AstraZeneca name McKillop’s successor as sales rise
pharmafile | August 3, 2005 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Sir Tom McKillop is to step down in January as chief executive of AstraZeneca laying to rest speculation about the company's management succession.
The 62-year-old will hand the reins of Europe's third biggest pharma company to 51-year-old David Brennan, who was viewed as a front runner among internal candidates to take the job and currently heads up AstraZeneca's American operations.
The company said it had undergone a rigorous process before appointing Brennan but the move will surprise many, who had tipped John Patterson, head of development, or finance director John Symonds for the role.
McKillop, who has presided over AstraZeneca since 1999, is expected to join the board of Royal Bank of Scotland with a view to taking over as the financial services group chairman.
Scotland-born McKillop is credited with transforming AstraZeneca into a multinational company following the merger of UK's Zeneca and Swedish group Astra.
However his tenure has latterly been marred by regulatory and safety problems surrounding two of the company's potential blockbusters, Exanta and Iressa, while safety concerns have undermined sales of statin Crestor.
But news of McKillop's departure has coincided with impressive second quarter financials from AstraZeneca, which saw sales increase by 13% to $6.1 billion.
Profits were driven by two established performers, anti-ulcerant Nexium and schizophrenia drug Seroquel, but the company suffered from lower than expected uptake in new prescriptions of Crestor in the US (just 6.2%) and an 86% drop in sales of Iressa. The cancer drug was found not to prolong lives in most patients, leading AstraZeneca to cease actively promoting it for new patients.
Brennan, a US citizen who joined the company's board in March, will have to address persistent concerns about the company's relatively weak pipeline, particularly of drugs in late-stage development.
This has prompted analysts to predict that AstraZeneca could opt for consolidation and a merger with the UK's biggest pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, though both companies have denied this.
Brennan has made it clear that he will not oversee a change in the company's overall strategy and has already identified Crestor, Nexium and Seroquel as the company's platform for growth. He reiterated the company's confidence in troubled cholesterol drug Crestor.
"Our commitment to Crestor is really unwavering in the face of the challenges that it has seen, because we recognise the potential of this product," he said. "Globally it is already well over a billion dollar product now, on an annualised business. So it a significant brand in a significant market."
Brennan has 30 years experience in pharma, predominantly in sales and marketing, and will be moving to London to oversee operations.
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