Founders of Prosperity

The pharmaceutical industry has had almost exponential success in the past twenty years. Incredible innovation and superb leadership brought this success. The biggest pharmaceutical companies have had some of the smartest founders and CEOs.

Johnson & Johnson, the pharma company with the largest market share in the US, experienced stagnancy and a period of confusion in the 90’s. However, the company has experienced huge success since their turnover to their new Chairman and CEO, William C. Weldon, in 2002. Since then, Johnson & Johnson has acquired Alza and Pfizer’s consumer-health product line and became the leader of the market in the US.

GlaxoSmithKline is the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company. Former CEO of Vodafone, Sir Christopher Charles Gent, became Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline in 2005 after joining the company several months prior. Andrew Witty became CEO of GSK in 2008. Since then, the company has prospered through their flagship products and excellent leadership.

Pfizer, the largest pharma company in the world, has beaten all expectations and has experienced significant growth since 2006; the year Jeffrey Kindler became President and CEO. Pfizer, since then, has acquired giant Wyeth and has increased revenue growth of almost 40%. Despite Pfizer’s rapid success, Pfizer lost 35% of its value in stock in 2010, which is when Kindler left the company. Nevertheless, Pfizer is still very successful and its value is expected to keep rising for the next five years.

-Djeki Bidjerano

Sources:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/02/us-pfizer-idUSTRE7103JM20110202

http://www.investor.jnj.com/governance/biodetail.cfm?bioid=3197

http://www.gsk.com/about/executivebiographies.htm