use atypicals for agitation have been using generics like Seroquel for years. Oh it will get some business, but how much is unknown.

The future at Lundbeck is dim, but I will stick around to see where it goes.
Click to expand...

This is accurate but you really need to go back to the days of Ovation, which was a rare disease company that Lundbeck acquired to have a footprint in the US to pedal things like lexapro and celexa instead of out-licensing them to places like Forest. Unfortunately they took a successful rare disease company with a good business model - and rather than pursue the success created by that model - stuck to what they knew, which is basically has been small molecules that are the dinosaurs of the biotech space. They thought that they could get fancy with an acquisition but the ovation leadership that bought Chelsea therapeutics (Northera) was gone and all that was left was incompetence.

After folks like Dan Brennan left the future of the US business went off course and what you see today is the result of that. Most people on the rare team left for more money a few years ago. The rest are people that got comfy and settled for a headache med or backfills posing as varsity players.
 


















anonymous said:
When Stefan left years ago, that was the start of the brain drain. Others followed. Our neurology drugs were going great until they lost their patents. Our CEO was let go due to illegal stock transactions, and then Kare came in. I believe I have the timeline right. Kare immediately had a significant layoff. The pipeline began to fail as well, and has been an utter disaster ever since. Every single drug failed in the pipeline. R&D was a joke. We launched Trintellix with Takeda, I believe in January 2014. Then Otsuka came out with Rexulti and we were already selling Maintena with them. Both drugs are me-too.

Now, all that is left is Vyepti, Trintellix, AM, and Rexulti. All old, none unique. A pharmaceutical company’s life is tied to its pipeline. As long as we can squeeze enough money out of the 4 drugs we have, pay the bills, we can trudge along until the patents start disappearing, then it will be over. They think agitation will save Rexulti until it goes off patent. They are wrong. We will find out that docs that use atypicals for agitation have been using generics like Seroquel for years. Oh it will get some business, but how much is unknown.

The future at Lundbeck is dim, but I will stick around to see where it goes.
Click to expand...

All true but we have the upcoming agitation indication for Rexulti! Docs are excited and can’t wait until we can promote it! They have never heard of using an atypical for agitation before! Our pipeline is full of secret projects, so secret you can’t find out about them anywhere! My guess is we will have multiple launches a year from now on!

Every night before I go to sleep, I put my little red starfish on my pillow to remind me of what we do. I can’t think of anything better than saving ocean life!
 












anonymous said:
When Stefan left years ago, that was the start of the brain drain. Others followed. Our neurology drugs were going great until they lost their patents. Our CEO was let go due to illegal stock transactions, and then Kare came in. I believe I have the timeline right. Kare immediately had a significant layoff. The pipeline began to fail as well, and has been an utter disaster ever since. Every single drug failed in the pipeline. R&D was a joke. We launched Trintellix with Takeda, I believe in January 2014. Then Otsuka came out with Rexulti and we were already selling Maintena with them. Both drugs are me-too.

Now, all that is left is Vyepti, Trintellix, AM, and Rexulti. All old, none unique. A pharmaceutical company’s life is tied to its pipeline. As long as we can squeeze enough money out of the 4 drugs we have, pay the bills, we can trudge along until the patents start disappearing, then it will be over. They think agitation will save Rexulti until it goes off patent. They are wrong. We will find out that docs that use atypicals for agitation have been using generics like Seroquel for years. Oh it will get some business, but how much is unknown.

The future at Lundbeck is dim, but I will stick around to see where it goes.
Click to expand...

This company was dead over 15 years ago when, in arrogance, the Danes assumed they didn’t need the US market and could keep making “the next Lexapro” forever. They would just “out license” to those “greedy Americans like Forrest.”

They have made nothing since. Squat. Takeda financed and finished Trin. And Lundbecks whole MO for 100 years was R&D.

The capitalistic, if sketchy, guys at Ovation had a cheap and quick model to get some US orphan neurology drugs. They carried water for the brief time the small molecule orphan exclusivity lasted. Those were effective drugs that helped patients in the US.

It all just spiraled then. Vorioxitine had zero reasonable differentiation strategy, and yet the Danes were stunned. No country in Europe would pay for it and they had given the US rights to Takeda.

The Ovation drugs burned through their tiny life cycles. Panic moves began. Northera etc.

This company had been a zombie since 2015 at least. Can’t believe they paid for an IV headache med. This isn’t 1980. They have no money to move a pipeline where the big boys play in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease slowing.

It’s sad, but a sharp (or average) eye can see these things a decade out.

Stefan was solid and Peter was OK. Nothing spectacular. To see them leave sends a powerful message.

Sorry to see it. The early to mid 2010’s were an exciting time.

