Reuters Events | Pharma

Thought leadership and innovation for the Pharmaceutical Industry

There are some who see Carl Icahn as a savior for investors and others who see him as someone who defines the word greed and ruins companies.

There are some who see Carl Icahn as a savior for investors and others who see him as someone who defines the word greed and ruins companies. His most recent Power Point presentation to takes aim at Lilly, Amylin's Board members and even some ex-Lilly employees who are now employed by Amylin. His argument "the Amylin Board has destroyed value and put their interests above shareholders". What Mr Icahn doesn't realize is that Byetta sales are not achieving potential partially because there has been a substantial negative "social media buzz" about negative side effects including pancreatitis.

When Byetta first hit the market there were stories everywhere about this amazing drug derived from the saliva of lizards. The anti-pharma New York Times even ran a story about how one person had lost a lot of weight on the drug and the buzz about weight loss, which a lot of Type 2 diabetics struggle with, was everywhere within the Internet.

Later, as more people started to use Byetta the buzz level increased online. People began to talk about the side effect of feeling nauseous and let's be honest that is one side effect that is nasty to deal with. Then stories appeared in the media about Byetta and pancreatitis and even though there was no distinct correlation between the drug and pancreatitis it was enough to scare off physicians and consumers alike. During this time Lilly did little to acknowledge the "buzz" within the Type 2 diabetes community and sales started to level off. The Type 2 diabetes community is very close and they tend to share a lot of information with each other online so word of mouth, especially if negative, can be a powerful voice.

Mr Icahn feels that Amylin should be not only be profitable, they should be very profitable. He also feels that the agreement Amylin has with Lilly should be torn up and redone. He points out that there are now several Lilly people working for Amlyin and that Lilly tends to be passive when it comes to promoting products and making business decisions. Well when you put profits above patients and when you don't understand pharmaceutical marketing and empowered patients you tend to be shortsighted. As I am a former Lilly person I know that the people who are marketing and promoting the product are doing everything they can to increase sales. Does Mr Icahn believe that Lilly wants to embrace the short tail and is happy with Byetta performance?

The people who work for Amylin are in the fight for their lives right now. Their CEO has resigned and Mr Icahn is on his way to ruining another company. Caught in all this are the patients who are left with unanswered questions for a promising new product that could have helped them lead better lives by better managing their Type 2 diabetes.