Execute Well or You're Out

Sports teams can have them, so why not companies? It's a rebuilding year for Genzyme (NASDAQ:GENZ).

After viral contamination at a manufacturing facility forced the company to shut down and clean up, I guess investors should be happy with the minuscule 2% drop in revenue for the year.

Source: Capital IQ (a division of Standard & Poor's) and company press release.

The top-line growth should get back to normal for 2010, although it's somewhat dependent on how well Genzyme's Gaucher drug, Cerezyme, competes against what could be new offerings from Shire (NASDAQ:SHPGY) and one from Protalix BioTherapeutics (NYSE:PLX) and Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), which are both under review at the Food and Drug Administration. Genzyme is also waiting for the FDA to sign off on its own Lumizyme, which can be produced in larger batches than its current treatment for Pompe disease, Myozyme.

The company's earnings are expected to improve even more. Genzyme guided for adjusted EPS to come in between $2.80 and $3.20, an increase of 23% to 41% over 2009, but management cautioned that $1.00 of those earnings isn't expected until the last quarter of the year. Rebuilding takes time, you know.

Management had better hope billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who recently upped his stake in the company, understands that. While he might be distracted with his fight to gain control of Biogen Idec's (NASDAQ:BIIB) board, I'm guessing the Energizer pit bull can handle two proxy fights at one time. Management may have bought itself some time by signing a pact with another large investor, Ralph Whitworth, but it'll need to execute near-flawlessly to satisfy investors who have been disappointed time and time again.