London, UK, 9th February 2015:
Pharmaceutical Licensing Group (PLG) is pleased to announce the results of its 8th Annual Awards for excellence in business development which were given at its AGM on 5th February 2015.
The AstraZeneca award for Business Development Executive of the Year 2014 was given to Thorsten Umland, Head of BD&L Consumer Care at Bayer Healthcare for negotiating and closing two major acquisitions; one with Merck & Co’s Consumer Care business (for $14.2bn), making Bayer the leading global OTC company, and the second with Dihon Pharmaceutical Co Ltd in China. The award was made by Tim Herpin, Head of UK Transactions Team at AstraZeneca.
The runner up for the 2014 award was Gavin Spencer, Executive Vice President Corporate Development of Nicox. Past winners include Joanne Kelley from AstraZeneca, Barbara Krebs-Pohl at MorphoSys, Catherine Pickering from Merck Serono and Daniel Thomas of Alliance Pharma.
The PLG award for Best Business Development Newcomer went to Arnaud Wieczorek of Onxeo.
In addition, the PLG Lifetime Achievement award was given to David Colpman, formerly Business Development Director at Shire for the large number and quality of deals (including the acquisition of ViroPharma for a headline value $4.2bn in January 2014 and the transformative acquisition of TransKarvotic Therapies for a headline $1.6bn in April 2005) and to recognise his significant contribution and support of the PLG’s conference programmes and training courses.
The event was held at Barber Surgeons’ Hall in London where the after dinner speaker was Shaun Grady, Head of Business Development at AstraZeneca.
PLG’s Chairman, Campbell Wilson stated, “We are delighted by the level of support for the PLG Awards which grows in popularity year on year. Nominations were received from companies across Europe and the quality was outstanding. On behalf of the PLG Board, I would like to thank all who submitted nominations, AstraZeneca for their continued support of the Awards and offer my congratulations to the winners.
About PLG
The Pharmaceutical Licensing Group (PLG) is the professional association of business development and licensing executives working in the healthcare sector. The PLG has been established for 30 years and is the premier organisation for networking and training for BD&L and related functions in the biotechnology and the pharmaceutical industry. The PLG is a not-for-profit organisation that is part of a wider network across Europe, Canada and Japan.
As a professional association run by a committee of elected members, the group provides its’ members with a number of benefits, including:
For further information contact:
Steve Jarvis, Executive Director PLG
Telephone: +44 (0) 1737 356 391
E-mail: stevejarvis@plg-uk.com
Website: www.plg-group.com
Help employers find you! Check out all the jobs and post your resume.
