AstraZeneca hires strategy boss
pharmafile | March 25, 2013 | News story | Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, dunoyer
AstraZeneca has poached one of GlaxoSmithKline’s senior executives to help push through its new growth strategy.
Marc Dunoyer, global head of rare diseases at GSK, will join AstraZeneca in the second quarter of the year as executive vice president, global portfolio & product strategy, a newly-created role.
The manufacturer’s chief executive Pascal Soriot said Dunoyer’s new post is “aimed at bringing greater integration across our R&D, commercial and business development activities”.
Reading between the lines, he has been hired in part as a skilled outsider to knock heads together internally to make Soriot’s vision for the company work.
AstraZeneca last week set out an ambitious plan to return it to growth, accelerating the development of Phase II compounds and restructuring global R&D operations to make the company more responsive.
Dunoyer will report to Soriot and his ‘most critical priorities’ will be to bolster core growth platforms and therapy areas through business development initiatives and internal leadership, AstraZeneca says.
R&D is now to concentrate on three main areas: respiratory, inflammation & autoimmunity, cardiovascular & metabolic disease and oncology.
Dunoyer will be installed as a member of AstraZeneca’s senior executive team with a remit to drive business development, mergers and acquisitions, plus portfolio and product strategies.
“Marc is a first-rate leader with a proven track record in driving business growth and he brings to AstraZeneca a wealth of international operating experience, in particular in the important Asia region, combined with outstanding strategic skills,” Soriot said.
Dunoyer is chairman of GSK Japan and a member of the group’s corporate executive team as well as having his rare diseases role.
His experience chimes with AstraZeneca’s plans to speed up pipeline development as he oversaw global development of rare disease treatments from R&D through to commercialisation at GSK.
He was also the group’s president for Asia Pacific and Japan and worked in international positions in operations and general management at Hoechst Marion Roussel before joining GSK in 1999.
Dunoyer has a law degree and an MBA and qualified as a junior certified public accountant in France.
Adam Hill
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