Laurentiu Scheusan steps down as CEO of Actavis

Laurentiu Scheusan, who has been running the over 100m-euro operations of Actavis pharmaceutical company in Romania since 2006, is going to give up his position in the following months to switch to his own business in the pharmaceutical industry or private medical services.

“Actavis is selecting a new CEO through a recruiting firm, with the process to be carried out in May,” Scheusan told ZF. He has been working for the company since 1997, initially as a part-time medical representative, then, in 1998, on a full-time position, and subsequently advanced to the CEO position. “My departure is my choice, a choice Actavis management understood. Actavis asked me to draw up for them a sketch of the future CEO as I see him, after a twelve years’ experience with the company, which I did, and I also made some recommendations from the pharmaceutical market and inside the company, but the decision regarding the future CEO 100% rests with the company’s management,” Scheusan also said. Asked why he is leaving, he answers quoting a piece of advice the founder of Sindan, the current Actavis, Dan Stoicescu, gave him several years ago. “At the moment you have new challenges and believe those challenges are worth facing, go ahead even though this can mean swimming against the tide (…),” Scheusan states. Stoicescu in 2006 sold the entire stake to Actavis in a 147.5m-euro deal. As for his “post-Actavis” plans, Scheusan, 41, says he is closely watching “the pharmaceutical and private medical services markets”, but is not interested in working with another multinational for the time being. He will leave Actavis no later than 1st of August. He says the main projects he carried out at Actavis are the company’s rebranding and the launch of the retail unit. In the first three months of this year, Actavis generated sales worth 19.5m euros in Romania, down 10% from a year ago. Of this sum, 8.7m euros represented sales of oncologic products and of products imported from retail. Last year, the company reached 109.2m-euro turnover in Romania and for 2009 the target was set at 90m euros amid the weaker focus on certain products distributed by Actavis, but belonging to other producers. Actavis Romania’s exports hit 19.6m euros last year, from 15m euros in 2007, while for 2009 the company has budgeted a 30% increase.