Four executive changes on pharmaceutical market. Are others set to follow?

Four companies in the drug industry, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Eli Lilly, Farmexpert and MSD, have changed their management this year, which could amount to the start of a new wave of departures in the pharmaceutical industry.

The four changes that occurred in the first four months of this year are set to bring about new company strategies, new resources in the fight to increase sales and profit.

In January 2011 a Frenchman and an Italian arrived in Romania to take over at the helm of two top-15 companies: GSK and Eli Lilly.

The departure of the former GSK Romania head, Patrick Desbiens, after a term of just two years, had been announced in 2010, with his successor, French-born Pascal Prigent, 43, taking over in January.

Another company changed its country manager in January. Italian-born Luca Visini, 38, was appointed to the helm of Eli Lilly.

More recently, in April, Slovenian-born Agata Jakoncic, was appointed general manager of MSD Balkan, a 10-country region which includes Romania. The company announced Jakoncic has been replaced by American-born Steve Warner.

Two Romanian executive managers also dropped their positions. Octavian Iacob and Cezar Zaharia of Farmexpert, the second-largest pharmaceutical distributor on the Romanian market, left the company in February.