Stada Names Novartis Exec as New CEO, It’s Fifth Leader Since 2016

Today STADA announced the appointment of Peter Goldschmidt as new CEO and chairman of the board.

In August 2017, Nidda Healthcare Holding AG, the acquiring company of Bain Capital and Cinven, completed their acquisition of STADA Arzneimittel AG, a German-based generics drug company. Today STADA announced the appointment of Peter Goldschmidt as new chief executive officer and chairman of the board. He will be the fifth chief executive officer of the company in slightly over two years.

Bain and Cinven bought the company for $6.4 billion. The company markets both generic and branded products, with a presence in more than 30 countries with more than 50 subsidiaries.

Goldschmidt will join STADA on September 1, 2018. He will replace Claudio Abrecht, who was brought in four months ago to act as an interim chief executive officer.

“Claudio Albrecht is making tremendous progress at STADA and will continue implementing the necessary reforms as CEO until later in the year,” said Guenter von Au, chairman of the STADA supervisory board, in a statement. “It has always been clear that he will then stay with STADA in a nonexecutive role, and we are delighted to have recruited an outstanding successor.”

Goldschmidt is currently president of Sandoz USA and Head North America. Before that, he was the Global Executive Member for Central and Eastern Europe. He also has held senior leadership positions at Novartis Pharma in Asia and Europe. He is a German national.

“Peter Goldschmidt is truly an excellent choice,” Albrecht said in a statement. “I have known him for many years and hold him in very high esteem. I’m pleased especially for our 11,000 employees who now have a clear, long-term perspective for the leadership of the company. We are laying the foundation for the company’s continued growth: A great deal has been achieved since September of last year. I will continue working full speed ahead to keep STADA on track for renewal until the transition of my role, and I look forward to staying close to the company in a non-executive role in the long term.”

Mark Keatley, the company’s chief financial officer, and Barthold Piening, chief technical officer, will keep their positions on the executive board.

Part of STADA’s plans moving forward is to further internationalize its brands. On Jan. 18, 2018, it worked out an early termination of a license agreement with Sanofi for its Hedrin products in Belgium, Spain, and Portugal. These over-the-counter products for head lice and nits will now be marketed by STADA companies, Eurogenerics (Belgium), Ciclum Farma (Portugal) and Laboratorio STADA(Spain). They also picked up the brand names, Silikom in Belgium, Piky in Portugal and Neositrin in Spain.

“Alongside biosimilars, the internationalization of successful products is one of STADA’s business areas with the greatest growth potential,” said Albrecht in a statement. “Hedrin is the Group’s first truly pan-European product and demonstrates the path we would like to take with other strong products such as Fultium, ViruProtect or Ladival.”

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