Analysis. At drug firms, it is a revolving door at the top

It seems to be raining exits at the drug companies.

Be it Sun Pharma-owned Ranbaxy, Cipla, Pfizer or Biocon — all are witnessing recent top-level movement for reasons varying from being the fall-out of a merger to moving back to the parent company or just plain “personal reasons”.

Ranbaxy, for instance, has been seeing top-level exits ever since Sun Pharma made its $4 billion proposal to merge the company with it.

Cipla has seen the exit of Kamil Hamied, nephew of YK Hamied and more recently, the company announced Chief Financial Officer Rajesh Garg would leave, ahead of his term.

Pfizer India-chief Aijaz “Jazz” Tobaccowalla is taking “a new global role” with the parent company. And Biocon’s Research and Development President Abhijit Barve too, is moving back to the US, but for personal reasons.

And while some in the industry see this as a worrisome churn, others point out that it was an opportunity for “cross fertilisation” of ideas, as companies learnt from each other through this revolving door of professionals.

Sun-Ranbaxy combine Facing the aftermath of a merger are officials at the Sun-Ranbaxy combine.

In its post-merger media interaction in March, Sun chief Dilip Shanghvi had said that erstwhile Ranbaxy chief Arun Sawhney and other members of senior management had not yet found a role in the company.

Sun sources maintain that Sawhney is with the company, without giving details.

Nevertheless, the entity is witnessing the largest number of exits with reports suggesting that 150 more top executives face the axe, even as 18 were asked to leave.

Without getting into details, Sun said, “If there are few employees who could not be positioned appropriately, the organisation will make all attempts to handle the same in a fair, transparent and sensitive manner.” The focus would be on “creating an environment of meaningful professional opportunities for our employees to lead, succeed and grow,” it added.

At Cipla, Kamil Hamied’s exit comes even as the company’s promoter-family sought clarity from the market regulator SEBI on a proposed family agreement allowing the family to vote as one.

In fact, the indication was that agreement would allow Kamil Hamied to represent his father MK Hamied and uncle YK Hamied, in their absence.

Responding to queries on development at Cipla, its spokesperson said: “As part of his leadership development, Kamil Hamied, who had stepped out of the India parent and was working in our EU subsidiary in London, will take some time to broaden his leadership and business experience outside of Cipla to achieve his personal growth objectives.”

“Cipla has a professional management team in place, and this team will continue to lead and drive Cipla,” she added.

In a more low-key development, Pfizer’s Tobaccowalla heads back to the parent company, once a successor is in place here.

And while Tobaccowalla oversaw the Pfizer-Wyeth global merger as it played out in India, he also was at the helm as its Thane plant saw a lock-out situation.

In fact, at present, its Goa plant too, is witnessing “conciliation” efforts between its workers union and the plant management, being heard at the State Labour Commissioner's office.

As for Biocon, a company spokesperson confirmed that R&D head Barve was moving back to the US, albeit for personal reasons.

Pointing out that the research projects and late stage trials would continue, the company said that the R&D leadership team had been recently strengthened with the appointment of Naren Chirumule, Vice-President Scientific Research and Sreesha Srinivasa, Associate Vice-President, Translational Research.

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