J&J's Jane Griffiths named global head of Actelion

Johnson & Johnson has picked Jane Griffiths to serve as global head of Actelion, the Swiss biotech it is in the process of acquiring through a $30bn deal.

Griffiths is currently company group chairman at J&J’s Janssen EMEA company and will step into her new role once its purchase of Actelion is completed.

J&J said it anticipated closing the deal ‘towards the end of the second quarter 2017’. At that point it will gain marketed products that include a trio of pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) drugs - Tracleer (bosentan), Opsumit (macitentan) and Uptravi (selexipag).

Prior to leading Janssen EMEA, Griffith was responsible for the EMEA market access unit, and her previous roles also include serving as international vice president for Janssen-Cilag Northern Europe.

The completion of J&J’s acquisition will also see Actelion’s chief operating officer Otto Schwarz retire, though he will work closely with Griffiths for a 12-month period after the deal goes through.

Actelion’s CEO Jean-Paul Clozel said: "I would like to thank Otto for his very significant contributions to the success of Actelion in the almost nine years since he joined the company.

“Under his leadership Tracleer was built into a global brand with almost 1.7 billion Swiss francs in peak sales. He also led and managed the highly successful launches of Opsumit, Uptravi and Veletri, thus replacing the leading drug in the category with a diversified, outcome-based portfolio, which has a strong long-term growth potential to achieve leading positions in shaping the treatment paradigms in PAH, an achievement which is a rare feat in our industry."

Clozel will also take on new responsibilities, keeping control of Actelion’s early-stage pipeline, which will be spun-off into a new biotech that he will helm.