Novartis has undertaken a significant restructuring of its management structure, with numerous new appointments in key positions.
Joerg Reinhardt has been promoted to chief operating officer, with his previous post of head of vaccines and diagnostics being filled by Andrin Oswald, who is currently CEO of Speedel and global head of pharmaceutical development franchises.
The restructuring has created the position group head of quality assurance and technical operations, which will be filled by Andreas Rummelt.
Prior to the restructuring Rummelt was head of Sandoz, which will now be run by Jeff George who is currently the head of emerging markets in the pharmaceuticals division.
A unit focused on innovative molecular diagnostics has also been created, which will be run by David Epstein. Despite his new appointment Epstein will remain head of the oncology unit in the pharmaceuticals division.
Meanwhile George Gunn has been appointed as head of consumer health, replacing Thomas Ebeling who is leaving the company. Gunn will perform the role in addition to his current responsibilities as head of the animal health business.
There has also been a management expansion at Hydra Biosciences, which is seeking to improve its drug discovery and intellectual property (IP) capabilities.
To achieve this Hydra has appointed David Kimball as its chief scientific officer and Christine Bellon as vice president of IP and legal affairs.
Kimball has 25 years experience in the discovery and development of small molecules, most recently at Pharmacopeia where he was senior vice president, discovery.
Prior to this Kimball worked at Lexicon and also spent nearly 20 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute.
Meanwhile Bellon has joined Hydra from Infinity Pharmaceuticals, where she was assistant general counsel, IP. She has over 15 years experience in IP law.