It’s like Sears. Great old
Companies eventually start making mistakes that compound and lead to their deaths.
 






anonymous said:
This is accurate but you really need to go back to the days of Ovation, which was a rare disease company that Lundbeck acquired to have a footprint in the US to pedal things like lexapro and celexa instead of out-licensing them to places like Forest. Unfortunately they took a successful rare disease company with a good business model - and rather than pursue the success created by that model - stuck to what they knew, which is basically has been small molecules that are the dinosaurs of the biotech space. They thought that they could get fancy with an acquisition but the ovation leadership that bought Chelsea therapeutics (Northera) was gone and all that was left was incompetence.

After folks like Dan Brennan left the future of the US business went off course and what you see today is the result of that. Most people on the rare team left for more money a few years ago. The rest are people that got comfy and settled for a headache med or backfills posing as varsity players.
Click to expand...

Let me level with you.

Pay at Lundbeck is exceptionally low by industry standards.

Base, bonus, lack of stock.

It was kinda worth it when we were rocking the orphan neuro drugs and having fun…but for this?

Unless you are very happy you owe it to yourself and family to look at other opportunities.
 






anonymous said:
This company was dead over 15 years ago when, in arrogance, the Danes assumed they didn’t need the US market and could keep making “the next Lexapro” forever. They would just “out license” to those “greedy Americans like Forrest.”

They have made nothing since. Squat. Takeda financed and finished Trin. And Lundbecks whole MO for 100 years was R&D.

The capitalistic, if sketchy, guys at Ovation had a cheap and quick model to get some US orphan neurology drugs. They carried water for the brief time the small molecule orphan exclusivity lasted. Those were effective drugs that helped patients in the US.

It all just spiraled then. Vorioxitine had zero reasonable differentiation strategy, and yet the Danes were stunned. No country in Europe would pay for it and they had given the US rights to Takeda.

The Ovation drugs burned through their tiny life cycles. Panic moves began. Northera etc.

This company had been a zombie since 2015 at least. Can’t believe they paid for an IV headache med. This isn’t 1980. They have no money to move a pipeline where the big boys play in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease slowing.

It’s sad, but a sharp (or average) eye can see these things a decade out.

Stefan was solid and Peter was OK. Nothing spectacular. To see them leave sends a powerful message.

Sorry to see it. The early to mid 2010’s were an exciting time.

It’s like Sears. Great old
Companies eventually start making mistakes that compound and lead to their deaths.
Click to expand...

Your summation of Lundbeck’s history is just as accurate as the post you included. Ovation products laid the groundwork, but Lundbeck’s R&D has been a train wreck. Stefan should have been appointed CEO. Kare never intended to stay at Lundbeck, so he did his turnaround thing, and when he saw there was no future here, he left. Soon, Dunsire will retire and the hunt for a CEO will begin once again. With the Pipeline being a joke, the process will repeat itself with the new CEO.

Another serious problem Lundbeck has is the quality of its lower management. By that I mean the RSD and the ASM level. The prerequisite for being hired at that level (RSD) is the ability to have as many conference calls as possible. None of them have a strategic bone in their body. I am amazed at how many of the ASM’s are stuck in the 90’s with their management philosophy. But in all fairness, they have a little to work with.

Eventuality , Lundbeck will fold. It will be purchased by another company. All of this is inevitable.
 






post above is right. ASMs and RBDs are just as clueless as we are selling these worn out drugs. If a doctor hasn't started writing by now or is only writing a few...

As far as another company buying Lundbeck, why? What have we got in the US that any company would pay money to Denmark? I see the US operation closing. Cheaper to shut it down and continue with the rest of the world business than the expensive train wreck we have here now.
 






anonymous said:
Your summation of Lundbeck’s history is just as accurate as the post you included. Ovation products laid the groundwork, but Lundbeck’s R&D has been a train wreck. Stefan should have been appointed CEO. Kare never intended to stay at Lundbeck, so he did his turnaround thing, and when he saw there was no future here, he left. Soon, Dunsire will retire and the hunt for a CEO will begin once again. With the Pipeline being a joke, the process will repeat itself with the new CEO.

Another serious problem Lundbeck has is the quality of its lower management. By that I mean the RSD and the ASM level. The prerequisite for being hired at that level (RSD) is the ability to have as many conference calls as possible. None of them have a strategic bone in their body. I am amazed at how many of the ASM’s are stuck in the 90’s with their management philosophy. But in all fairness, they have a little to work with.

Eventuality , Lundbeck will fold. It will be purchased by another company. All of this is inevitable.
Click to expand...

Lundbeck is foundation owned so cannot be easily purchased.

Instead, once there is no money left at all, and nothing of value left to sell, the foundation will sell the HQ (it’s very nice for a small company) and liquidate everything and everyone. They will then act as a charitable research foundation giving out small grants from their endowment.

The company is in a pretty advanced
Death spiral. Their senior executives since Kare are wouldn’t even be EVPs in big pharma.

