Novo Nordisk has hired AstraZeneca’s head of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases to head its biopharma business, which has been struggling with declining sales and a failed acquisition.
Ludovic Helfgott will replace Jesper Brandgaard, who resigned as CFO earlier this year, when he retires in April next year after 20 years at the Danish company.
Novo, best known for its diabetes drugs, is on the hunt for promising assets to boost its struggling blood products business after it lost out to French rival Sanofi in the chase for Belgian biotech company Ablynx in January.
Novo’s biopharmaceutical business, which saw sales fall 16 percent last year, comprises its haemophilia and human growth hormone franchises.
By Stine Jacobsen
Source: Reuters
Avivi joins Bayer fresh off a yearlong stint as chief marketing officer of Advance Auto Parts, which followed about three years spent as marketing chief of another auto parts company, Tenneco. Rounding out her nearly 30-year career in marketing are leadership roles at consumer goods giants Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble.
Air Liquide S.A. (Paris) is continuing its development with the acquisition of Homecare activities in Belgium and the Netherlands. The two entities acquired in Belgium and the Netherlands support 10,000 patients living with respiratory insufficiency, sleep apnea syndrome or requiring infusion or nutrition treatments.
US-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay approximately $4.9 billion in cash to acquire Alpine Immune Sciences, a compatriot biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing innovative, protein-based immunotherapies.
