USA-based pharmaceutical major Schering-Plough has pressed ahead with previously-announced plans to create a global manufacturing supply chain and has named a former Merck & Co executive to lead the unit.
Robert Boisclair, previously the head of Americas manufacturing at Merck, has been named senior vice president of global supply chain.
With Boisclair's appointment, the company's 34 manufacturing sites worldwide, which previously reported to a variety of local and global managers, will report to the new global organisation, according to S-P. The move is the latest step in an action agenda announced in April of this year by new chief executive Fred Hassan.
S-P has been hit hard of late by manufacturing compliance problems at some of its production sites which held back the approval of some key pipeline products, notably the antihistamine Clarinex (desloratadine), as well as incurring a regulatory penalty of $500 million (€430m) from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Adding to S-P's recent troubles is that its revenues and earnings are under pressure following the loss of patent protection - and a switch to over-the-counter status - for its top-selling antihistamine drug Claritin (loratadine).
Sales of the drug have plummeted in the face of generic OTC competition, and the new-generation version Clarinex has not been able to take up the slack. However, S-P has high hopes for a new cholesterol-lowering drug, Zetia (ezetimibe), that is partnered with Merck & Co.