LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) – Some of AstraZeneca’s
biggest investors are calling for a radical shake-up of the
drugmaker’s board and executive team, including the replacement
of David Brennan as CEO, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
The move comes as Leif Johansson is set to be elected to the
board as chairman-designate at the group’s annual general
meeting on April 26, with a view to him taking over on Sept. 1.
Britain’s second biggest drugmaker is under growing pressure
because it has very few new drugs in its pipeline, while its
existing ones face generic competition. Seroquel, its highly
profitable antipsychotic medicine, lost patent protection last
month.
Brennan has made little headway in fixing the pipeline
problem in his six years in the top job and his one major
acquisition – the 2007 purchase of U.S. biotech firm MedImmune
for $15.6 billion – is widely viewed as an overpriced flop.
Brennan remains “very tarnished” by MedImmune, a top-five
shareholder told Reuters last month. Other investors also
questioned how long Brennan would continue as CEO. A company
spokeswoman said at the time that Brennan, 58, remained fully
committed to leading AstraZeneca.
Brennan and his team say they plan to pick up the pace of
deal-making to help bring in new drugs. But the focus is on
small acquisitions, partnerships and licensing deals, like the
recent agreement with Amgen, rather than anything
transformational.
One top-20 shareholder told the Financial Times there was
some lobbying to replace Brennan with finance director Simon
Lowth. Another said that Lowth lacked the breadth to take over,
although Brennan was likely to step down by the time of his 60th
birthday next year.
Tony Zook, global commercial vice-president, has also been
suggested as a possible replacement.
Another top-20 shareholder was cited saying he wanted the
group to sell itself.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
