Viatris has spent the last few years shedding various businesses, including its biosimilar and over-the-counter departments, among others—but now, the company is back to making additions.
The latest of these is Viatris’ appointment of a new chief commercial officer. As of today, the role will be filled by Corinne Le Goff, Pharm.D., who boasts more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
After getting her start as a product manager at Aventis in the early 1990s—prior to its acquisition by Sanofi—Le Goff proceeded to make stops at Pfizer, Sanofi, Merck and Roche in increasingly senior leadership roles.
She spent several years at Amgen starting in 2015, culminating in a stint as general manager of its U.S. business, before joining Moderna as chief commercial officer in early 2021, just in time to help lead the commercialization of its COVID-19 vaccine. Most recently, since mid-2022, Le Goff has served as CEO and president of New Jersey-based biotech Imunon.
“I believe Corinne has the skills and experience to help further propel our growth and position Viatris for long-term success, building on the great talent I have seen across our existing commercial organization since joining a year ago,” Viatris CEO Scott Smith said in a company announcement Monday.
“Corinne is a talented healthcare executive with a deep understanding of the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, including multiple therapeutic areas, markets and geographies,” Smith continued. “I look forward to welcoming her to Viatris and to working closely with her as we continue to build the truly unique company we have envisioned.”
Elsewhere in the announcement, Le Goff expressed her own excitement about joining Viatris “as the company embarks on its next exciting chapter.”
Viatris has recently kicked off the second phase of its plan (PDF) to return to growth. Phase 1 focused on stabilizing its financial performance, strengthening its pipeline of new drugs and divesting certain businesses; the last of those aims included the $3.3 billion sale of Viatris’ biosimilar business to partner Biocon in 2022 and, more recently, the shedding of its OTC, women’s healthcare and active pharmaceutical ingredient businesses.
Phase 2 of the plan will see Viatris growing its ophthalmology franchise and looking for new acquisition targets to accelerate its growth. The company also expects to see gains in its organic pipeline “more than offset” losses in its base business, while further maintaining the erosion of its base business by continuing to shed non-core assets and shifting its generics business to focus on more complex injectable products.
The first phase of Viatris’ companywide reboot has already helped to slow down its revenue slide: Though its 2023 revenues came out about 5.5% below 2022’s take, the year-over-year declines were progressively smaller each quarter of 2023—and the company’s total $15.4 billion haul still earned it the final spot on Fierce Pharma’s annual list of the top 20 pharmas by revenue.