Insightful posts Toinv and nice summary. It certainly doesn't seem impossible to find real biotech business expertise/excellence and with all the scientific accomplishment and expertise at both RVX and Zenith one would think that the business expertise would be readily available. You almost have to chock it up to ego and fear on the part of very senior management. I find it very interesting that over the years the very successful biotech/pharma board members never really stuck around too long. People like Arthur Higgins and Roger Newton had infinitely more biotech/pharm smarts and success than Don, neither stayed too long yet Don is still here, baffling to say the least.
Counter that with the truly world class scientific advisors that always seem available to both companies. To me it speaks volumes about what the business community thinks of management vs what the scientific community thinks of the science. Sad.