Brian McNamara promoted to head of Novartis OTC

Novartis has promoted Brian McNamara from president Novartis OTC Americas to head of its entire over-the-counter division.

McNamara replaces Naomi Kelman who Novartis said had decided to leave the company. She had only been in the position since March 2011 after joining from Johnson & Johnson (J&J).

In a statement, Joseph Jimenez, CEO of Novartis, thanked Kelman for her work, and welcomed McNamara as someone who will “provide strong leadership, focusing on growing our priority brands, consistently meeting our quality standards, and improving performance in key emerging markets”.

McNamara has been at Novartis OTC since 2004, when he joined as senior VP and general manager of OTC North America.

He spent three years in the position before moving to Europe as president and region head of Novartis OTC Europe.

Prior to his time at Novartis, he spent 16 years at Procter and Gamble, working in both manufacturing management and brand management.

His appointment comes just two months after Novartis recalled batches of four OTC products in the US following complaints of chipped and broken pills as well as well as inconsistent clearance practices for bottle packaging at a its Lincoln, Nebraska, manufacturing plant.

Novartis temporarily suspended operations at the facility following a warning letter from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has also been affected by issues at the plant, and was forced to recall nearly 400,000 bottles of its blood pressure treatment DynaCirc CR that made there.