People On The Move: Appointments At ANEFP, CHPA, Norgine, InfectoPharm, DSM

A round-up of the latest appointments in Europe's and the US health and wellness industries: Spain's ANEFP elects Martín as president;  US CHPA appoints Parks as senior VP of regulatory and scientific affairs, Norgine hires HRA's Hilton to lead its consumer business; Infectopharm names Weleda's Ammendola as R&D head; and DSM-Firmenich makes management changes.

ANEFP

ANEFP, Spain’s consumer health industry association, has elected Almirall Iberia’s general manager Lidia Martín as its president. She replaces Laboratorios Salvat’s Alberto Bueno who has held the role since May 2019.

previously an ANEFP VP, lidia Martín returns to the group after leading Almirall’s Iberian operation since February 2021. Source: ANEFP

Previously a vice president of ANEFP, Martín has led Almirall’s Iberian operation since February 2021 and has spent more than two decades with the Barcelona-based pharmaceuticals company in various leadership roles including primary care business unit director and head of global alliance management.

To support Martín in her new role, ANEFP has named as vice presidents: Marielle Therese López (Bayer), David Solanes (Ern Laboratories), Francisco Quintanilla (Faes Farma), Marc Pérez (Hartmann Laboratories), Alberto Bueno (Salvat), Emmanuel Lebrun (Sanofi), and Elena Zabala (Zambon).

As president of ANEFP, Martín said she will focus on addressing the challenges facing Spain’s self-care sector in the fields of digitization, sustainability, and regulation.

The ongoing revision of the European pharmaceutical legislation offers an opportunity to the self-care industry to improve harmonization across different European Union countries, Martín said, and to create a regulatory framework that favors the development of consumer health products and values their essential role in the overall health system.

Consumer Healthcare Products Association

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association appoints former Food and Drug Administration drug center executive Lisa Parks as senior vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs, starting 5 June and succeeding Barbara Kochanowski.

Parks, reporting to president and CEO Scott Melville, comes to the US industry trade group CHPA with more than three decades’ experience practicing pharmacy in retail and institutional settings and managing cross-center organizational change initiatives at the FDA. Parks worked with the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research’s executive leadership in implementing Generic Drugs User Fee Act I, reorganizing the center to establish the Office of Pharmaceutical Quality and improving review processes for the Office of Generic Drugs.

lisa Parks joins CHPA with experience including managing cross-center organizational change initiatives at FDA. Source: CHPA

She also influenced regulatory strategy as primary lead for GDUFA II & III and through her work on the regulatory and policy framework governing abbreviated new drug application submissions.

“Her wide-ranging experience will be enormously helpful as CHPA develops and implements regulatory strategies that will protect and promote self-care options on behalf of its member companies. Her leadership and expertise will be enormously beneficial as we approach reauthorization of the Over-the-Counter Monograph Drug User Fee Program, seek to enhance the Rx-to-OTC switch pathway and continue working to modernize the regulatory framework for dietary supplements,” said Melville in a 19 May announcement.

Most recently Parks was as a senior vice president of regulatory policy at FDA regulatory consulting firm Greenleaf Health. She previously worked as VP of scientific and regulatory affairs at the generic industry’s Association for Accessible Medicines, where she was primary lead and strategist for GDUFA and the Biosimilar User Fee Act reauthorizations and implementation.

Kochanowski, who is retiring in July after nearly four decades’ regulatory leadership in the consumer health care industry, joined the CHPA in 2009 after 23 years at Procter & Gamble. In March, she received the trade group’s Regulatory & Scientific Affairs Career Achievement Award for her work in the consumer health care industry. (Also see "HBW US Market News: Awards, Appointments, Actions And Nutrition And Disaster Relief" - HBW Insight, 2 Apr, 2023.)

Kochanowski received the award at the CHPA’s annual Self-Care Leadership Summit in Orlando, FL, where her retirement also was announced on 20 March after 14 years at the CHPA and 23 years at Procter & Gamble. (Also see "People In Brief" - Pink Sheet, 19 Jan, 2009.)

Norgine

Norgine has appointed HRA Pharma CEO Martyn Hilton as vice president of its consumer healthcare business unit with immediate effect. He replaces Eric Alsac who after 18 months in the role is moving to head up Norgine’s specialty care operation.

Hilton, who will also join Netherlands-based Norgine’s executive committee, has led Perrigo’s HRA Pharma since September 2022. (Also see "People On The Move: HRA Pharma, Hofseth BioCare, UK CHM" - HBW Insight, 9 Aug, 2022.)

HRA's global chief commercial officer for five years before his elevation to CEO, Hilton led HRA’s global expansion, striking deals to take the company’s emergency contraceptive brands EllaOne and NorLevo and its Compeed foot-care line into new markets.

Hilton joined HRA in July 2017 from Boehringer Ingelheim, where he served as global head of the Germany-based firm’s trade and shopper marketing. Prior to that, he spent over eight years with Reckitt Benckiser.

Norgine has increased its focus on consumer health in recent years, establishing at the end of 2020 a dedicated subsidiary, Norgine Healthcare B.V. The company’s OTC offering is mainly focused on the gastrointestinal category and led by the Movicol chronic constipation treatment. Marketed across Europe, Australasia and selected other territories, the portfolio also includes the Gelsectan irritable bowel syndrome treatment and laxatives Giprocol and Normacol. (Also see "Netherlands’ Norgine Sets Up OTC Business And Targets Acquisitions" - HBW Insight, 4 Dec, 2020.)

InfectoPharm

InfectoPharm has named Weleda’s co-CEO Aldo Ammendola as its managing director with immediate effect. He replaces Norbert Stempel who has retired after almost three decades with the Heppenheim, Germany-based pharmaceutical firm.

Ammendola will lead InfectoPharm’s research, development and manufacturing division and join the group’s four-person executive management board. He is tasked with taking the company’s product portfolio into new markets and expanding the pipeline. The company’s R&D focus is not only on pharmaceuticals, but also dietary supplements, cosmetics and medical devices.

InfectoPharm currently offers a range of pediatric consumer health products for through its Padia subsidiary including the Anaesthesulf anti-itch lotion, BabyBene anti-dandruff treatment and Euphrasia eye drops. It also distributes in Germany probiotic products developed by Sweden’s BioGaia.

Ammendola joins InfectoPharm from German cosmetics firm Weleda where he has served as co-CEO and chief research and development officer for the past six and a half years. Prior to that, he was head of R&D at German herbal medicines specialist Bionorica from 2014 to 2016.

DSM-Firmenich

DSM-Firmenich – a new company created by the merger of health and nutrition ingredients firm Royal DSM and flavor and fragrance specialist Firmenich – has announced leadership changes following its establishment on 9 May. (Also see "DSM And Firmenich Merge To Create Nutrition And Fragrance Leader" - HBW Insight, 31 May, 2022.)

DSM’s co-CEO Geraldine Matchett is to leave the company on 1 September, with co-CEO Dimitri de Vreeze poised to step up as DSM-Firmenich CEO. Furthermore, the merged company has named PepsiCo’s Katharina Stenholm as its chief sustainability officer, effective from 1 July 2023.

In this role, Stenholm will shape a new Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy for the company that builds on the strengths of both DSM and Firmenich's previous plans.

She has served as PepsiCo’s chief sustainability officer for Europe for the past year and was previously global leader of the nature sustainability team and global procurement organization at French multinational food company Danone.