Lifelong Novartis man makes EMD Serono switch

EMD Serono, the biopharmaceutical business of German pharma major Merck KGaA (MRK: DE) in the USA and Canada, has announced that Richard Smith has been appointed its head of US fertility and endocrinology.

Mr Smith joins EMD Serono from Swiss pharma giant Novartis (NOVN: VX), where he spent 18 years, most recently as US head of sales and operations of the cardiovascular franchise.

Having begun his career at Novartis as a sales representative, Mr Smith held as many as 10 different roles of increasing responsibility during his time there, including head of the organization's transplant franchise as well as positions in customer segment marketing, strategy and commercial operations for the US specialty medicines franchise, brand managed markets strategy, pricing and contracting for the neuroscience franchise.