By Ben Hirschler
LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's new chief executive
stamped his authority on the struggling drugmaker on Tuesday by
removing the heads of research and commercial operations in a
management revamp designed to speed decision-making.
Pascal Soriot, who took the helm at Britain's second-biggest
pharmaceutical company in October, said the roles held by Martin
Mackay and Tony Zook respectively had been eliminated and both
men would leave the company at the end of January.
Instead, Soriot is creating three senior research and
development (R&D) roles responsible for discovery and early
stage development in small molecules, biologics and late-stage
development.
On the commercial side, three positions will in future
represent the different regions. A further senior role - to be
filled at a later date - will oversee the global portfolio and
product strategy, bridging the R&D and sales organisations.
The move effectively strips out a layer of senior management
and means executives in charge of different divisions will have
a seat at the executive top table - something Soriot hopes will
reduce bureaucracy.
"This new senior executive team structure, that draws
heavily from the leadership talent within the company, enables
us to bring an even sharper management focus to key pipeline
assets, key brands and key markets, and helps us further
accelerate decision-making," Soriot said.
The former Roche executive is striving to return AstraZeneca
to health in the face of one of the industry's steepest patent
"cliffs" - when patents expire and drugs face generic
competition.
He is expected to set out his ideas for the group when he
presents full-year results on Jan. 31, before delivering full
details of an in-depth strategy review during a meeting for
analysts and investors in March.
CLEARING THE DECKS
"He is clearing the decks," said Navid Malik, an analyst at
Cenkos Securities.
"But it is a surprise to see Mackay leaving. He was a
one-time head of research at Pfizer, so he's a heavy-hitter
brought on board to solve problems and he hasn't really had a
lot of time to do that."
Mackay jumped ship from Pfizer, the world's biggest
drugmaker, to AstraZeneca in May 2010.
Malik said AstraZeneca's decision to give biologic products
an equal ranking with traditional small molecule drugs in the
R&D structure reflect a renewed focus on biotech treatments,
which are increasingly seen as the future of modern medicine.
Soriot himself has extensive experience of the biologics
side of the industry from his time at Roche, where he headed up
its Genentech biotech unit.
His first decision on taking office was to suspend share
buybacks, prompting immediate speculation that he will embark on
more acquisitions to replace lost revenue. But he is also likely
to re-focus both R&D and marketing operations in a bid to make
the most of existing assets.
The company is not alone in facing big patent losses, but
while rivals like GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi have now put the
worst behind them, AstraZeneca still has the worst to come.
Its two biggest selling drugs - Nexium for stomach acid and
the cholesterol fighter Crestor - will lose U.S. protection in
2014 and 2016.
Soriot's new line-up for the key R&D functions will see Mene
Pangalos take over as head of innovative medicines, with Bahija
Jallal responsible for biologic drug development at the
MedImmune unit, and Briggs Morrison heading up global medicines
development.
(Additional Reporting by Karen Rebelo)
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