Having left Actavis in order to make way for Claudio Albrecht (see news item of June 23rd 2010), Siggi Olafsson has now reappeared at Watson, where he will take over the role of Executive VP, Global Generics and will be resposible for driving Watson’s expansion outside the US. At present, his empire consists mainly of Arrow, which Watson acquired at the end of last year and which operates mostly in the UK and France, so he certainly has plenty of scope to expand further, assuming that Watson is ready to provide the funding.
Mr Olafsson should also have no problem finding additional management resources in Europe if he needs them, as it is likely that Actavis will be replacing some of its current personnel with refugees from ratiopharm, which is in the process of being acquired by Teva. All in all, this seems set to be a record year for personnel movements in the European generic industry and it’s also a game of musical chairs for those involved, as the number of jobs available appears to be rather smaller than the number of people available to fill them. This being so, Siggi is clearly one of the lucky ones.