After Emma Walmsley's Promotion, GlaxoSmithKline Taps Former Novartis AG Exec to Head Consumer Unit
September 29, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
LONDON – Following the appointment of Emma Walmsley as the new chief executive officer of GlaxoSmithKline , the company tapped former Novartis executive Brian McNamara as her successor to lead the company’s consumer healthcare business.
McNamara was named the new CEO of the division and will begin work immediately. Before his promotion, McNamara had been serving as the healthcare division head for Europe and the Americas. McNamara came to GSK from Novartis following completion of GSK’s three-part transaction with Novartis. He has been a member of GSK’s Consumer Healthcare Executive Team since 2015. He will report to current CEO Sir Andrew Witty until Walmsley takes the reigns early next year upon Witty’s retirement after 10 years at the helm of GSK. McNamara will join GSK’s corporate executive team and will continue to serve as a member of the Board of the Consumer Healthcare Joint Venture with Novartis, GSK said this morning.
In a statement, Witty said McNamara was the “clear choice” to build on the momentum the consumer health division has experiences. He said McNamara’s “significant experience and expertise” will allow the division to maximize future opportunities the company has with its brands.
“I am very excited about the opportunity to lead the Consumer Healthcare business at GSK. We have an amazing opportunity ahead of us to deliver on our promise to consumers and grow our business to further extend our position as a leading, global consumer healthcare company,” McNamara said in a statement.
Prior to joining GSK, McNamara spent 11 years at Novartis and 16 years at Procter & Gamble .
Walmsley’s appointment as Witty’s successor makes her the first woman to helm a top global drugmaker. Walmsley will steer the company into a new era and one of the larger decisions awaiting her is whether or not GSK will break up into smaller companies. There were some hints that her appointment was a signal that GSK will retain its core businesses intact, Reuters reported last week. Some investors have wanted to see the company make some radical changes, which would include a breakup. With the appointment of an insider, it could signal a more “business as usual approach” to GSK’s future.
Although the company reported a 5 percent growth in emerging markets in 2015, sales in Europe were flat and in the U.S. sales were down about 10 percent as the result of formulary and contract changes to asthma drug Advair. Glaxo is under pressure to develop new drugs that aren’t threatened by generics.
Walmsley joined GSK in 2010 after spending 17 years at L’Oréal, where she held a number of managerial positions, including overseeing the company’s consumer products division in China. Walmsley has been helming GSK’s consumer healthcare division since 2015 following the company’s three-part $20 billion deal with Novartis (NVS) that saw the company swap its oncology drugs for Novartis’s consumer health products and vaccines.
In addition to its appointment of McNamara, GSK announced separately it has divested itself of Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd., after selling 28.2 million ordinary shares. The stock sale earned the company about $620 million.