Sanofi Said to Consider Smith & Nephew, Takeda Executives as CEO
2014-11-19 13:23:17.789 GMT
By Albertina Torsoli
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Sanofi has considered Olivier Bohuon
of medical-device maker Smith & Nephew Plc and Takeda
Pharmaceutical Co.’s Christophe Weber as possible replacements
for ousted Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher, said people
familiar with the situation.
The board of Paris-based Sanofi has started contacting
potential candidates and wants to move quickly with the
recruiting, said the people, who asked not to be identified
discussing private matters. Eric Cornut, Novartis AG’s chief
ethics officer, also is a potential candidate, as is Olivier
Brandicourt, head of Bayer AG’s health-care business, some of
the people said.
The names cited in the search indicate Sanofi is focusing
mostly on French executives with pharmaceutical experience. The
company last month ousted Viehbacher, a Canadian-German, saying
relations between him and the board weren’t close enough and
that he failed to sufficiently execute the strategy. Some
investors said there was a culture clash between Viehbacher and
the board, which is mostly French. Chairman Serge Weinberg said
nationality wouldn’t be a criteria in the search.
“You’ve got to have somebody who is agile enough to deal
with resource allocation on the one hand, but also has the
ability to catch on to changes,” Michael Leuchten, an analyst
at Barclays Plc in London, said by phone. “This is where people
are a little bit concerned now, because people thought
Viehbacher had that.”
Bohuon, Weber
Bohuon previously worked at drugmakers Pierre Fabre SA,
Abbott Laboratories and GlaxoSmithKline Plc. He declined to
comment on the Sanofi job when asked about it on a conference
call last month.
Weber, another former Glaxo executive, joined Osaka, Japan-
based Takeda as chief operating officer in April and the company
plans to have him become CEO next year. He’s unlikely to accept
a Sanofi offer after such a short time at Takeda, three people
said.
Bohuon, Weber and Brandicourt are French. Cornut, who is
Swiss, ran Novartis’s French operations. The board may be
considering other candidates and could still turn to someone
else, one person said.
AstraZeneca Plc CEO Pascal Soriot also remains a possible
candidate, although he has already been approached and said he
wasn’t interested, the people said. Soriot, who is French, is
unlikely to leave his current job for the Sanofi one, they said.
Asked about the job on a Nov. 6 conference call, Soriot said he
couldn’t say whether he was interested.
Cambridge Meeting
The search is under way as Weinberg, who’s serving as
interim CEO, prepares to brief investors tomorrow in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, on Sanofi’s new medicines, including the insulin
Toujeo and the cholesterol treatment alirocumab.
Weinberg has been busy meeting with employees and others
since becoming interim CEO, two people familiar with his role
said. Within an hour of Viehbacher’s ouster he started calling
members of the executive team to reassure them of the company’s
strategy, one of them said.
The week of Nov. 3 he visited company offices in Cambridge
and New Jersey to meet employees, three people said. He also
spoke by phone and then met in person with Len Schleifer, the
CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., Sanofi’s partner on
alirocumab and other treatments, according to one person.
Ben Atwell, a spokesman for London-based Smith & Nephew,
Jocelyn Gerst, a Takeda spokeswoman in Deerfield, Illinois, Eric
Althoff at Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis, Jack Cox at Sanofi
and Christian Hartel, a spokesman for Leverkusen, Germany-based
Bayer, declined to comment.
For Related News and Information:
How Sanofi Boss Saw Story End in 60 Hours After Boardroom Tussle
AstraZeneca’s Soriot Tries to Deflect Sanofi CEO Job Speculation
Sanofi CEO’s Ouster Mirrors Teva Corporate Culture Clash: Health
Top health news: HTOP <GO>
--With assistance from Makiko Kitamura in London, Simeon Bennett
in Geneva and Jacqueline Simmons in Paris.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Albertina Torsoli in Geneva at +41-22-317-9202 or
atorsoli@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Phil Serafino at +33-1-5530-6277 or
pserafino@bloomberg.net
Andrew Pollack
2014-11-19 13:23:17.789 GMT
By Albertina Torsoli
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Sanofi has considered Olivier Bohuon
of medical-device maker Smith & Nephew Plc and Takeda
Pharmaceutical Co.’s Christophe Weber as possible replacements
for ousted Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher, said people
familiar with the situation.
