The US private investment announced the changes today, explaining that Matthew Martin, previously the General Manager of both businesses, has been appointed as Noramco CEO.
SK Capital also hired Chris Close as CFO for both organisations and appointed Charlie Enzinger as vice president of integrated supply chain operations at Noramco
The investment firm said: “The expanded team will be tasked with driving the operational improvements and customer-focused initiatives that are expected to be captured as an independent, carved-out organization as well as from the restructuring of the businesses as two separate entities.
J&J agreed to sell its opium poppy processing – comprising Noramco and Tasmanian Alkaloids - to SK in March in a deal worth up to $800m (€726m) according to unnamed sources quoted by Reuters.
A spokesman for the US drug firm told us: "Janssen has completed an agreement with SK Capital Partners for the sale of its controlled substance raw material and API business.
"The agreement with SK Capital Partners includes the Noramco and Tasmanian Alkaloids subsidiaries, as well as manufacturing operations in Wilmington, Delaware and Westbury, Australia. The agreement was completed and closed on July 1, 2016."
API business
Tasmanian Alkaloids processes poppies to extract the active ingredients. Noramco turns these extracts into the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for painkillers.
SK did not respond to a request for comment.
J&J’s sale of its opiate API business comes a little over a year after fellow drug major GSK divested its opiates division – which is also based in Australia – to India’s Sun Pharma