BrandweekNRX

Just how interested are the Schering-Plough employees in the Schering stories on BrandweekNRX?

This should give you an idea about today, and it's been a week since the first revelations were made . . . we've had an estimated over 10,000 hits from inside Schering-Plough alone, making this the biggest corporate story in a while. Below are a few hours today from five different Schering servers. It doesn't include Schering-Plough overseas or all the hits from Organon servers or from all the other drug companies:

SEC reviews BrandweekNRX information about unusual Schering-Plough trading activity.

It took a little while, but the Securities & Exchange Commission finally visited BrandweekNRX to review information about Schering-Plough President Carrie Cox's sale of $28 million SGP stock in 2007, a year after the failed Vytorin trial was completed and during a time period when stock analysts and doctors asked for release of the results:

The SEC is not the only government branch taking an interest in BrandweekNRX's information about the Schering-Plough scandal, the U.S. Senate also keeps abreast of recent info (interestingly, they have been a more regular visitor than the SEC):

Threat issued against BrandweekNRX reporter on Schering-Plough message board.

Schering-Plough's message board, under the headline "Attention Peter Rost," contained the following threat:

"Dr. Rost might need to start sleeping with one eye open if he continues his high level antagonism of huge multinational corporations."

Apparently this threat was picked up and recycled from a reader comment on Pharmalot.

And of course, big corporations and their employees don't like when the press digs up new information, such as the surprising sell-off of SGP stock by Schering President Carrie Cox last year, to the tune of $28 million, or the fact that Sean McNicholas is the Senior VP responsible for Vytorin and that he was the VP responsible for Genotropin at Pharmacia, during the time period which Pfizer admitted illegal marketing started, according to a DOJ settlement agreement.

The Street questions Schering-Plough motives

Excerpts from The Street:

Skip Irvine, director of communications for the joint venture, insists that neither company received any clues about ENHANCE until earlier this month. But skeptics, pointing to stock sales by Schering-Plough insiders, have some doubts.

Schering-Plough didn't respond to questions about its insider sales.

In May of 2006, just one month after EMBRACE came to an end, Carrie Cox, president of Schering-Plough's global pharmaceutical business, sold nearly $1 million worth of company stock. Cox would go on to execute even larger sales, clearing more than $5 million on two separate occasions, a year down the road.

Meanwhile, Schering-Plough's top executive had secured $2 million in a stock sale of his own. Hassan pocketed that money at the end of 2006, even as the company wrapped up a banner year that ensured tremendous bonuses.

"I must admit, I'm a bit concerned about this trial because you've set up an admittedly medically important endpoint but a challenging design and endpoint" all the same, Cowen analyst Steve Scala said during Schering-Plough's fourth-quarter conference call in January of 2007. "AstraZeneca's (AZN - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) METEOR trial of Crestor, I believe, will report at around the same time, and its endpoint is likely much more achievable.

"So from a marketing standpoint, how would you deal with a situation where METEOR is successful but ENHANCE is not?"

Schering-Plough responded in a manner that would soon become routine. The company emphasized the complex nature of the specialized trial -- focused outside the mainstream population -- and warned that the results would take some time.

"We're in no rush to get a marketing thing out of this," Hassan assured.

Unlike Schering-Plough, The New York Times has since noted, AstraZeneca took just 10 months to report favorable results from its cholesterol drug trial.

Meanwhile, quarter after quarter, analysts kept asking Schering-Plough about ENHANCE. In response, Schering-Plough began downplaying the significance of that trial -- insisting that the value of lower LDL had already been proven -- and directing attention to the ongoing IMPROVE-IT instead.

Finally, in mid-December, Congress began demanding answers as well. And as the new year began, Schering-Plough found itself peppered with ENHANCE-related questions at a presentation hosted by Morgan Stanley.

In fact, that "CEO Unplugged" conference, with its question-and-answer format, brought ENHANCE to the forefront like never before.

"So let me just cut to the chase," Morgan Stanley analyst Jami Rubin began in one address. "What's the organization thinking embarking on this study and putting such an important franchise at risk given that you didn't have to do the study?

"But now you own the study, and it's yours, and you've got to continue to protect what is obviously the most important franchise" for the company.

Schering-Plough has always known about the high stakes involved. For 12 straight quarters, the company has managed to generate double-digit growth in adjusted sales. Strip out the contribution from its cholesterol franchise, however, and those double-digit gains fade away.

"Vytorin and Zetia are critical to the future of Merck (and) critical to the future of Schering-Plough as well," Merck CEO Richard Clark stressed back in June of 2006. "So we will do everything we must to maximize both of those products."

