It is all change at Sandoz this year, as Novartis has executed a 180-degree strategy shift. No longer is it pursuing its previous policy of ever closer union with the innovative pharma division, but instead it now favours far greater autonomy for its generic...
The changing of the guard: New CEOs move in
Recent months have seen a slew of management changes at major generics companies. Some of this has been driven by shareholder dissatisfaction with poor performance (Teva being the obvious example here), but there have also been generational and other shifts that offer interesting pointers...
The cuckoo clock ticks for management as Sandoz waits for its biosimilars to make money
At its May ‘Meet the management’ event in Basel, Sandoz was represented by Richard Francis, the MD of the business unit, Peter Goldschmidt, the regional manager for the US and Carol Lynch, head of the biosimilars business. According to Mr Francis, the choice of...
Hartmut Retzlaff falls victim to barbarian hordes
The announcement today that Hartmut Retzlaff has stepped down as CEO of Stada ‘due to a serious long-term illness’ comes as something of a surprise, but the reasons are not hard to discern. For weeks, activist investors in the form of a group called...
Into the void: All change in UK generics in 2016
Teva’s announcement last year that it was to acquire Allergan’s generic assets (‘Actavis’), came as a total surprise to the market. All the more so since Teva was, at the time, in hot pursuit of Mylan. It was particularly startling news in the UK,...
Sandoz at the Novartis ‘Meet the Management’ event
Having agreed a major asset swap with GSK and hence simplified its business into three ‘powerhouse’ divisions, Novartis last week held its first ‘Meet the Management’ event for analysts and investors. This involved the top teams of each of the three divisions (and also...
Strength in numbers? Actavis announces an expanded management team
Last week, Actavis announced what its management team would look like following the completion of the Forest deal, which is expected to be some time towards the end of the year. The line-up contained some obvious choices and some surprises, with the overall impression...
Teva shoots the messenger – Jeremy Levin resigns
Teva announced last week that its CEO, Jeremy Levin, is to resign with immediate effect. This reportedly follows disagreements with the Teva Board over the implementation of the company’s strategy, as well as a slating from analysts and investors. Employees are also unhappy, after...
Here we go again: Pfizer sets up a new generics division
On July 29th, Pfizer announced that it would follow the lead set by GSK three months previously and divide up its business so as to create a separate unit containing its off-patent (i.e. generic) products. The new division, which is described as the Value...
Soul searchng at Teva as Dr Levin takes charge
At a hastily-arranged conference call a couple of weeks ago, the new CEO of Teva, Jeremy Levin, announced a downgrade of Teva’s forecast earnings for 2012 and talked a little about the business review that he is conducting and about his search for Teva’s...