Eli Lilly CEO on �America�s Growing Innovation Gap�

In �America�s Growing Innovation Gap�, WSJ, July 9, 2010, Eli Lilly CEO John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D. writes that:

��the most important elements are the seeds of innovation, which equate to talented people and their ideas.�

He then suggests these people are �highly skilled immigrants� abroad.

In my own circle of friends, I know American pharma industry cast-offs who are both brilliant and talented. One with dual MS degrees in mathematics and computer science from a major university, one a skilled bioinformaticist I've had teach my healthcare informatics students as guest lecturer, one a brilliant programmer who could be considered the grandfather of computer image manipulation, another with years of expertise in pharma knowledge discovery.

Then there's me � former Director of a Merck R&D support group and of The Merck Index - with degrees in medicine and post-doctoral specialization in biomedical informatics and information science, plus I'm an extra-class amateur radio licensee who understands complex technology at a level far beyond that of the usual pharmaceutical company worker.

Yet no donuts for us. In recent years the pharmaceutical industry won�t grant any of us the courtesy even of an interview.

However, in Mar. 2009 as I documented here, I did receive an email solicitation from Lilly that read as follows ("sic's" are mine):

�Your Help Is Requested for a Eli Lilly Career Opportunity! (sic) I am a member of the Staffing Team at Eli Lilly. I were referred to me (sic) as person who specializes in pharmaceutical based informatics. I wanted to reach out to me (sic), to see if you maybe able (sic) to recommend anyone that could qualify for the below position (sic)."

I was not exactly inspired by this solicitation, perhaps written by one of the "highly skilled immigrants" Lechleiter covets.

Nor was I inspired by the earlier solicitation I documented at my Jan. 2009 post "What, Me Worry? Lilly Fined Over Zyprexa, Should Be Fined For eRecruitment Inanity As Well?"

I suggest if Mr. Lechleiter wishes to close America�s purported "innovation gap", he spend some time away from the executive castle and perhaps review some resumes � and the job solicitations his company proffers � in his HR department.

A cause of the "innovation gap" may be leadership xenophilia, at the expense of the American born-and-raised scientists the pharma industry is so fond of discarding.

-- SS