Bayer HealthCare appoints Olivier Brandicourt as new CEO

German pharma and chemical group Bayer (BAYN: DE) this morning revealed that Olivier Brandicourt has been appointed chairman of the board of management of Bayer HealthCare and member of the Bayer AG executive council effective November 1, 2013.

Since March 2013, Wolfgang Plischke has led Bayer HealthCare on an interim basis – replacing the units then CEO Jorg Reinhardt (who returned to his former company Novartis to take up the chairmanship of the Swiss drug major; The Pharma Letter January 23) - in addition to his existing duties as a Bayer AG Board Member.

"With Olivier Brandicourt we have found a strong leader with outstanding international experience and a successful track record in the healthcare industry. I am convinced that he can significantly contribute to the further growth of our healthcare business," said Bayer Group CEO Marijn Dekkers.

Joins from Pfizer

Dr Brandicourt, 57, has 25 years of international experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including executive responsibilities in France, the USA, Canada and the UK. He has been a member of the executive leadership team of US pharma behemoth Pfizer for the last three years. Until recently he was president and general manager of the Emerging Markets and Established Products Business Units. Before that he held senior operational positions as President of the Global Specialty Business unit of Pfizer, and until 2012 he was head of the Global Primary Care Business Unit. Furthermore, he previously held senior regional and country management positions at Pfizer and positions across a range of disciplines including medical and marketing at Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis.

Dr Brandicourt holds a medical degree with a sub-specialty in infectious diseases and tropical medicine, as well as a master’s degree in biology from Paris 12 University, France. After completing his studies, Brandicourt spent two years in the Republic of Congo as a doctor and eight years with the Institute for Infectious and Tropical Diseases at Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, spending half this time in West and Central Africa working on malaria research. Dr Brandicourt is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London, UK, and a member of the Children’s Aid Society’s Board of Trustees in New York.