The board of Paris-based Sanofi has started contacting
potential candidates and wants to move quickly with the
recruiting, said the people, who asked not to be identified
discussing private matters. Eric Cornut, Novartis AG’s chief
ethics officer, also is a potential candidate, as is Olivier
Brandicourt, head of Bayer AG’s health-care business, some of
the people said.
The names cited in the search indicate Sanofi is focusing
mostly on French executives with pharmaceutical experience. The
company last month ousted Viehbacher, a Canadian-German, saying
relations between him and the board weren’t close enough and
that he failed to sufficiently execute the strategy. Some
investors said there was a culture clash between Viehbacher and
the board, which is mostly French. Chairman Serge Weinberg said
nationality wouldn’t be a criteria in the search.
“You’ve got to have somebody who is agile enough to deal
with resource allocation on the one hand, but also has the
ability to catch on to changes,” Michael Leuchten, an analyst
at Barclays Plc in London, said by phone. “This is where people
are a little bit concerned now, because people thought
Viehbacher had that.”
Bohuon, Weber
Bohuon previously worked at drugmakers Pierre Fabre SA,
Abbott Laboratories and GlaxoSmithKline Plc. He declined to
comment on the Sanofi job when asked about it on a conference
call last month.
Weber, another former Glaxo executive, joined Osaka, Japan-
based Takeda as chief operating officer in April and the company
plans to have him become CEO next year. He’s unlikely to accept
a Sanofi offer after such a short time at Takeda, three people
said.
Bohuon, Weber and Brandicourt are French. Cornut, who is
Swiss, ran Novartis’s French operations. The board may be
considering other candidates and could still turn to someone
else, one person said.
AstraZeneca Plc CEO Pascal Soriot also remains a possible
candidate, although he has already been approached and said he
wasn’t interested, the people said. Soriot, who is French, is
unlikely to leave his current job for the Sanofi one, they said.
Asked about the job on a Nov. 6 conference call, Soriot said he
couldn’t say whether he was interested.
Cambridge Meeting
The search is under way as Weinberg, who’s serving as
interim CEO, prepares to brief investors tomorrow in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, on Sanofi’s new medicines, including the insulin
Toujeo and the cholesterol treatment alirocumab.
Weinberg has been busy meeting with employees and others
since becoming interim CEO, two people familiar with his role
said. Within an hour of Viehbacher’s ouster he started calling
members of the executive team to reassure them of the company’s
strategy, one of them said.
The week of Nov. 3 he visited company offices in Cambridge
and New Jersey to meet employees, three people said. He also
spoke by phone and then met in person with Len Schleifer, the
CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., Sanofi’s partner on
alirocumab and other treatments, according to one person.
Ben Atwell, a spokesman for London-based Smith & Nephew,
Jocelyn Gerst, a Takeda spokeswoman in Deerfield, Illinois, Eric
Althoff at Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis, Jack Cox at Sanofi
and Christian Hartel, a spokesman for Leverkusen, Germany-based
Bayer, declined to comment.
For Related News and Information:
How Sanofi Boss Saw Story End in 60 Hours After Boardroom Tussle
AstraZeneca’s Soriot Tries to Deflect Sanofi CEO Job Speculation
Sanofi CEO’s Ouster Mirrors Teva Corporate Culture Clash: Health
Top health news: HTOP <GO>
--With assistance from Makiko Kitamura in London, Simeon Bennett
in Geneva and Jacqueline Simmons in Paris.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Albertina Torsoli in Geneva at +41-22-317-9202 or
atorsoli@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Phil Serafino at +33-1-5530-6277 or
pserafino@bloomberg.net
Andrew Pollack