AstraZeneca (AZN.L) has picked former Volvo boss Leif Johansson as its next chairman, hoping his experience of steering the truckmaker through tough times will help at a drugmaker facing shrinking revenues and a weak pipeline of new drugs. The 60-year-old Swede was chief executive of world number two truck maker Volvo (VOLVb.ST) for 14 years and his arrival at AstraZeneca follows a trend among drugmakers seeking lessons from the auto industry on leaner, meaner production. Johansson cut his teeth in the Big Pharma sector with three years as a non-executive director at Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N) until 2011, but was most recently chairman of the world’s top mobile network equipment maker Ericsson (ERICb.ST), a job he took up barely a year ago in April 2011.
