Shire poaches new head from Bayer
pharmafile | October 26, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Angus Russell, Flemming Omskov, Shire
Flemming Ornskov, currently chief marketing officer at Bayer, is to take over at Dublin-based Shire Pharmaceuticals next year.
He will become chief executive designate of Shire on 2 January, replacing Angus Russell, who is retiring after 13 years with Shire, the past five of which have been in the top job.
There will be a handover period during which Ornskov will spend time with all three Shire business units, before assuming full control on 30 April. Shire started looking last April for a new head for its speciality pharma business – and Ornskov’s experience in this area will have been highly attractive to the company.
At Bayer, his role also included the title of global head, strategic marketing for general and specialty medicine, responsible for €10 billion in sales from Europe, China and the US.
He will have a ‘special focus initially’ on the equivalent Shire business, and will be based at the company’s offices outside Philadelphia during the handover.
Ornskov said he would bring “the combination of my medical, multinational and entrepreneurial business background to lead Shire to the next phase of its development”.
It has been a tricky year for Shire, which suffered a setback when Actavis Group was given approval to market a generic version of Shire’s hyperactivity drug Adderall XR.
Shire’s revenue in the three months to 30 September was lower than analyst forecasts at $1.1 billion, with sales of Adderall XR falling 32% year on year, although there was a 24% increase from Shire’s top-selling ADHD treatment Vyvanse.
The fact that Ornskov will be replacing Russell immediately suggests there is a sense that Russell had taken Shire as far as he could.
While offering Russell fulsome thanks, Shire chaiman Matthew Emmens said Ornskov “brings diverse and deep expertise to Shire”.
“His pharmaceutical experience spans start-ups, equity and venture capital as well as mature global multi-nationals, in marketing roles and increasingly senior leadership positions,” Emmens added.
A qualified doctor of medicine, Ornskov began his pharma career at Merck and Novartis, where he headed the US cardiovascular and then global ophthalmic franchises.
Currently based in Berlin, he was more recently in senior roles in Denmark and the US with Bausch & Lomb, Lifecycle Pharma and private biotech company Ikaria.
Adam Hill
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