2013新晋财富美国500强企业：阿特维斯

    如果，假设地说，阿特维斯不久被Valeant收购，那么阿特维斯在500强榜单的停留时间就很短了。那样会不会有点失望？比萨罗回答说：“我们希望长期留在榜单上。”

    比萨罗在几个月前刚完成了自身的一个重要收购计划。去年10月31日，华生制药宣布对瑞士阿特维斯集团的收购完成，这次收购以55亿美元股票加现金的方式交易。新合并后的公司名叫阿特维斯，而不是华生。（为了给这次收购交易融资，公司资产负债表上增加了60亿美元债务。目前的债务与息税折旧及摊销前利润比率为3.5倍。比萨罗说，考虑到公司强劲的现金流，这个比率水平完全可控。）这次收购使阿特维斯成为全球第三大仿制药生产商，业务布局于全球62个国家，而之前为20个。比萨罗对我说：“我们现在能切实说阿特维斯是个全球公司。”

    用阿特维斯这个名字是有道理的，比萨罗说，因为“华生”这个名字在全球太普通了，而且公司在澳大利亚和英国市场曾与相似命名的企业发生过版权纠纷。但阿特维斯没有对改名掉以轻心，它之前聘请了品牌策略公司Lippincott研究各种选项，咨询师们最初提供了近2000种方案。（其中一个内部建议是，用华生和阿特维斯的组合出一个名称：“Wacktivis”，这个建议很快被否定。）比萨罗和他的团队将范围缩小到8个备选名字，最后决定使用阿特维斯，这个名字的全球识别度已经相当高，是最好不过的选择。

    阿特维斯已经在全球成功进行了改名，唯一的例外是他们在帕西帕尼的花园式总部。停车场和大楼的外面的所有指示牌都还写着“华生制药”。当然，在几年前，比萨罗计划把总部从加利福尼亚的科洛纳搬到帕西帕尼时，花了两年时间才获得帕西帕尼同意将带有公司名字字样的指示牌树立起来。标识更改之战很可能在并购整合完成后继续很长时间。最初，联席创始人赵天宇（台裔美籍）给这家制药公司命名为华生。赵天宇为了纪念母亲，在1984年成立公司时，用母亲的娘家姓“华”来命名。华生，即“华”之子。赵天宇在2007年退休之前一直担任CEO一职，随后由比萨罗继任。

    比萨罗，现年52岁，1992年进入制药业，当时他是巴尔制药（Barr Pharmaceuticals）的首席法律顾问，后来升职为总裁兼首席运营官。在他刚加入华生时，便将全球扩张作为重中之重。当时，公司几乎所有的收入都来自于美国市场。今年，阿特维斯约40%的销售额将来自于美国境外。比萨罗预计，在5年内，美国镜内外销售比将达到1：1。阿特维斯在全球的雇员数量为1万7千人，包括在美国的约5400名员工，在印度有庞大生产业务。

    如今，所有仿制药生产商目前都面临着一个重大挑战：仿制药依靠畅销品牌药的专利过期带动业务，而专利过期潮近年来正在逐渐退去。比萨罗称，下一个大机遇是所谓的生物仿制药——即昂贵的尖端生物药品的基本仿制品，而生物药品销量已经开始赶超传统小颗粒药品。比萨罗将生物仿制药称为“新前沿领域”。阿特维斯已经和生物科技巨头安进（Amgen）达成协议，在安进的四款药品专利到期后，进行共同销售。比萨罗说他相信阿特维斯能在这个新领域不断增长。

    如果比萨罗是正确的，阿特维斯便能继续留在500强的榜单上，并且一路向上攀登。他说：“我们不会只满足于432位，还想排名更靠前。”

    从某种程度上说，排名靠前带来的声望或许也能帮助他更改大楼的标识。（财富中文网）

    译者：默默

    If, hypothetically, Actavis were to be acquired by Valeant in the near future, that would make for a very short stay for Actavis on the 500. Wouldn't that be kind of a letdown? "Our intention is to be on the Fortune 500 for a long time," replied Bisaro tactfully.

    It's only been a few months since Bisaro completed a major purchase of his own. On Oct. 31, Watson Pharmaceutical announced that its $5.5 billion stock and cash deal to buy the Actavis Group of Switzerland had closed, and that the newly-merged company would be known as Actavis, not Watson. (To fund the purchase, the company put about $6 billion of debt on its balance sheet. It's now at 3.5 times debt-to-EBITDA, which Bisaro says is easily manageable given its strong cash flow.) The deal made Actavis the world's third-largest generic drugmaker. It now operates in 62 countries, up from 20. "We can truly say we're a global company now," Bisaro told me.

    Taking the Actavis name made sense, said Bisaro, because "Watson" turned out to be too common around the world, and he ran into copyright conflicts with similarly named businesses in markets such as Australia and England. But the company didn't take the name change lightly. It hired brand strategy firm Lippincott to explore options, and the consultants came back with roughly 2,000 possibilities. (One internal suggestion that was quickly rejected was a Watson/Actavis mash-up: "Wacktivis.") Bisaro and his team whittled down the list to eight finalists before deciding that embracing Actavis, already recognized globally, was the best solution.

    Actavis has successfully rebranded itself everywhere already except its own office park headquarters in Parsippany. All the signage in the parking lot and on the outside of the building still reads "Watson Pharmaceuticals." Of course, it took two years for the company to get permission from the local township to put the name up when they moved in a few years ago, after Bisaro moved the headquarters from Corona, Calif. The battle to change the sign may well rage on well after the merger integration is a distant memory.The drugmaker was originally given the name Watson by co-founder Allen Chao, a Taiwanese-American. He wanted to honor his mother, whose maiden name was Hwa. So he Americanized "Hwa's son" into Watson when he started the firm in 1984. Chao served as CEO until he retired in 2007, and Bisaro was recruited to be his successor.

    Bisaro, 52, got into the world of pharma when he joined Barr Pharmaceuticals in 1992 as chief legal counsel, later rising to become president and chief operating officer. When he arrived at Watson, he immediately decided that a top priority was to expand internationally. At the time, almost 100% of the drugmaker's revenues were derived from the U.S. This year about 40% of sales at Actavis will come from outside the U.S., and Bisaro thinks that in five years the ratio of U.S. to non-U.S. revenues could be 50/50. Of the company's 17,000 employees, about 5,400 are in the U.S. It has large production operations in India.

    All generic drugmakers are dealing with a major business challenge these days: The wave of patent expirations on best-selling, branded drugs that fueled their business in recent years is slowing. The next big opportunity, according to Bisaro, is in so-called biosimilars -- basically, generic versions of the complex, expensive biotech medicines that have begun to overtake traditional small molecule pharmaceuticals in sales. Bisaro calls biosimilars "the new frontier." Actavis has signed a deal with biotech giant Amgen (AMGN) to partner in selling four of its drugs as they come off patent. The CEO says he is confident that Actavis is set to keep growing in this brave new world.

    If Bisaro is right, Actavis could become a fixture on the 500, climbing its way toward the top. "We don't just want to be 432," he said. "We want to go up higher."

    At some point, maybe he'll even have enough cred to get the sign changed on his building.