Teva has announced a shake-up of its business that includes new additions to its senior leadership team.
Historically a generics focused company, Teva has made moves in recent years to build its business in research-focused pharmaceuticals, including the creation last year of its global specialty medicines unit.
To further strengthen the identity of each area it has now created a complementary global generic medicines business unit to bring all its regional generic businesses under one roof.
It is the first major announcement by the company’s CEO Erez Vigodman (pictured) since he took up the post in February this year.
In addition Vigodman announced the appointment of Sigurdur Olafsson to lead the unit, which will also hold responsibility for Teva’s over-the-counter (OTC) business.
Olafsson was most recently president of Actavis Pharma, a company he joined in 2003 after a five-year spell at Pfizer in both the UK and the US.
He will assume his new role at Teva on July 1 and will be based in the US.
Other changes to take place on July 1 include the formation of two new groups: the corporate development, strategy and innovation group and the global corporate marketing excellence and communications group.
The former will be responsible for strategy and business development initiatives while the latter will be responsible for corporate marketing excellence, brand management, corporate communications and corporate social responsibility.
Current chief communications officer Iris Beck-Codner will lead the global corporate marketing excellence and communications group while a search is ongoing for someone to lead the corporate development, strategy and innovation group.
In addition, Teva has promoted Eric Drapé to global head of quality and culled its executive committee from 15 to 9 members.
“The new organisational structure and leadership team will better position Teva to deliver sustainable growth and create short and long-term value,” said Vigodman.