Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline initiate leadership reshuffle in face of competition from domestic players

MUMBAI: Top multinational drug makers Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have initiated major reshuffle of senior leadership teams in India in face of competition from nimble domestic rivals.
US giant Pfizer on Monday informed its employees that its India managing director Aijaz Tobaccowala will move back to the US just three years at the helm, while British major GSK Pharmaceuticals has announced that Annaswamy Vaidheesh will replace Hasit Joshipura as its head for India and South Asia regions with effect from August.

Tobaccowala will return to New York to the department of business technology, where he worked before, Pfizer told its employees in an internal note, according to two persons closely involved with the development.

"We confirm that Aijaz Tobaccowalla has been offered a new global role with Pfizer Inc USA. He will continue in his current position as the managing director of Pfizer Ltd in India until his successor in this role is identified and subsequently appointed by the company’s board of directors," a Pfizer spokesperson said in an email response to ET.

The last three years have been tough for pharma companies, especially multinational drug makers who were severely hit by the new price control, which wiped out over Rs 100 crore from the sales of these companies.

Pfizer and GSK both suffered negative sales growth in India in 2011-12 and 2012-13, before returning to the positive territory in 2013-14. The total India sales of Pfizer, according to data from All Indian Origin Chemists & Distributors Ltd ( AIOCD Ltd), was Rs 2,421 crore last fiscal, up 13% from the year-earlier figure. GSK recorded sales of Rs 2,752 crore, down 3% from FY14.

The board of directors of GlaxoSmith-Kline Pharmaceuticals at its meeting on Monday appointed Vaidheesh as vice president, South Asia, and managing director of the company effective August 3, 2015, the firm informed the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Current MD Joshipura will vacate office effective August 1. Vaidheesh was Johnson & Johnson’s vice president, corporate government affairs, Asia Pacific. Though GSK did not reveal Joshipura’s next move, industry sources say that he will be moving to firm’s global headquarters and might possibly look after the emerging markets. GSK is facing heat globally because of its poor growth and legal tangles in China and in the last few years initiated a major business restructuring.