Newsweek on Schering stock options.

It appears that at least one top executive at Schering-Plough, executive vice president Carrie Cox, sold millions of dollars worth of company stock after the trial ended but before the results were made public. How concerned are you about the timing of such stock sales?
Before it's made public, if you have insider information, it's definitely illegal. That bothers us quite a bit. They kept it for so long [without releasing the results] then tried to rehabilitate the study and then that fails. Do they then start dumping the stock? We really want to get into this a little more. [Stephen Galpin, a spokesperson for Schering-Plough, responds: "The company has a rigorous process that executives follow before initiating any transaction in company securities including pre-clearance with a securities lawyer. Carrie Cox followed these processes as well as filing required SEC disclosures about the transactions on time. To date the company has received no inquiry from a regulatory body relating to her trades. These trades go back to the spring of 2007 and the data for this trial were only unblinded about two weeks ago."]

So what happens now?
More letters are going out [from Stupak's committee to the companies] zeroing in on specific issues. We're asking specifically about the cashing in on stock options. There will be hearings ... The night before the hearings, they'll probably drop off all the documents and then we'll probably find the nuggets we're looking for.

© 2008 Newsweek, Inc.

Schering-Plough employees want Carrie Cox fired.

At least if the poll results on Schering-Plough's message board this weekend are to be believed.

And reading the comments over the past week the poll seems to be right on the mark.

The second choice is to "Make her do ride alongs with Vytorin everyday in 2008."

Four people voted to "keep her on."

That's the same number on Fred's leadership tean who sold large quantities of SGP stock last year.

Today Fred Hassan proved that not even Fred Hassan believes in Schering-Plough.

In the last week Schering-Plough has shed 23.4% of its value. If you believe in buying distressed stock, this is the time to swoop in, right?

Not so fast.

In a feeble attempt to shore up investor confidence, Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan (left with wife Noreen) sent out a press release announcing that he would buy $2 million SGP stock with his own money.

Many business journalists rapidly penned predictable headlines like "SGP's CEO Hassan: Putting Money Where His Mouth Is."

Watching this spectacle was like watching a con man stealing candy from children:

Last year, Carrie Cox, President Schering-Plough, dumped SGP stock to the tune of $28 million. Now the CEO wants to compensate for this by investing $2 million, less than 10% of what Carrie dumped?

According to news reports, Fred Hassan, after having cashed in from selling Pharmacia to Pfizer and a few other profitable gigs, is worth at least $100 million.  Looking at past Pharmacia financials this seems reasonable.

So he spent an estimated 2% of his net worth, to "prove" to the stock market that he "believes" in the company, and wrote in his press release, "I firmly believe in VYTORIN and ZETIA. Further, I believe this company is now a strong and diverse global competitor, with sound long- term fundamentals, that is capable of driving long-term growth."

If Mr. Hassan truly BELIEVED in Schering-Plough he wouldn't invest just $2 million in the company, he would invest $28 million, the amount Carrie just got rid of. After all, the stock has dropped almost 25%, so it's a buying opportunity?

Right?

And this is where Teflon-Hassan lost the gamble.

"Don’t look at what I say, but look at what I do. But more importantly look at what I don't do--I don't put my fortune at risk in SGP stock, and neither should you."

Today is the day when Mr. Hassan officially lost it.

And the stock market yawned and sent SGP shares down another 1.53%.

(Footnote: No one knows where any stock will go. Neither does BrandweekNRX. But it is our firm opinion that Fred Hassan, based on his announcement today, does not in his heart believe Schering-Plough is a good investment and neither does Schering-Plough President Carrie Cox. Of course, they could both be wrong, like CEO Sam Waksal who saw his stock go up after he went to jail for insider trading because he dumped Imclone stock.)

Schering-Plough's bad luck couple?

Sean McNicholas was Vice President Marketing, Endocrine Care, Pharmacia, responsible for Genotropin marketing until the year 2001. His boss' boss was Carrie Cox, President, Pharmacia.

Pharmacia, a subsidiary of Pfizer, Inc., was later charged in federal court with offering a kickback in the year 2000 in connection with its outsourcing contract for its human growth hormone product, Genotropin. The company agreed to plead guilty to the charge and pay a criminal fine.

Additionally, Pharmacia entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the Government for its illegal promotion of Genotropin for such "off-label" uses as anti-aging, cosmetic use and athletic performance enhancement:

"From in and about January 1, 2000 . . . the defendant did, with intent to defraud and mislead, introduce . . .  Genotropin . . . intended for use for anti-aging treatment and other Unapproved Uses, without the FDA approval required."

