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* AstraZeneca finance chief to become Alexion CEO
* Alexion's Aradhana Sarin to become AstraZeneca CFO
* Current Alexion chief executive's future unclear
(Adds detail, context, executive comment)
By Pushkala Aripaka
June 4 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca will move finance
chief Marc Dunoyer to head newly acquired rare diseases business
Alexion, using the $39 billion takeover as an
opportunity to freshen up a management team that had been in
place for eight years.
Chief Executive Pascal Soriot has faced heavy public
criticism and EU legal action after AstraZeneca missed targets
for coronavirus vaccine deliveries, with he and Dunoyer also
attracting investor anger over their pay packages last month.
Dunoyer will replace Ludwig Hantson as boss of United
States-based Alexion on completion of the agreed deal, with the
proposed switch allowing Aradhana Sarin to move in the opposite
direction and become AstraZeneca chief financial officer.
The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker agreed in December to buy
Alexion in a bet on rare-disease immunology to add to its
fast-growing cancer medicines unit and a major COVID-19 vaccine.
London-listed AstraZeneca said Sarin's appointment is also
conditional upon completion of the Alexion deal, which was
approved by shareholders last month. Britain and the European
Union are reviewing the deal, which gained U.S. approval in
April.
As well as becoming Alexion chief executive, Dunoyer will
also be appointed chief strategy officer at AstraZeneca. He will
leave the board but continue to report to Soriot.
Soriot and Chairman Leif Johansson have been in their roles
since 2012 and Dunoyer was appointed in late 2013 https://bit.ly/3vQ1KzF.
In an interview with the Financial Times last month https://on.ft.com/3zapoJp,
Soriot indicated that succession planning had begun for the
three men at the top.
SHAKE-UPS
India-born Sarin would become the first woman to take up the
CFO role at AstraZeneca on a permanent basis. She joins a
handful of women in the so-called C-Suite of top executives at
UK blue-chip companies.
Sarin's addition to the board increases the composition of
female board members to 42% from 33%, Barclays analysts said in
a note.
"In Aradhana Sarin, we've appointed a talented successor to
Marc," AstraZeneca's Johansson said in a statement.
It was unclear what role Alexion's Hantson will take after
Dunoyer's arrival. Hantson did not immediately respond to a
request for comment via networking platform LinkedIn.
AstraZeneca declined to comment and a representative for
Alexion could not be reached for comment outside business hours.
Hantson joined Alexion in 2017, as did Sarin and former
AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan, to regain investor confidence
after its top executives left amid an internal investigation
over sales of Alexion's top-selling drug, Soliris.
Soliris is used against a range of rare immune-disorders,
and AstraZeneca hopes that an improved version of the drug will
boost sales further.
($1 = 0.7098 pounds)
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka and Vishwadha Chander in
Bengaluru
Editing by Rashmi Aich, Patrick Graham and David Goodman)