I think it was all over when they gave up a large portion of US rights to their “partners.” Their only hope was to run with the orphan foothold they had and they just used it like a piggy bank for 7 years and squandered the money and talent. “The next Lexapro” was always just around the corner. Sorry, but times, indications, and the number of competitors changes. Kare new this and just used the company as a stepping stone after Novo wouldn’t let him go higher. Really everyone uses Lundbeck as a stepping stone since 2010 at least.

It’s sad, but all companies eventually die. They did some amazing things in the 20th century. We should appreciate that.
 






anonymous said:
Lundbeck is foundation owned so cannot be easily purchased.

Instead, once there is no money left at all, and nothing of value left to sell, the foundation will sell the HQ (it’s very nice for a small company) and liquidate everything and everyone. They will then act as a charitable research foundation giving out small grants from their endowment.

The company is in a pretty advanced
Death spiral. Their senior executives since Kare are wouldn’t even be EVPs in big pharma.

I think it was all over when they gave up a large portion of US rights to their “partners.” Their only hope was to run with the orphan foothold they had and they just used it like a piggy bank for 7 years and squandered the money and talent. “The next Lexapro” was always just around the corner. Sorry, but times, indications, and the number of competitors changes. Kare new this and just used the company as a stepping stone after Novo wouldn’t let him go higher. Really everyone uses Lundbeck as a stepping stone since 2010 at least.

It’s sad, but all companies eventually die. They did some amazing things in the 20th century. We should appreciate that.
Click to expand...
 






anonymous said:
Lundbeck is foundation owned so cannot be easily purchased.

Instead, once there is no money left at all, and nothing of value left to sell, the foundation will sell the HQ (it’s very nice for a small company) and liquidate everything and everyone. They will then act as a charitable research foundation giving out small grants from their endowment.

The company is in a pretty advanced
Death spiral. Their senior executives since Kare are wouldn’t even be EVPs in big pharma.

I think it was all over when they gave up a large portion of US rights to their “partners.” Their only hope was to run with the orphan foothold they had and they just used it like a piggy bank for 7 years and squandered the money and talent. “The next Lexapro” was always just around the corner. Sorry, but times, indications, and the number of competitors changes. Kare new this and just used the company as a stepping stone after Novo wouldn’t let him go higher. Really everyone uses Lundbeck as a stepping stone since 2010 at least.

It’s sad, but all companies eventually die. They did some amazing things in the 20th century. We should appreciate that.
Click to expand...

Your statement that Lundbeck was hoping that “the next Lexapro was always just around the corner”, says it all, and never happened. They are the classic “what if” company. The “what if” will never happen. Now it has become the company where people with just a few years left before retirement go the keep a paycheck coming in their last final years.
 






They had some very good luck and management in the second part of the 20th century and then some very bad luck and management thereafter.

They totally misread the European payer landscape, which is ridiculous since they are a century old European company. I think some of it was nationalism and arrogance. They wanted to believe that stingy Europeans would pay top dollar for Lundbeck’s “amazing new medicines”. Hey geniuses, countries like England don’t pay for basically any new medication.

I was there when they learned vorioxetine wouldn’t be covered in all of Western Europe and would have no cognition claim. The blood drained from every executives face. They knew their entire business model was hopeless and they needed a Time Machine to go back 20 years and build a US HQ in the early 1990’s if not sooner.
 






They had some very good luck and management in the second part of the 20th century and then some very bad luck and management thereafter.

They totally misread the European payer landscape, which is ridiculous since they are a century old European company. I think some of it was nationalism and arrogance. They wanted to believe that stingy Europeans would pay top dollar for Lundbeck’s “amazing new medicines”. Hey geniuses, countries like England don’t pay for basically any new medication.

I was there when they learned vorioxetine wouldn’t be covered in all of Western Europe and would have no cognition claim. The blood drained from every executives face. They knew their entire business model was hopeless and they needed a Time Machine to go back 20 years and build a US HQ in the early 1990’s if not sooner.
 






anonymous said:
They had some very good luck and management in the second part of the 20th century and then some very bad luck and management thereafter.

They totally misread the European payer landscape, which is ridiculous since they are a century old European company. I think some of it was nationalism and arrogance. They wanted to believe that stingy Europeans would pay top dollar for Lundbeck’s “amazing new medicines”. Hey geniuses, countries like England don’t pay for basically any new medication.

I was there when they learned vorioxetine wouldn’t be covered in all of Western Europe and would have no cognition claim. The blood drained from every executives face. They knew their entire business model was hopeless and they needed a Time Machine to go back 20 years and build a US HQ in the early 1990’s if not sooner.
Click to expand...

Great analysis! I just hope I can last a few more years before I punch out. This has been a great ride with Lundbeck! I have been able to conduct a side business, spend more time at my kids school and even get in a little more golf! Let’s see what Tommy Boy does now!
 






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