In today’s Bulldog wrapup of life science and biotech news:

  • Valenat, which operates Sprout Pharmaceuticals and Salix in Raleigh, has a new CEO
  • Novozymes and Monsanto move toward first crop product in 2017
  • Monsanto plans 1,000 job cuts.

The details:

  • Valeant names Howard Schiller as interim CEO

Valeant Pharmaceuticals has named former finance chief Howard Schiller as interim CEO while the troubled drug company’s chairman and chief executive remains hospitalized with severe pneumonia.

Valeant said Tuesday that J. Michael Pearson is still on medical leave, and it did not know when he would return. Schiller will become interim CEO immediately and Robert Ingram, the company’s lead independent director, will serve as interim board chairman.

Valeant, based in Laval, Quebec, announced Pearson’s hospitalization late last month. It then said last week that three executives, a group that did not include Schiller or Ingram, would take over leadership in his absence. The company had named Schiller and Ingram to a board-created committee charged with overseeing and supporting the CEO position.

Schiller served as the company’s chief financial officer from the end of 2011 through June 2015 and is currently a member of the company’s board.

Before Valeant, Schiller spent 24 years at the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs. He served as a chief operating officer and was responsible for health care and consumer products, among other businesses in the company’s investment banking division.

  • Novozymes-Monsanto corn inoculant

The BioAg Alliance between Novozymes and Monsanto is planning to begin selling a corn inoculant in 2017, according to Reuters.

In tests, the product has boosted crop yield by 4 bushels an acre.

Reuters note the alliance “is currently running the world’s largest microbial research program to develop the next generation of these products.”

Novozymes operates its North American headquarters in Franklinton, N.C.

Read more at:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSFWN14P04420160106?type=companyNews

  • Monsanto eliminates 1,000 more jobs to cut costs

Monsanto said Wednesday it will eliminate another 1,000 jobs as it expands a cost-cutting plan designed to deal with falling sales of biotech-corn seeds and other financial headwinds.

The additional layoffs will bring the agriculture giant’s total planned cuts to 3,600 jobs over the next two years, or about 16 percent of its global workforce. In October the company first announced the restructuring plan, intended to streamline its sales, R&D and other operations.

The St. Louis-based company says the restructuring will cost between $1.1 billion and $1.2 billion to implement, up from previous estimates of $850 million to $900 million. By the end of fiscal 2018, the company expects the changes to generate annual savings of $500 million.

Its shares slipped in midday trading Wednesday.