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Big Pharma Vs. Big Biotech 14 hrs ago
Discussing a new deal by Pfizer, with CNBC's Mike Huckman.

Sebelius on Vaccines

24 Nov 2009

Discussing whether a new $487M investment from the government will help speed up the production of the most important vaccines, with Kathy Sebelius, Health & Human Services secretary and CNBC's Mike Huckman.

The New Formula for Faster Vaccines

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Novartis is opening on Tuesday the country's first plant to produce flu vaccines using cell cultures. These vaccines are faster, better and cheaper to make than egg-based methods, reports CNBC's Mike Huckman.

Novartis Opens 1st US Plant for Flu Vaccine

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Cholesterol Drug Battle: Niaspan vs. Zetia 16 Nov 2009
Abbott Laboratories' Niaspan beat Merck's Zetia in a new study. CNBC's Mike Huckman has the details.

Cardiologist Grades Cholesterol Drug Study

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Abbott Laboratories' Niaspan beat Merck's Zetia in a new study. Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at The Cleveland Clinic, shares his reaction with CNBC's Mike Huckman.

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Mar.09

1:00 PM ET

Monday, 9 Mar 2009

Are You From Jersey?! Big Pharma's From Jersey!

Posted By:Mike Huckman

Sectors:Insurance | Health Care Equipment and Services | Health Care | Pharmaceuticals

New Jersey
AP
New Jersey
There I go again showing my age with that dated reference to Jersey's own Joe Piscopo and his schtick. But it's to make a point.

New Jersey, where I live and work, is known as "The World's Medicine Chest" or "The Silicon Valley of Pharma." Johnson and Johnson is headquartered here. Merck calls NJ home. Schering-Plough is based in the Garden State. Celgene headquarters are located a short drive from my house. Wyeth lives here. Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis, Roche, AstraZeneca, and NovoNordisk, just to name a few, all have major operations in Jersey.

Former Goldman Sachs [GS Loading... () ] Chairman and now New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine has to be beside himself. His state is already reeling from the banking crisis because of its proximity to and dependence on Wall Street. And now a consolidation wave in big pharma is threatening to take the state under. Gov. Corzine came on CNBC recently and said he was on his knees begging the CEOs of PFE and WYE not to turn Wyeth's sprawling NJ campus into a white elephant. If Merck buys Schering or if, as some analysts are hinting today, JNJ buys Schering you can bet SGP's Kenilworth, NJ HQ will be downsized or shuttered.

Big Pharma's Jersey Roots

Pfizer is HQ'd in Manhattan. It has a big building in midtown within walking distance from Grand Central Station. I get that it's centrally located for a lot of commuters, especially from Long Island, Connecticut and Westchester (kind of a New York City suburb) because trains from those points go straight into Grand Central, but it's gotta be an expensive piece of real estate.

For example, last week I did my interview with new Sanofi-Aventis CEO Chris Viehbacher inside the company's Manhattan office on Park Avenue. I'm told that 500 people used to work there. But since SNY bought Aventis there are now only three people working out of a drastically reduced space. Three people in SNY's NYC office! It's essentially just a small, but nice, prestigious address "for show," for meetings and, I guess, media interviews with execs. Couldn't PFE, which claims it's hyper-focused on cutting costs, do the same by moving folks out of Manhattan to, let's say, Wyeth's buildings in NJ? I'm just asking the question. That's all.