This year's winter seems to have been colder than usual, and December was even worse. This coldness also continued to the personnel changes in the pharmaceutical industry in the last month.
On the evening of December 29, ChemPartner made an announcement, once again opening up the frequent and "disorderly" internal personnel changes of this veteran pharmaceutical company.
With the resignation of CEO Zhang Jiguo and the resignation of Chairman Zeng Xianwei at the beginning of this month, Wisdom Pharmaceutical, which has resigned as both chairman and CEO, is once again standing at the crossroads of development.
The CEO and CFO both left this month, and the biotech, which was already in turmoil due to a "hostile takeover", seems to be in the storm again.
At the end of the year, almost as expected at the beginning of the year, the industry will continue to intensify in 2023, accompanied by the same personnel resignation. In the last month of 2023, the already intensively adjusted MNC also began to play chess for the next year.
What other personnel changes are worth noting this month?See below.
The CEO and the chairman of the board of directors both resigned, and where is the wisdom of the company, which has lost its helmsman, going?
The big change of senior management will still be a big one when it returns in 2023.
The announcement of personnel changes at the end of the year unveiled a new year of adjustment: the chairman and CEO both resigned, which showed the internal turmoil of this veteran pharmaceutical company.
I still remember that in December last year, ChemPartner finally ushered in "Mr. Key" Zeng Xianwei, and after two months of CEO vacancy, everyone hoped that his ability to turn the tide.
However, the story always seems to be full of life, and this key gentleman has completely stepped down from several positions in less than a year after carrying on the burden: first as CEO in April this year, and then in December he applied for resignation as the company's director, chairman, chairman of the board of directors' strategy committee, and chairman of the board of directors' remuneration and appraisal committee. This also means that after Zeng Xianwei's resignation, he will no longer hold any position in ChemPartner.
At that time, when he resigned as CEO, the reason given by ChemPartner was that the move would focus more on corporate governance and standardized operations. This reason is reasonable, after all, Zeng Xianwei was also the chairman of the board of directors and the chairman of the special committee under the board of directors at that time.
But after 6 months, Zeng Xianwei resigned from all his current positions in ChemPharmaceutical, and the reason given this time was for personal reasons.
In fact, when he first took office, the wisdom medicine that Zeng Xianwei took over was really not a "sweet potato", and could even be called a "hot potato". As soon as he took office, Zeng Xianwei faced the current situation of Wisdom Pharmaceutical: in recent years, it has almost been riddled with negatives, ** subsidiaries, invalid equity incentives, repurchase suspension, insider trading ......The pressure on each person in charge can be imagined, and Zeng Xianwei is also one of them.
Prior to Zeng, the previous CEO Hua Fengmao resigned for personal reasons in October 2022, just one year and three months after he took office. Zeng Xianwei, on the other hand, accelerated his resignation even faster, resigning as CEO in just four months. Immediately afterwards, the CEO successor was handed over to Zhang Jiguo, then executive vice president of ChemPartner.
However, Zhang Jiguo's reign did not last more than a year. On the evening of December 29, Zhang Jiguo applied for resignation as the company's director and CEO for personal reasons, and no longer held any position in the company. This also means that the position of CEO of ChemPartner has another bye.
This series of adjustments also means that in 2023 alone, ChemPartner will experience the resignation of two CEOs and the vacancy of the chairman.
A series of "accidents" have once again put ChemPartner on the shackled table, and it is facing endless torture: can this veteran pharmaceutical company, which was once comparable to WuXi AppTec, still hope to return to its once glorious past?Where will ChemPartner go, which has lost its helm again?When will the successor be determined?
However, the market is more concerned about who can save today's Wisdom Medicine after Hua Fengmao, Zeng Xianwei, and Zhang Jiguo are gone?Who will be the next "Mr. Key"?The answer was soon revealed, and some of the existing signs pointed back to the former chairman Hu Ruilian.
Back on December 25, the news that the former chairman was expected to return to the board of directors attracted attention. ChemPartner announced that Hu Ruilian was nominated as a non-independent director candidate for the fifth board of directors of the company, and the term of office will be from the date of deliberation and approval of the company's general meeting of shareholders to the date of expiration of the fifth board of directors. It is worth mentioning that Hu Ruilian served as the chairman and director of ChemPartner from January 2021 to October 2021. During his tenure, he was involved in an equity dispute over Jilin Jifu Shen Biological Development Co., Ltd., which was invested by a person, and was taken criminal detention compulsory measures by the public security organs on suspicion of embezzlement, and then resigned at the end of October 2021, but continued to serve as the company's strategic advisor.
