Synthelabo Reorganizes Drug Research

French pharmaceutical company Synthelabo is to separate drug research from development and reorganize each sector under different management. Giuseppe Bartholini, the vice president who has been in charge of the combined R&D operation for over 15 years, is leaving the group and will be replaced by Salomon Langer as head of drug research and Jean Marsac, head of Roussel Uclaf's medical management team, as head of development.

The company says the aim of these changes is to improve effectiveness of R&D, on which Synthelabo spends 15% to 16% of its annual sales, which reached 1.1 billion French francs ($207.5 million) in 1993. The company expects the changes to help speed up the development of new drugs and to bring up to international level its registration procedures.

The search for new molecules will in future be separate from drug testing in animals or man. Regis Dufour, group vice president, says that new molecules will be taken over by an "autonomous development structure," and the new regime will closely resemble those already put in place by Glaxo and Sandoz.