The future of the Chief Executive of US drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb, Peter Dolan, looks bleak after a federal monitor recommended his dismissal.
A report in the Wall Street Journal notes that the monitor – former Judge Frederick Lacey – has said that Dolan and B-MS’ general counsel Richard Willard should be fired because of their role in a $2.5 billion accounting scandal, in which the firm was accused of oversupplying wholesalers with inventory in order to reach quarterly sales targets.
The recommendation also comes in the wake of B-MS’ disastrous pact with generic drugmaker Apotex, aimed at keeping a copycat version of blood thinner Plavix (clopidogrel) off the market in the USA until September 2011. This was overturned by US regulators earlier this year, prompting Apotex to go ahead and launch its version with the terms of the deal allegedly providing the generics company with some protection against damages.
Although B-MS and partner Sanofi-Aventis eventually managed to win an injunction against the sale of the generic, Apotex had already flooded the market with its product, forcing B-MS to cut its 2006 earnings forecasts.
