Can Eli Lilly get its R&D act together?

Eli Lilly's recent late-stage pratfall in Alzheimer's set the stage for a blistering Fortune piece dissecting the yawning gap between the Big Pharma's R&D game plan and its woeful track record. Just as some of its biggest competitors are absorbing pipelines stuffed with potential new products, Lilly has avoided any big merger deals. And analysts question whether CEO John Lechleiter (photo) has pointed the company down a blind alley. Its one big R&D success of the past five years,...

Does Lilly need Genzyme more than Sanofi?

Eli Lilly's latest pipeline setback for Alzheimer's is adding extra pressure on CEO John Lechleiter to do something dramatic to quickly improve the pharma company's product mix. And that has BNET's Jim Edwards speculating that Lilly should jump in with a better offer for Genzyme, shoving Sanofi aside. After all, over the next four years Lilly faces the loss of patents on drugs that account for 60 percent of its revenue. And Effient has been a bust. The reasoning may be based on nothing but a...

Lilly CEO: Looking for deals, but not megamergers

Eli Lilly CEO John Lechleiter (photo) hasn't budged from his vow not to pursue a megamerger, as many of the pharma's rivals have done. "We are not interested in a large-deal combination," the exec said at the Sanford C. Bernstein investor conference. Lilly (NYSE: LLY) has some tough years ahead, particularly between 2012 and 2014, when several of its major drugs go off-patent. But Lechleiter is committed to avoiding a big buyout and will rely instead on his company's pipeline to...