Article at a glance:

Riding the pharma roller coaster

The best way to create value in the pharmaceutical industry is to maintain a flow of innovative medicines, says Pharmacia's chairman and CEO, Fred Hassan. But it can cost $500 million to turn a discovery into a product, and these hefty research and development costs have fueled recent mergers; after all, only big companies can afford the necessary R&D budgets of $2 billion or more. In this interview, Hassan tells how he managed Pharmacia's mergers with Upjohn and Monsanto without losing a focus on frontline sales.

The take-away

The key to a successful merger is building trust, says this CEO who has overseen two large integration efforts. Transparency, a prudent assessment of risk, and decisiveness are also important, along with a plan that rolls out changes in waves rather than all at once.