Actavis Appoints Generics Veteran as New CEO

The Iceland-headquartered generics firm Actavis has appointed former Ratiopharm head Dr Claudio Albrecht to replace Sigurdur Oli Olafsson, who is standing down as CEO after seven years in senior management roles within the company. Dr Albrecht started his career in generics with Sandoz in 1987; in 2000 he joined Ratiopharm as global CEO and, within the next decade, Ratiopharm doubled sales and became the world's third largest generic company (by revenues).

On his appointment, Dr Albrecht said: "Actavis has one of the best R&D pipelines in the industry, but we still need to grow our market presence in many of the big markets. Strong geographic expansion and better market penetration, especially in southern Europe and the emerging markets, will be our goal for the future."

Actavis is now looking to find a central location "where the senior team can be based in one place," although Iceland will remain a key site for manufacturing, research and development.