Lilly shakes up management structure

New CEO last month, new management structure this month. Eli Lilly chief John Lechleiter (photo) is reshuffling the company's leadership, hoping to cut management layers and improve accountability. Apparently, he asked senior management to weigh in, then came up with this bureaucracy-busting plan: global regulatory, medical, and patient safety divisions will combine under one manager, Dr. Tim Garnett, who'll be VP and chief medical officer. Two new VPs--for regulatory affairs, Dr. Jen Stotka; and for patient safety, Dr. Don Therasse--will report to Garnett. European operations also are getting streamlined, with Karin Bitar taking over as president of that area. In the U.S., there will be two divisional VPs instead of four; the two remaining will be organized by customer groups, i.e. healthcare professionals and healthcare payers. The changes will help Lilly "respond more quickly to critical business needs," Lechleiter said in a statement.

Other executive changes were announced, too: Tim Franson, VP of global regulatory affairs, is retiring, and Alan Breier, the former chief medical officer, is going to Indiana University as a psychiatry professor. The organizational changes will start to take effect immediately, with the new structure up and running by July 1.

- see the Lilly release
- read the story in the Wall Street Journal
- check out the Chicago Tribune article
- find the Indy Star's coverage

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