Replies to post #72197 on Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

“The world needs this combination to be successful.”
—Bernard Poussot, Wyeth CEO

Give me a break!

[corpstrat]

<<Irony of the PFE-WYE merger>>

A major irony is that the bankers are putting taxpayer dollars to work lending money for job destruction. This is not what the poohbahs mean when they prate that healthy banks are vital to economic recovery. Schumpeterian change is inevitable, but an incipient depression is an inopportune time for government-backed zombie banks to make a quick buck from arranging massive new firings. There is no social value added unless the firees can find productive work elsewhere in the economy, which looks like a poor bet right now.

[DewDiligence]

Wyeth f/k/a/ American Home Products R.I.P. — the PFE-WYE merger will close tomorrow:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Pfizer-Receives-Clearance-bw-1523259129.html?x=0&.v=1

Some Wyeth history from Wikipedia:

In 1860, pharmacists John and Frank Wyeth opened a drugstore with a small research lab on Walnut Street in Philadelphia. In 1862, on the suggestion of doctors, they began to manufacture large quantities of commonly ordered medicines. They were successful, and in 1864 they began supplying medicines and beef extract to the Union army during the Civil War.

...In 1872, Henry Bower, an employee of Wyeth, developed one of the first rotary compressed tablet machines in the United States. This enabled the mass production of medicines with unprecedented precision and speed. It was massively successful, and the Wyeth brothers…began vaccine production. Six years later, a fire destroyed the brothers' original Walnut Street store; the brothers sold the retail business and began focusing on mass production.

American Home Products, the holding company now known as Wyeth, was incorporated on February 4, 1926… In 1929, Stuart Wyeth died and left controlling interest to Harvard University. In 1930, Wyeth purchased Anacin, a product for tension headaches which quickly became the company's flagship product. One year later, Harvard sold Wyeth to American Home Products for $2.9 million [about $41M in today’s dollars].

Bad move by Harvard!