Hugin joined, according to his campaign biography. Celgene had 200 employees and was getting by on less than six weeks of cash when Mr. Morgan.Īt the time, the company’s financial situation was perilous. Celgene needed a finance executive to pitch its story to Wall Street. Thalidomide was generating intense excitement in the medical world, and from the start the company made clear it would not stop at treating leprosy. “They understand that it costs billions of dollars in research and development, and years of hard work by hundreds of researchers and scientists, to develop medicines that successfully treat and cure cancer.”īut leprosy was hardly the point: The F.D.A.’s main goal was to keep the drug from harming infants, and it did so by requiring that Celgene set up a first-of-its-kind distribution system that would limit prescriptions to preapproved doctors and pharmacies.Ĭelgene, meanwhile, had ambitious plans. ![]() “New Jersey voters are a lot smarter than my opponent gives them credit for,” Mr. And the Menendez campaign has attacked him around drug prices, personal profits and the $280 million settlement. Hugin has also been targeted by a super PAC run by a cancer patient taking Revlimid that launched a $1.5 million advertising campaign criticizing steep price hikes of cancer drugs during Mr. Several generic drug companies have sued the company claiming that Celgene denied them access to drug samples needed to make cheaper copies. Last year, Celgene paid $280 million to settle a whistle-blower lawsuit claiming it had inappropriately promoted Revlimid and Thalomid to treat a range of cancers beyond what the Food and Drug Administration had approved. Hugin was a top executive at the company, including its chief executive for six years, reveals many of the controversial financial and legal tactics that have tarnished the industry’s reputation, from marketing drugs for unapproved uses to raising prices and fighting off generic competitors. (The lowest was the federal government.)Īn examination of Celgene’s aggressive promotion of Revlimid and its predecessor, Thalomid, while Mr. A 2017 Gallup poll found that just 33 percent of the country had a favorable view of the drug industry, the second-lowest of any sector. Anger over high drug prices has risen and President Trump has vilified the industry. ![]() Hugin’s professional career could also prove to be a liability - he is the sole pharmaceutical executive running for statewide office in 2018. ![]() Hugin’s campaign reminds television viewers in New Jersey about on a regular basis - has dampened his popularity among voters.īut Mr. ![]() Menendez’s federal corruption trial last year - a trial that Mr. In deeply blue New Jersey, few expected a real contest for Mr. Hugin, a Republican mounting a surprisingly strong challenge to Senator Robert Menendez in New Jersey, has made his career at Celgene a cornerstone of his campaign, with television advertisements boasting that he “chose a life of service” in the Marines and “leading a health care company that develops cancer medicine.” By the time he stepped down as executive chairman in February to run for United States Senate, Celgene had become a pharmaceutical powerhouse with a market value of nearly $80 billion.Īnd that onetime leprosy drug? It had been transformed into Revlimid, a best-selling cancer drug that, with annual sales of $8.2 billion, made up nearly two-thirds of Celgene’s net sales in 2017. When Bob Hugin joined Celgene in 1999 as its chief financial officer, the company was a struggling biotech that sold just one product - a leprosy drug - and faced a shaky future.
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