Novartis has appointed former AstraZeneca (AZ) executive Jonathan Symonds as its new chief financial officer, raising speculation that he could be in line to become CEO in the future.
Symonds was in the race to become AZ CEO in 2005 but lost out to David Brennan and went on to leave the company in 2007 to join Goldman Sachs. He will now rejoin the pharma scene in September at Novartis.
Prior to his eight years at AZ Symonds worked at Zeneca, which merged with Astra the year after he became finance chief, and was also a partner at KPMG.
Mylan’s co-founder and chairman Milan “Mike” Puskar is stepping down immediately from the board and will retire as a director effective October 1. Robert Coury, CEO at Mylan, will succeed Puskar as chairman.
Puskar co-founded Mylan as a drug distributer with Don Panoz in 1961 and has been a director at the company for 33 years. Over that time Mylan has evolved into a major player in the generics market.
Archemix has appointed Kenneth Bate as its new president and CEO. Bate joins the company from NitroMed where he held the same positions.
In his 20 years in the biotech industry Bate has worked at companies including Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Biogen. He also currently serves as a director of Cubist Pharmaceuticals and AVEO Pharmaceuticals.
Follica has appointed William Ju as its president and CEO, succeeding the founding chief exec Daphne Zohar. Prior to joining Follica Ju worked for 17 years in the biotech industry at companies including PTC Therapeutics and Pharmacia Corporation.
Ju is a board certified dermatologist and has worked in this sector during his career, which complements Follica’s therapeutic specialisation.