In such an eventful autumn, whether Hu Ruilian will finally choose to become the next "Mr. Key" has not yet been officially announced, so we can only wait and see what happens.
Not only has the chief helmsman changed repeatedly, but the 2023 senior management change announcement of ChemPartner has also undergone two rounds of changes this year. In October, Wang Kui, then CFO of ChemPartner resigned, and was replaced by Zha Yinqun. However, Wang Kui only succeeded Xia Danying as the new CFO in January this year. In other words, the successor has been in office for less than nine months.
The continuous turmoil of the management has also exposed the disorder within ChemPartner on the side, and it seems that there is a slight lack of stamina in trying to save itself by "replacing people and replacing people".
Local pharmaceutical companies with accelerated change
Not only did LianBio go out in a group of executives, but LianBio also experienced a round of major personnel changes at the end of the month, with the resignation of both CEO and CFO, breaking the apparent calm of LianBio and revealing the rough underwater waves.
On December 20, LianBio announced the departure of its Chief Executive Officer, Yizhe Wang, and Chief Financial Officer Yi Larson, who had also stepped down from LianBio the previous day to pursue other opportunities.
A recent episode also exposed to some extent that LianBio's current situation is precarious.
In early December, LianBio received a takeover offer from Concentra Biosciences, controlled by Tang Capital Partners, including at 4. per shareUS$30 cash transaction for LianBio, Concentra entitled to 80% of the net proceeds of any project of LianBio in the U.S. and China, among others. At that time, whether the acquisition could be achieved became one of the hot topics in the industry. A few days later, the answer emerged: LianBio believed it was "undervalued" and simply chose to refuse.
It's not over. Not long after this incident, LianBio reported that the CEO and CFO both resigned, which is inevitably embarrassing.
In particular, the resignation of Wang Yizhe, who has witnessed an important moment in LianBio's growth since he was 9 months old, has cast a haze over LianBio.
According to public information, before joining LianBio, Wang served as the global R&D leader of anti-tumor products, the global platform leader of the anti-coronavirus** project in the research laboratory, the senior vice president of China, the head of the cross-biochemical products and anti-tumor products business unit, and the member of the Eli Lilly China Management Committee, the global cross-biochemical product leadership team, and the global anti-tumor product leadership team. Prior to that, Yizhe Wang spent 15 years at GSK, progressing his career through product and commercial strategy roles and eventually taking on the role of Head of GSK China's Respiratory Business.
Following the resignation of both CEO and CFO, LianBio's Board of Directors appointed Adam Stone, Chief Investment Officer of Perceptive Advisors and member of LianBio's Board of Directors, as interim Chief Executive OfficerThe current Vice President and Global Treasurer, Mr. Gu Yinghong, serves as the interim Chief Financial Officer.
What will be the final fate of this well-known "fallen master" in the industry, maybe there will be an answer in the new year.
If there have been major personnel changes in recent years, Hengrui is also on the list, and Wang Xingyuan, general manager of its tumor division, went to Qilu to serve as the deputy general manager of the sales company. This is not the first Hengrui executive to go to Qilu. In 2022, Tao Weikang, who stepped down as deputy general manager and CEO of R&D of Hengrui, went to Qilu Pharmaceutical as vice president of the group and general manager of Qilu global innovative drug R&D.
In addition to "group departure", another key word surrounding local pharmaceutical companies is "punishment", and there are many cases that can be confirmed this month. Previously, Tai'antang and its chairman were fined 10 million yuan, Su Qingcan, the actual controller and chairman of Huaxia Ophthalmology, was placed in custody, the controlling shareholder of Luoxin Pharmaceutical was investigated, and Guangyuyuan was filed by the CSRC on suspicion of illegal information disclosure.
In addition, notable personnel changes this month include GenScript ProBio's appointment of Chen Li as CEO and InnoCare's appointment of Fu Xin, former CFO of JW Therapeutics, as CFO. Wang Jinyuan, vice president of China Resources Sanjiu, resigned because he had reached retirement age, and Li Lin, senior vice president of Meinian Health, resigned due to work adjustment.
MNC: How to break the game in 2024?
The theme of this month's personnel changes at MNC is still a drastic adjustment.
Let's start with China. Starting from January 2, 2024, Xia Xiaoqin will join the anti-infection team as the head of the ** area, reporting directly to Chen Yijuan, head of the specialty drug field of Roche China's customer interaction business model. Hu Zi'an and Pan Wen of the marketing team of Sufuda, and Zhao Xiong of the sales team will report directly to Xia Xiaoqin.
