Sanofi appoints new executive committee members

Sanofi is appointing two new members of its executive committee as it seeks to implement a more strategically beneficial structure for its commercial organisation.

Following the retirement of Hanspeter Spek, president of global operations, Sanofi will be splitting the former global operations division into two – the global commercial operations unit and the global divisions and strategic commercial development unit.

Current European senior vice-president Peter Guenter will become executive vice-president for global commercial operations, while Pascale Witz joins the company from GE Healthcare to become executive vice-president for global divisions and strategic commercial development.

These restructuring initiatives will come into effect on July 1st 2013.

Christopher Viehbacher, chief executive officer of Sanofi, said: "The appointment of these two new leaders will enable us to strengthen our growth platforms and ensure the success of our new products to deliver a sustainable future for our company."

In the first quarter of 2013, the firm achieved a net sales total of 8.06 billion euros (6.81 billion pounds), with growing sales of new products being offset by the impact of increased generic competition.