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Discovery of Lipitor — the Biggest Blockbuster Drug in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Discovery of Lipitor — the Biggest Blockbuster Drug in the Pharmaceutical Industry

After the Philippines, Mr. Gonzalez moved to pharma Research and Development — a temporary demotion, after having been the youngest VP in the Company's history at 26. The Company could not guarantee his or his family's safety in Manila. Mr. Gonzalez considered India, but due to the age of his daughter the Company decided it was not the right post for him. The Company also had a problem with the Federal Government: it was under a conciliation agreement with the EEOC for discrimination. A successful Hispanic scientist with GM experience was, in that context, a gift to Ann Arbor, MI. There wasn't a formal role at the site, so he was given a group of 83 people to support — a group that, interestingly, included the new CEO of Research and Development, Dr. Ronnie Cresswell, and his staff, which included Dr. Pedro Cuatrecasas, who had invented AZT. Together, they went on to lead the team that invented Lipitor.


Dr. Cresswell had been hired to lead Warner-Lambert's transformation from a consumer-focused company to a pharma-centric one. The CEO, Mr. Joseph Williams, decided to reverse the resource balance from Consumer Marketing to Pharma R&D — the R&D budget grew from $283M to $1.0 billion, while the Marketing budget fell from $1.0 billion to $283M. The challenge: how do you effectively manage a +300% resource surplus versus the prior year, inside an aging, largely white organization, in a scientific world made up largely of Asian scientists and white American women?


The Actors

  • The scientists and administrative staff in Ann Arbor (the vast majority)
  • The new CEO and President of Research at Ann Arbor
  • The Company's CEO in Morris Town, NJ

The Stakes

A better multiplier for the Company in case of a sale or acquisition; Joe Williams's legacy; and Ronnie and Pedro's reputations as great scientists and drug developers.


The Situation

The local team did not welcome the newcomers, the company had not fired anyone in the previous four years, and HR and Finance both wanted to uphold the status quo.


Mr. Gonzalez met with Ronnie, since he was responsible for him and his staff. Ronnie had already run into friction with the administration — he owned a collection of cars worth millions of dollars, and the Company wanted to apply the standard relocation policy, which would only pay to move one car. Mr. Gonzalez understood the scale of investment the Company had made to recruit Ronnie and move him from Europe. He raised it with Corporate HR, who wouldn't budge — their view was that Ronnie had made enough money to pay for the move himself. But Mr. Gonzalez knew the CEO's actual point of view and how the bureaucracy really worked, and — as a former Corporate VP himself — personally approved the expenses since Ronnie was his client.


That decision won Mr. Gonzalez the support of Dr. Cresswell for everything that followed over the next 12 months: hiring 50% women scientists and mostly Asian male scientists, terminating non-performing minority employees, and training the aging white scientists to work effectively with women and Asian colleagues as the future of the organization. The whole ecosystem around the R&D site in Ann Arbor changed from a mid-west set of strip malls into an international hub within a few years. The retention of Ronnie and Pedro resulted in them leading the team of scientists Mr. Gonzalez helped build and retain — the team that went on to develop Lipitor, the most successful product in the history of the pharmaceutical industry.