Aachen, Germany-headquartered Grünenthal has named AstraZeneca’s Gabriel Baertschi as its new chief executive officer, with effect from 1 October.
He succeeds Dr Eric-Paul Pâques who was appointed to the role in 2013, and retires at the end of the year.
Baertschi moves to the independent pharmaceutical firm from AstraZeneca, where he currently serves as country president for the company’s operations in Japan.
Prior to taking up this role three years ago, Baertschi was AZ’s country president for Germany and has led a number of its other operations in emerging markets.
Dr Wilhelm Moll, chairman of Grüenthal’s supervisory board, said: “We are delighted that Gabriel Baertschi will join Grüenthal Group as chief executive officer.
“His deep experience in growing the business and developing the organisation in major developed and emerging markets will be a great asset for Grünenthal.
“He joins us at an exciting time when our strategy of expanding our strategic partnerships in research and development in Europe as well as in Latin America are accelerating our global growth.”
Dr Moll added: “We would like to thank Prof Dr Pâques for his outstanding leadership, integrity and extraordinary personal commitment for the future of a successful Grüenthal.”