Endo Pharma CEO Dave Holveck is diversifying the company from its core pain franchise into seemingly unrelated fields. Critics argue that he's neglecting its core strengths and acquiring mediocre assets, but he says such moves are necessary to address marketplace shifts.

Endo believes its specialist approach to pain management is key to eventually winning over a respectable market share in primary care, given that it can successfully differentiate Frova, the sixth-in-class migraine treatment it licensed from Vernalis in July 2004. Skeptics point to the failure of previous owners of Frova to gain the drug any primary care notice since its launch in mid-2002. Endo chairman and CEO Carol Ammon contends that the company can inexpensively exploit the unique characteristics of the drug in the medical community and succeed where others have failed through a singular focus on specialist medicine that she claims as its bailiwick.