Novartis has appointed Richard Saynor as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sandoz, the company’s biosimilars and generics business, effective no later than August 1, 2019. He will be a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis and report to Vas Narasimhan, CEO, Novartis.

He is currently Senior Vice President, Classic & Established Products, Commercial & Digital Platforms at GlaxoSmithKline. He has more than 20 years of global leadership experience spanning both generics and established pharmaceutical brands. He currently manages a $10-billion Established Products portfolio, which comprises over 350 brands commercialized in over 120 countries. In addition, he oversees the commercial digital platforms across all of GSK’s pharmaceutical franchises. Prior to GSK, he held commercial operations leadership roles at Sandoz and oversaw an expansion of Sandoz’ generics business across Asia, Latin America, and Turkey.

Novartis reported in March (2019) that then current CEO Richard Francis was stepping down as CEO of Sandoz on March 31, 2019. Francesco Balestrieri, Region Head Europe, Sandoz, was appointed interim CEO.

Source: Novartis