Switzerland-based
Roche
(
RHHBY
) recently announced a few changes in its Corporate Executive
Committee.
John C. Reed will now head the Pharma Research and Early
Development (pRED) division at Roche as the current ad interim
head at pRED, Mike Burgess, will quit Roche.
Reed will also become a member of the expanded Corporate
Executive Committee. He will take over Burgess's position on
April 2, 2013 in Basel and report to Severin Schwan, Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of the Roche Group.
Reed is a world renowned scientist with a focus on cancer,
neuroprotection, autoimmunity, and other diseases. He has led the
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla,
California.
Inventing more than 100 patents, Reed is a veteran in the
pharma industry. He has been a member of multiple scientific
journal editorial boards along with founding and co-founding a
number of biotechnology companies.
Given his sound background in pharma, Roche expects Reed's
appointment as the head of pRED to propel Roche's strategy of
translating an improved understanding of disease mechanisms into
promising therapeutics.
Meanwhile, the change of helm at pRED is not expected to
affect the other research division - The Genentech Research
and Early Development organization (gRED).
We note that Roche announced a few changes in its Corporate
Executive Committee in Aug 2012 as well.
Daniel O'Day was appointed as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of
Roche Pharma effective Sep 1, 2012. He succeeded Pascal Soriot,
who quit Roche to join
AstraZeneca
(
AZN
). O'Day has been with Roche since 1987 and has been quite
instrumental in building up synchronization between the two
divisions - pharma and diagnostics.
Prior to being appointed the COO of Roche Pharma, O'Day was
the COO of Roche Diagnostics. O'Day was succeeded in that role by
Roland Diggelmann, head of the Asia-Pacific Region within Roche
Diagnostics.
Currently, Roche expects total revenue as well as revenue from
the Pharmaceuticals unit to grow in the low-to-mid single digits
in 2012. Sales from the other division, Diagnostics is expected
to outperform the market in 2012.
We currently have a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) on Roche. Pharma
stocks that currently look more attractive include
Novartis
(
NVS
) and
Sanofi
(
SNY
). Both companies carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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