Before joining Roche, Xia Xiaoqin served as the head of national key account sales of Organon Retail Division, leading the team to reach strategic cooperation with national retail customers and promote the construction of retail ecosystem.
Looking back at Roche's structural adjustments and personnel changes throughout the year, the outline of the big chess game it is playing is beginning to emerge, almost focusing on specific business and product lines.
First, in July, Chen Shaofeng left as the head of the specialty drugs (ophthalmology, neuroscience, anti-infection and immunology) of Roche's customer interaction business model in China. However, the successor was soon settled, and since August 31, the position of head of the specialty medicine field has been taken over by Chen Yijuan, who previously served as the head of the global integration strategy of Sufuda at Roche's headquarters, reporting directly to Bian Xin, president of Roche China.
In the same month, Lanlan Xu officially joined Roche China as the head of the newly established ophthalmology ** area, reporting to Chen Yijuan, head of the specialty drug field of Roche China's customer interaction business model, and becoming a member of the management team of the specialty drug field of the customer interaction business model. She has 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, and has worked in many multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi, Roche, AstraZeneca, Novartis, etc., and has rich experience in marketing and commercial operation in the fields of anti-infection, nephrology, transplantation, diabetes, respiratory and ophthalmology.
In addition, Lisa Luo joined Roche China on September 4 as Head of Medical Affairs in the Ophthalmology area, and as a member of the management team of the Medicine and Personalized Medicine Division, reporting to Bin Li, Vice President of Medicine and Personalized Medicine. Zhang Jing, who is now the head of medical affairs in the ophthalmology field, left Roche on September 30 to seek external development opportunities.
In addition to the major adjustments in the field of specialty drugs, in August, the medical science team in the field of anti-infection, neurological and rare diseases** will be split into the field of neurological and rare diseases** and the field of respiratory and anti-infective**, which will be reflected in the personnel changes. Since September 1, Zhou Wei, who is currently the head of medical affairs in the field of anti-infection, neurological and rare diseases, has served as the head of medical affairs in the field of neurological and rare diseasesPang Zhiqian, who is currently the head of the medical science manager in the field of neurology and rare diseases, has been appointed as the head of medical affairs in the field of respiratory and anti-infection.
Also undergoing a major structural change this month was GSK China.
A series of self-rescue actions by this pharmaceutical giant are in full swing. At the end of this year, it was directly announced that the three major business sectors would be reorganized, and from January 1, 2024, three core business departments of specialty drugs, vaccines, and respiratories would be established. As soon as the organizational structure is adjusted, it also means that the original business segments such as general medicine, core prescription drugs, and HIV may undergo major adjustments and personnel changes.
Structural adjustments will inevitably be accompanied by personnel changes. According to the announcement, the head of the vaccine business department is still Feng Bixia, the head of the respiratory business department (general medicine, IL-5) is Yu Jinyi, and the head of the special medicine business department (SLE, HEP, HIV) is Qi Xin as the interim head until the new appointment is announced.
In addition, Yiqin Wang of Pfizer will be appointed vice president and general manager of Abbott Pharmaceuticals China, effective January 1 next year, reporting directly to Sammy Karam, senior vice president of emerging markets at EPD. Yiqin Wang is currently the general manager of Pfizer's global biopharmaceutical business group in China, and her last working day is December 31 this year.
Turning our attention back to the global management team, there are also a lot of personnel changes.
It is worth mentioning that Genentech welcomed the first female CEO in history. Its interim CEO, Ashley Magargee, will officially assume the role of CEO on January 1, 2024.
A 20-year veteran of the company, Ashley Magargee joined Genentech in 2004. Previously, he held senior management positions in lifecycle management, digital customer experience and market access at Roche and Genentech, and also served as General Manager of Singapore.
In addition, both Moderna and BMS have seen the departure of key executives.
Among them, Arpa Garay, Moderna's chief commercial officer, has left the company, and its CEO, Stephane Bancel, will be responsible for the sales and rollout of its vaccines. Prior to joining Moderna, Arpa Garay served as Chief Marketing Officer for Merck's Human Health business and joined Moderna as Chief Commercial Officer on May 31, 2022, serving on the company's Executive Committee.
BMS is the departure of Elizabeth Mily, executive vice president of strategy and business development. Elizabeth Mily joined BMS in 2020 as Executive Vice President, Corporate Strategy & Business Development, where she is responsible for the company's strategy and all business development activities, including strategic partner sourcing, mergers and acquisitions, and more.
At this point, the personnel changes in the pharmaceutical industry in 2023 are coming to an end. After the severe cold at the end of 2023, the talent change in the pharmaceutical industry may continue to accelerate in 2024.
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