He refused to raise drug prices more than inflation. When he told that to Merck's marketing team, Vagelos said, "They said 'we're leaving money on the table, of course.' And I said, 'Ffne, that's what we'll do.'"

'I even refused to meet with stock analysts.'

"I never worried about stockholders ever. It never crossed my mind. I even refused to meet with stock analysts."

That's unimaginable by today's standards.

At one point, he made a last minute decision to donate a massive quantity of a drug that cured river blindness in patients in Africa. It cost the company a lot of money.

"One of the people — when I was reporting it — at the next board meeting said 'you never called us!' And I said it was going so fast, it never crossed my mind. I forgot about it."

You could be cynical about this. You could argue holding down drug prices helped stave off regulations, and there were a lot of PR benefits to that donation in Africa.

But by not focusing on maximizing shareholder value, Merck did really well. During the Vagelos era, Merck came out with lots of new drugs, which led Merck's stock price to increase an average of 22% per year. In the years since, it has been just 5% a year.

(Andy Kiersz / Business Insider)

But these days, it's just about impossible to run a company the way Vagelos ran Merck.

"You have to provide a little bit of something for everybody," said Brent Saunders, the CEO of Allergan. You might know it as the maker of Botox. Allergan is highly respected by Wall Street and its competitors, but Saunders can't ignore investors.

"You need to have good short-term performance. You have to have sound mid-term strategy and performance, and ultimately, because of the product cycle and the way we innovate over the long term, really have conviction around your long-term strategy," he said in an interview with Business Insider and Marketplace. "I try to do it all."

'I try to do it all.'

In many ways, Allergan is the model modern pharmaceutical company.

It more often acquires drugs or companies, rather than go through the risky process of discovering and developing drugs from scratch, as companies like Merck did in its heyday.

(A sample of Botox is seen at the Long Island Plastic Surgical Group at the Americana Manhasset luxury shopping destination in Manhasset, New York September 30, 2010.REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton)

A good portion of its R&D pipeline is dedicated to finding new uses for existing drugs like Botox, which currently has 11 approved indications, and more on the way. So far it can be used for wrinkles, migraines, overactive bladders, and much more.

"Their success is really based on a drug ... [where] the market opportunities are endless," said Oner Tulum, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. "It's like milking a cow."

Saunders calls Botox, "a pipeline in a product."

And Saunders can't ignore his share price, especially now that he has one of the most famous activist investors taking a big stake in Allergan: Carl Icahn.

"I view Carl as just one of many important shareholders," Saunders said. "We listen to all of our shareholders, activist and passive and long term and short term."

Icahn is leaving Saunders alone for now, but that could change. He has a history of pressuring companies to make moves and then getting out of the stock.

Inversion

To save on taxes, Allergan is technically an Irish company, even though Saunders mostly works in New Jersey. It caused a little tension between Saunders and his father when Pfizer tried to buy Allergan to take advantage of the tax deal.

(Brent SaundersBrendan McDermid/Reuters)

"I was arguing that taxes aren't a question of patriotism," Saunders said. "He kept insisting, and ultimately I said he had moved to Florida because it had zero state income tax and zero estate tax, and I said, look, you did a personal inversion."

Saunders says that being based in Ireland allows Allergan to use the savings to invest more in the US.

Then, there's prices: Allergan says it raises prices roughly eight percent a year – far greater than inflation, but also nothing like a Valeant, the drug company that has been the focus of investigations in to price hikes.

But for all the ways Allergan is an example of the new way pharmaceutical companies operate today, Saunders sometimes sounds a bit like Dr. Vagelos.

"When we do well for patients, when we come up with innovation for an unmet need, when we can improve a patient's life by one of our treatments, our shareholders benefit," he said.

What's new is old again

Today, Merck and other big pharma companies look more like Allergan. Their own research teams haven't been so productive lately, so they increasingly buy up drugs and their makers.

The old established companies are spending billions buying back their own shares.

After Roy Vagelos retired from Merck, he made a fortune as chairman of the biotech firm Regeneron. What does he think of newer firms and their business models?

"Well, I don't think much of them," he said. "The biopharmaceutical business is different than selling buttons and bicycles."

Wall Street, though, might not agree.

"The Price of Profits," our series with Marketplace, looks at what happens when profits become a company's product. For more, visit priceofprofits.org.

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