Surprising departures and the migration of executives from companies have typified the pharmaceutical market over the past few weeks.
The phenomenon has not happened before and the names of those leaving the management of pharmaceutical companies has come up almost daily, whilst departures have hit all sectors - both production and import, distribution and retail.
Whereas last year, on the production/import segment, five companies changed their bosses, a brief look at this year shows that six top executives have left their positions only recently.
The companies that have undergone management changes at the top in 2008 are A&D Pharma, Relad, Novartis, Antibiotice, Remedio and possibly Sensiblu, according to market information.
Changes in drug distribution had the biggest impact because the heads of the top two distributors have so far gave up their mandates. Drug distribution has not witnessed such changes before, except the departure of Relad's chairman and deputy chairman last year.
The departure of Dragos Dinu, who had a six-year mandate at A&D Pharma, can be seen as the biggest event in the pharmaceutical industry this year. Dinu turned A&D Pharma into the largest player and listed the group on the London Stock Exchange. Robert Popescu the former chairman of Relad will temporarily fill his position. Earlier this month, Cezar Zaharia, general manager of Relad, which ranks second on the market, made a similar move. As for the subsidiaries of global pharmaceutical giants, the central event was the departure of Nicolae Voiculescu from Novartis and the takeover of his responsibilities by Bojan Jagodic.
On the segment of producers, several months after the deal in which Advent International took over LaborMed Pharma, a new management team coordinated by Stephen Stead was announced.
Farmaciile Remedio witnessed the most recent change, however, after Amalia Georgescu left her position as general manager.
This year was also marked by changes in the management structure of another three top producers - Terapia Ranbaxy, Zentiva and Antibiotice. Their departure also entailed a change in commercial policy.
Uncertainty related to the trend of the market is, in fact, the main challenge the new management teams in the pharmaceutical industry are facing. The second half will show how beneficial executive changes have been for shareholders and which ones anticipated the correct strategy.
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