Lek Supervisory Board approves expanded Board of Management
Ljubljana, July 10 – At today’s meeting, the Supervisory Board of Lek, a Sandoz company, approved the expansion of the company Management Board in accordance with the appointment of Vojmir Urlep, who will succeed Janja Bratoš in the position of President of the Board of Management on August 1, 2007. The current four-member Lek Management Board, the composition of which will remain unchanged upon the arrival of the new President of the Board of Management, will be joined by new members Markus Delfosse, responsible for technical operations, and Darija Brečevič, responsible for human resources.
Lek is one of the most important parts of Sandoz in the field of technical operations (purchasing, manufacturing, and customer supply). Recently this area of Lek’s operations has undergone a period of intense growth and investment, and plays an important role in the overall operations of our company, and therefore this function will now be represented in the Management Board.
We are pleased to announce that Markus Delfosse, who was up to the present the Head of Global Technical Operations at Sandoz, will head this area of operations. He was instrumental in building a global TechOps function at Sandoz, and managing the network coordination project with the merger of Hexal.
Markus will become the Head of TechOps for Ljubljana and will supervise pharmaceutical operations for all finished dosage form (FDF) sites in Slovenia, including Ljubljana, Lendava, Mengeš and Prevalje. In these roles, he will coordinate all site activities ensuring alignment across Engineering, Supply Chain Management and Health, Safety & Environment. In addition, Markus will supervise TechOps for Poland and Romania, and work on key strategic projects involving expanding the manufacturing and packaging operations in Central and Eastern Europe.
Markus Delfosse is an experienced and well-established Sandoz associate who will fortify the Lek team with his knowledge and experience in the field of technical operations in Slovenia and the wider region.
Since successful company growth depends on the employees, a new position on the Management Board has also been provided for the field of human resources, which will be led by Darija Brečevič. Darija joined Lek on December 1, 2006 as the head of the human resources team for Technical Operations for Slovenia and Romania. She was appointed Head of Human Resources on April 1 of this year. Before coming to Lek and Sandoz, Darija gained a great deal of experience in her field as head of human resources at the Johnson & Johnson representative office for medical accessories and diagnostics. Before that she worked in human resources at Lek. Darija holds a degree in psychology from the University of Ljubljana.
In addition to the two new members, the Lek Board of Management will continue to include present members Ksenija Butenko Černe, Member of the Board of Management responsible for managing and ensuring the legal harmonization of the operations of the company with relevant local and EU legislation and for the operations of the company as a good corporate citizen, a member of the Novartis/Sandoz group, Anette Weber, Member of the Board of Management responsible for finance, and Marjan Novak, Member of the Board of Management and Workers’ Director.
Lek, a Sandoz company, is one of the pillars of leading world generics company Sandoz. It operates as a global development center for products and technologies, as a global manufacturing center for active pharmaceutical ingredients and medicines, as a competence center for the development of vertically integrated products, as a Sandoz competence center in the field of development and manufacturing of biopharmaceutical products and as a supply center for the markets of CEE, SEE and CIS, sales Slovenia and sales services for Sandoz’s global markets. Lek d.d. employs about 2,820 people and achieved total sales of USD 904 million in 2006. For further information please consult http://www.lek.si
Sandoz, a Division of the Novartis group, is a global leader in the field of generic pharmaceuticals, offering a wide array of high-quality, affordable products that are no longer protected by patents. Sandoz has a portfolio of more than 840 active substances in over 5 000 forms worldwide. Key product groups include antibiotics, treatments for central nervous system disorders, gastrointestinal medicines, cardiovascular treatments and hormone therapies. Sandoz develops, produces and markets these drugs along with pharmaceutical and biotechnological active substances and anti-infectives. In addition to the strong organic growth in recent years, Sandoz has made a series of acquisitions including Lek (Slovenia), Sabex (Canada), Hexal (Germany) and EonLabs (U.S.) and sells its products in more than 110 countries. In 2006, Sandoz employed around 21,000 people worldwide and posted sales of USD 6 billion.
Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS) is a world leader in offering medicines to protect health, cure disease and improve well-being. Our goal is to discover, develop and successfully market innovative products to treat patients, ease suffering and enhance the quality of life. Novartis is the only company with leadership positions in both patented and generic pharmaceuticals. We are strengthening our medicine-based portfolio, which is focused on strategic growth platforms in innovation-driven pharmaceuticals, high-quality and low-cost generics and leading self-medication OTC brands. In 2006, the Group’s businesses achieved net sales of USD 37.0 billion and net income of USD 7.2 billion. Approximately USD 5.4 billion was invested in R&D. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis Group companies employ approximately 101,000 people and operate in over 140 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.
This press release contains statements and conclusions based on projections of Lek’s future business operations. These estimates are derived from the best information currently available. In case these forecasts prove unreliable, the actual results could prove different from those projected.
For further information contact:
Katarina Klemenc Dinjaški
Corporate Communications
Lek Pharmaceuticals d.d.
Phone: + 386 1 580 22 43
Fax: + 386 1 580 24 32
communications.lek@sandoz.com