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The Pharmalot blog authored by the intrepid Ed Silverman today reported that Dan Vasella is out as CEO at Novartis and there has been an executive shake up at the company. According to the post, Vasella is reliquishing his post a CEO but retaining his chairman title For a complete run down and a glimpse at the new Novartis org chart read Ed's post

Vasella has come under fire (literally and figuratively) over the past year or so.  Industry insiders and Novartis shareholders contended that he couldn't manage the day-to-day operations of companies and succeed as Chairman. Also, Vasella was the victim of  unwarranted, vicious attacks by animal rights activists who publicly denounced him and set his home on fire!

Vasella, one of the few physicians to head a pharmaceutical company, held the top position since 1996 following the merger of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy to form Novartis. The company has expanded in to new therapeutic areas and markets and performed well under Vasella's stewardship. However, many industry experts contend that ten years is the optimum tenure for most life sciences CEOs. What's four years in the scheme of things?

Until next time....

 Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

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Ed Silverman at Pharmalot alerted me to this tidbit. Daniel Vasella, CEO of the Swiss drug maker Novartis AG, mentioned in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he is planning a companywide restructuring aimed at reducing “layers of management and bureaucracy—following through on reorganization comments he made several months ago.

Novartis, plans to disclose more about its restructuring plans by mid-month and elaborate further in February, adding that the restructuring will involve some job cuts, but Vasella declined to say how many. In an October briefing for analysts, Novartis executives said there would be 240 jobs cut in US headquarter functions Hanover, NJ) and 510 sales reps and 510 contracted rep positions eliminated, for savings of $230 million.

Novartis is one of several big drugmakers to cutback - AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo and Johnson & Johnson have all announced layoffs in the past year. And Merck and Wyeth continue to trim selectively as part of ongoing savings programs.

According to the Journal, the changes at Novartis will follow recent management changes and comes after a tough year for Novartis. The drugmaker, faced generic competition on some of its

biggest drugs and failed to gain FDA approval for two new products–including the anti-diabetes drug Galvus (vildagliptin) which was predicted to be a blockbuster. Earlier this year, it also was forced to withdraw from the US and Swiss markets its drug for irritable-bowel syndrome, Zelnorm, after safety concerns.

One new rule Vasella has set: There should be no more than six layers of employees in any Novartis division, from the lowest-ranking person up to the division head. Novartis has four divisions: pharmaceuticals, generics (Sandoz), vaccines and diagnostics, and consumer health, which includes over-the-counter medicines.

Vasella says he realized the pharma division, in particular, was bogged down with bureaucracy after he had recent lunch with a group of its employees. The reorganization will also cut costs from Novartis’s procurement activities. One area that will come under particular scrutiny: the use of third-party CROs to oversee Novartis’s clinical trials which has been extremely costly for the Company.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (China and India?)!!!!!!

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