As a result of the criminal plea and Deferred Prosecution Agreement, the company paid a total of $34.7 million.

Sean McNicholas is now Schering-Plough's Senior Vice President, responsible for ZETIA and VYTORIN, reporting directly to Carrie Cox, who dumped $28 million SGP stock last year.

After an unexplained two-year delay in releasing results of the Vytorin study; a brief change in the primary endpoint orchestrated by unknown executives without the involvement of their lead investigator, and the naming of an independent review panel boasting members with financial conflicts, Schering-Plough was forced to release the data.

The SGP stock promptly dropped 20%.

Oh, and did we mention, prior to her job as President Pharmacia and President Schering-Plough, Carrie Cox was Vice President, Women's Health Care at Wyeth, responsible for marketing of Prempro and for Pondimin and Redux, two slimming products?

In September 1997, the FDA requested the withdrawal of Pondimin and Redux and Wyeth ended up paying well over $20 billion in class action settlements to women who alleged heart valve damage.

In 2002, millions of women quit taking Prempro, after an 8-year study was halted by the NIH after five years. The study by the Women's Health Initiative included 16,000 women and found that women who received HRT had significant increases in breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots.

Within 3 months after the study was released, Wyeth's stock had fallen more than 55%, eroding its $48 billion in market value, according to TradingMarkets.com on February 28, 2007.

BrandweekNRX suggests Congress asks the following questions:

1. As Senior Vice President for Vytorin, did Sean McNicholas have any role in the two-year delay, brief change in the primary endpoint, and naming of the review panel?

2. Did Sean McNicholas dump his SGP stock options last year, just like Carrie Cox?

3. As Vice President for Genotropin, did Sean McNicholas have any role in offering kickbacks and illegal promotion of Genotropin?

Wii helps you become a better surgeon, says new study!

YOU might think it a bad idea for trainee surgeons to play games on the Nintendo Wii when they should be studying, but it might be time well spent.

Kanav Kahol and Marshall Smith of the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, have found that surgical residents performed better during simulated surgery after playing on the Wii console. They put it down to the console's novel "Wiimote" control system, which allows players to direct on-screen action using a wireless wand that detects acceleration in three dimensions.

Now they are designing Wii software that will accurately simulate surgical procedures. A training platform based on the console, which costs about $250, might be more practical for trainee surgeons in the developing world than traditional virtual training tools, which typically cost a great deal more.

To test how the Wii affected surgical skill, the researchers asked eight trainee doctors to play it for an hour before performing a virtual surgery. They used a training tool called ProMIS, which simulates a patient's body in 3D and tracks the surgeon's movements as they operate. They fed the movements to an algorithm which scores the virtual surgeon on a range of factors. Wii-playing residents scored 48 per cent higher on tool control and performance than those without the Wii warm-up.

The researchers also found that some games - such as Marble Mania, in which the player guides a marble through a 3D obstacle course - are especially good because players must use small, precise movements of the wand. Others were less useful: "You don't gain a lot from swinging an imaginary tennis racket," says Kahol.

James Rosser of Beth Israel Medical Center in New York had previously found that video games can also improve the dexterity crucial to performing minimally invasive surgery (Archives of Surgery, vol 142, p 18).

Kahol and Smith believe that the Wii has the most potential of any console for trainee surgeons. They tracked participants' hand motions while playing Wii and during virtual surgery, using a glove laced with motion sensors, and showed that the motions were very similar. "The whole point about surgery is to execute small, finely controlled movements with your hands, and that is exactly what you get playing Wii," says Kahol.

"The small, finely controlled movements of surgery are what you get playing Wii"

He and Smith will be presenting their results at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality conference in California later this month.

Schering-Plough corporate secretary: Oops, I did it!

The WSJ reports this amusing piece of information:

"Yesterday, for example, widely circulated reports questioned the timing of stock trades made by the president of Schering's pharmaceutical division, Carrie Cox, in April and May 2007 that totaled about $28 million. Corporate secretary Susan Wolf said she personally approved the transactions because they are allowed by Schering's rules. "It was well, well before anyone at [Schering] received the unblinded [Enhance] data," she added."

Thank you Susan Wolf for your insight and for approving Carrie Cox's sale of $28 million in SGP stock.

This is going to make us comfortable because you are, uh, such a trustworthy person?

Schering Public Relations - is this seriously the best you can do?