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Business News/ Companies / People/  Sanofi CEO ousted after tensions with board members
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Sanofi CEO ousted after tensions with board members

Chairman Serge Weinberg will replace Chris Viehbacher until a successor is found

Chris Viehbacher clashed with some directors recently over efforts to sell an $8 billion drug portfolio, his move to Boston and his management style in general, according to people familiar with the matter. Photo: BloombergPremium
Chris Viehbacher clashed with some directors recently over efforts to sell an $8 billion drug portfolio, his move to Boston and his management style in general, according to people familiar with the matter. Photo: Bloomberg

Geneva: Sanofi SA fired chief executive officer Chris Viehbacher, ending a six-year tenure in which he shifted the French drug maker’s focus to the US and overhauled its struggling research operation, causing tension with board members and French politicians.

Chairman Serge Weinberg will replace Viehbacher until a successor is found, the Paris-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. Viehbacher, 54, wrote to the board in September to ask about rumours that Weinberg was seeking a new CEO, people with knowledge of the matter said this week.

“Going forward, the group needs to pursue its development with a management aligning the teams, harnessing talents and focusing on execution with a close and confident cooperation with the board," Sanofi said in the statement. “The board confirms its commitment to continuing the strategy and the international expansion of the group based on research and innovation and its growth platforms."

His departure may disappoint some investors who have applauded Viehbacher’s overhaul of the drug maker. During his tenure, Sanofi ended some unpromising research projects, cut jobs and shut plants in France, and made acquisitions in the US, notably the $20.1 billion purchase of biotechnology company Genzyme Corp. in 2011.

He criticized the company’s research and development operation for not developing enough new medicines, and said he wanted Sanofi to operate more like Genzyme.

Viehbacher clashed with some directors recently over efforts to sell an $8 billion drug portfolio, his move to Boston and his management style in general, according to people familiar with the matter.

To complicate matters, Sanofi’s shares on Tuesday plunged the most in almost 16 years after the company surprised investors with a disappointing forecast for diabetes sales. This week’s stock decline has wiped €13.4 billion ($17.1 billion) off the value of Sanofi, France’s second-biggest company by market value.

Viehbacher, a citizen of Canada and Germany who previously worked at GlaxoSmithKline Plc, relocated to the Boston area this year, joining three other members of the 12-person executive committee who have their primary residence in the US. The move came after French government officials said they were concerned that corporate decision-making was leaving the country, illustrated most recently by General Electric Co.’s effort to buy Alstom SA. Bloomberg

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Published: 29 Oct 2014, 01:57 PM IST
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