Sandoz CEO Richard Francis steps down, reigniting split-off rumors

By PharmaCompass

2019-03-21

Impressions: 158 Article

Last month, we shared news about Novartis’ struggling generics division — Sandoz — and how its future is in question after a revamp, scheduled to take place over the next 18 months. More questions were raised about the future of Sandoz when last week its CEO Richard Francis said he is unable to “commit to (Sandoz’s) multi-year journey”.

Francis took the helm of Sandoz in 2014, after putting in 13 years at Biogen where he held various executive roles.

In a statement, Francis pointed to the evolution taking place at Sandoz as the main reason behind his departure. “I realize that this is a multi-year journey which I cannot commit to and therefore have decided that now is the right time to step down,” he said. Francis (51) will step down on March 31, Novartis said.

Francesco Balestrieri, head of Sandoz’s Europe region, will become interim CEO and oversee what Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan termed “a multi-year transformation program” in which Sandoz will re-focus on biosimilars and hard-to-make generics.

In September last year, Novartis sold selected portions of its Sandoz US portfolio, specifically the Sandoz US dermatology business and generic US oral solids portfolio, to Aurobindo Pharma. Since then, there have been rumors that Novartis wants to split off Sandoz.

However, Novartis has been repeatedly squashing rumors that it will split-off the generics business. Earlier this month, chairman Joerg Reinhardt, reportedly told a Swiss business newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft: “Sales are not planned at the moment. There are also no specific considerations that would have the goal of separating Sandoz.”

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