Forest Laboratories Inc.
Howard Solomon
, 75
CEO since 1977
Industry:
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
Sales:
$2 billion
Net Income:
$538 million
Corporate Snapshot:
FRX
Forest Labs (FRX) has proven that a nimble small player can compete successfully against the giants. Since launching its antidepressant Celexa in 1998, Forest has built a blockbuster going up against the likes of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Pfizer (PFE). The New York company's strategy is to license promising drugs from midsize foreign drugmakers that don't have the muscle to market in the U.S. and then relentlessly promote the products. It's a formula that led to 39% higher sales last year without piling on debt. The result: While investors shunned other drug stocks, Forest's shareholders were rewarded with 25.3% returns over the past year and 191.6% over the past three years.
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WellPoint Health Networks, Inc.
Leonard D. Schaeffer, 57
CEO since 1986
Industry:
Health-Care
Equipment &
Services
Sales:
$17.3 billion
Net Income:
$698 million
Corporate Snapshot:
WLP
After years of settling for the slow growth typical of conservative insurance companies, WellPoint (WLP) has stepped aggressively into the acquisitions game. The Thousand Oaks (Calif.)-based insurer scooped up four regional health plans in the last two years. That helped boost sales 40% in the past year, with profits jumping 68%. But there have been some troubling setbacks. Recently, Maryland regulators rejected its $1.37 billion bid for that state's biggest health insurer, CareFirst. While Schaeffer hasn't decided whether to pursue the deal further, there's little doubt that he wants his empire to grow.
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Copyright 2003, Bloomberg L.P.
