Management tracks: Sandoz CEO steps down, C4T hires NIBR's Crystal as CMO

Richard Francis said he will step down as CEO of Sandoz, the biosimilars and generics unit of Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; SIX:NOVN), effective March 31. Francis said Thursday, "As we announced earlier this year, Sandoz is embarking on a significant transformation. While I am excited by this, I realize that this is a multi-year journey which I cannot commit to and therefore have decided that now is the right time to step down."

Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan announced Jan. 30 that the pharma intends to turn Sandoz into "an autonomous entity over the next 18 months that is able to compete as an independent unit within Novartis." Sandoz, which has had declining sales over the past few years, will focus on hard-to-make generics and expand its pipeline of biosimilars, Narasimhan said (see "Novartis Plots New Course for Sandoz")...