With the company facing billions in lost sales, its research chief is set on doing things differentlyDuring Martin Mackay's 12-year stint as a research executive at Pfizer, he felt suffocated by what he calls "a morass of committees." Megamergers with Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia had saddled the pharmaceutical giant with so many layers of superfluous managers that its researchers spent much of their time shuttling between meetings.
Now Mackay is exacting his revenge.When Pfizer named him president of research and development on Oct. 4, one of his first moves was to abolish all the committees he believed were blocking the path between good ideas and marketable drugs. What used to be as many as 14 layers of management between scientists and top executives have now been pared about in half.
Cutting red tape is a key element of Mackay's multifaceted plan to overhaul how the New York-based company goes about developing drugs—from generating ideas to managing the trials needed to get them on the market. It's a strategy he's been fine-tuning since longtime R&D chief John L. LaMattina announced his retirement in May.
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