Novartis' Constantine Frouzis elected president of Greek pharma body

The Hellenic Association of Pharmaceutical Companies (SFEE) has elected Constantine Frouzis to serve as its new president.

Frouzis has worked as vice president and general manager of Novartis Hellas since 2007 and previously contributed to the Greek pharma industry association as its general secretary.

Prior to joining Novartis Frouzis worked across four sectors - telecoms, retail, consumer products and petroleum – for companies including Total, L'Oreal and Vodafon.

He takes the helm of SFEE as the Greek pharma industry faces one of its most challenging times in the last few decades.

Joining Frouzis on SFEE's new 15-member board:

• Galenica's Nikolaos Varelas
• Cana's Vasilis Neiadas
• UCB's Immortality Gioulekas
• Abbott's Paschalis Apostolidis
• GlaxoSmithKline's George Katzourakis
• Genesis Pharma's Costas Evripidis
• Farmaserv Lilly's Spyros Filiotis
• Merck's John Vlontzos
• Winmedica's Marios Kosmidis
• Vian's Costas Panagoulias
• Sanofi's Markos Gerasopoulos
• Rottapharm Hellas' Marios Katsikas
• Janssen's Nikolaos Kefalas
• Boehringer Ingelheim's Konstantinos Economou

Greece is current facing severe economic problems and in February SFEE warned that inflating levels of debt at Greek hospitals could threaten the supply of medicines and even force some pharma companies out of business.

SFEE said its focus now was on ensuring the sustainability of the national health system and pharmaceutical business, and maintaining and strengthening entrepreneurship within both the Greek and multinational companies.

It added that ensuring citizens have access to treatments was “non-negotiable”.