AstraZeneca shakes up management
pharmafile | January 16, 2013 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, Mackay, R&D, Soriot
AstraZeneca has taken its most dramatic steps yet to arrest decline, with chief executive Pascal Soriot axeing two senior positions and shaking up the rest of the senior management team.
Martin Mackay, president of R&D, and Tony Zook, executive vice president, global commercial, have both been told their jobs are ‘eliminated’.
The pair will leave the Anglo-Swedish firm at the end of this month in a restructure which sees half a dozen new senior roles created.
Three of these are in R&D and will in effect replace Mackay’s job, with responsibility for discovery and early-stage development in small molecules, biologics and for late-stage development.
There are also three new roles overseeing each of North America, Europe and international, along with a job whose remit is global portfolio and product strategy, which will sit between R&D and sales.
All but the last of these have been filled already, and while some way short of a ‘night of the long knives’, Soriot’s plan shows intent as the company seeks to revamp R&D and mitigate the worst effects of its upcoming patent cliff.
Drugs which accounted for a fifth of all US sales in 2011 are scheduled to lose exclusivity by 2015, and AstraZeneca saw third quarter revenue and pre-tax profit last year both fall 15%, to $6.7 billion and $2 billion, respectively.
Soriot was at pains to highlight the fact that the new structure “draws heavily from the leadership talent within the company”. Quicker decision-making is among the key reasons for the changes, along with focusing minds on pipeline assets, key brands and major markets, he added.
Soriot joined from Roche in October following the departure of predecessor David Brennan in the summer after shareholder pressure over the company’s recent performance.
Pipeline issues and financial results have been at the top of the Frenchman’s in-tray since he took over and he has been upfront about acknowledging the challenges AstraZeneca faces.
The changes mean Mene Pangalos is now executive vice president, innovative medicines, while Bahija Jallal has the same title at MedImmune and Briggs Morrison heads up global medicines development.
Paul Hudson becomes executive vice president, North America, with Ruud Dobber (Europe) and Mark Mallon (International) fulfilling a similar role in their respective areas.
Adam Hill
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