As Merck KGaA Restructures Board and Focuses on Immuno-Oncology, Announces New CEO
October 13, 2015
By Mark Terry, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
Darmstadt, Germany-based Merck KgaA announced today that Stefan Oschmann will be the new chairman of the executive board and chief executive officer.
Oschmann will take over for Karl-Ludwig Kley at the end of the company’s annual meeting on April 29, 2016. Kley, who is 64, plans to retire.
Oschman has served as a member of the company’s executive board since 2011. He was responsible for pharma business until 2015, when he was made deputy chairman of the board and deputy chief executive officer.
“Under the leadership of Karl-Ludwig Kley, the company has gone through the biggest transformation in its almost 350-year history,” said Johannes Baillou, chairman of the board of partners of E. Merck KG in a statement. “This entailed building and expanding no fewer than three strong global businesses that are able to provide ground-breaking solutions for patients and customers and secure growth and affluence for our 40,000 employees.”
Merck KgaA and Merck & Co. are two separate companies with historic roots.
In September of this year, Merck KgaA announced that it was streamlining its healthcare management. Effective September 30, the new Healthcare Executive Committee would govern the company. It was made up of four business functions and three supporting units that replaced the existing Pharma Executive Committee.
The new Healthcare Executive Committee is chaired by Belén Garijo, member of the company’s executive board and chief executive officer of Healthcare.
“After having successfully restructured our business and rebuilt our pipeline, we are simplifying our organization to focus on driving the growth of our Healthcare business,” Garijo said in a statement in September. “With this new organization, we aim to accelerate the delivery of our pipeline in immuno-oncology, immunology and oncology, prepare for new global launches as well as maximize opportunities of our inline portfolio.”
Also changing roles, Simon Sturge became chief operating officer of the Healthcare Executive Committee. Rehan Verjee, previously General Manager Canada, joined the committee as chief marketing and strategy officer. Luciano Rossetti remains at head of global research and development. Jitinder Saini will take on the new role of global chief of staff and head of the strategy realization office. He also joined the Healthcare Executive Committee.
Andreas Stickler, global head of healthcare controlling, Randall Brandford, global head of healthcare human resources, and Monika Dorda, global head of healthcare legal, joined the Healthcare Executive Committee. The chief executive officer of consumer health, Uta KemmerichKeil, reports directly to Garijo.
This is part of a total company restructuring of its healthcare business, which now focuses on three strategies: driving key pipeline projects, maximizing its existing portfolio, and expanding into growing markets.
The company, faced with declining sales of Rebif, its best-selling multiple sclerosis drug, is focusing on its oncology pipeline. Luciano Rossetti recently told Reuters that the company’s Merck Serono division was in a “rapid evolution,” toward oncology and immuno-oncology providing up to 80 percent of its pipeline’s focus. “The company is in a pretty critical time, with a late-stage pipeline in which there could be important filings and launches.”
Included in that pipeline is avelumab, developed with Pfizer Inc. , currently in a Phase III trial for non-small cell lung cancer, and has been fast-tracked by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Merkel cell carcinoma. Also in two Phase III trials is evofosfamide for pancreatic cancer and soft tissue sarcoma.