With AstraZeneca’s former international chief, Leon Wang, under investigation in China, the company has promoted an AZ veteran to fill the post.
The British giant has appointed Iskra Reic, Ph.D., as its new EVP, International, AZ said in a release on Wednesday. Reic, who has been with the company since 2001, takes over the strategy role for AZ’s operations in China, Asia, Eurasia, Africa, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East.
As for Wang, he is on “extended leave from the company while under investigation in China,” AZ said.
On Oct. 30, AZ announced that Wang was “cooperating with an ongoing investigation,” and that operations in China were continuing under the company’s China general manager Michael Lai, M.D. A week later, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Wang was arrested in China in a probe that includes another current AZ executive and two former AZ senior execs.
On Nov. 12, when the company reported its quarterly earnings, CEO Pascal Soriot said that AZ had “very limited information,” on the investigation.
The company said that the investigation is not related to a medical insurance fraud case that emerged in 2021.
Wang, who took over as AZ’s China president in 2014 and as its international chief in 2017, helped grow the company into a force in China, where it generated $5.8 billion of its $45.8 billion revenue in 2023, making it the largest multinational pharma company in the country.
Reic moves to the international post after launching AZ’s Vaccines and Immune Therapies unit. In this role, she was responsible for the development of the pipeline and portfolio, including COVID-19 and RSV vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, strategic partnerships and acquisitions, medical affairs and commercial operations, AZ said.
“Iskra is a highly accomplished leader with extensive international experience across multiple disciplines and a track record of improving patient access to our innovative and life-changing medicines,” Soriot said in the release. “Her experience building partnerships will be invaluable in taking the fast-growing International region forward.”
Reic joined AZ’s senior executive team in 2017 when she was appointed EVP for Europe and Canada.