Pharma looks to outside talent

Pharma looks to outside talent

By Andrew Jack in London

Published: March 25 2008 20:01 | Last updated: March 25 2008 20:01

Drug companies are stepping up recruitment of specialists from outside their own ranks as they attempt to adapt to tougher market conditions, say senior industry executives and headhunters.

Last year, at least one chief executive, one head of pharmaceutical operations and three chief financial officers with careers outside the industry were appointed to leading companies in the search for new skills.

Executive search firms are also reporting rising demand for their services, as companies seek ways to draw in fresh experience from other sectors and to reduce costs.

Jacques Bouwens, head of the European healthcare practice at Russell Reynolds, the recruitment company, said there was growing recognition of the need for “hybrid” hirings from outside pharmaceuticals, including marketing, supply-chain work and communications.

From a survey of 25 leading industry executives his company recently conducted, highlighting the need for more external recruitment, it identified a focus on cost as the top strategic priority for the next five to ten years.

In considering the skills that future top executives needed, most believed governments were the most important growing influence over the sector, while doctors’, regulators’ and investors’ power was waning.

The company’s mandates to find pharmaceutical executives have risen sharply in the past five years, with the greatest jump in demand for senior human resource executives, followed by finance, manufacturing and supplychain, and legal and communications specialists.

James Cornelius, formerly head of Guidant, the medical devices company, was ratified last spring as chief executive of US-based Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he had been interim chief after a shake-up triggered by a court-appointed monitor.

Most of the spate of newly appointed chief executives from rival pharmaceutical companies in recent months have been hired internally, but the next level in the hierarchy has been more open to outsiders.

Peter Kellogg, the new head of finance at Merck, previously worked in the sector at Amgen and Biogen, but before then was based at PepsiCo. Frank D’Amelio at Pfizer formerly worked at Alcatel-Lucent, while AstraZeneca hired Simon Lowth from Scottish Power.

Joe Jimenez, who now runs pharmaceutical operations at Novartis of Switzerland, briefly ran its consumer health division but only joined last year from Heinz in Europe.

Peter Levin, head of the North American life sciences practice at Egon Zehnder International, said: “There is a clear drive to hire people with different experiences, particularly at the executive levels.”