Pfizer CEO unexpectedly replaced

Pfizer Inc abruptly replaced its CEO and chairman Sunday, saying Jeffrey B. Kindler was retiring after 4 1/2 years leading the world's biggest drugmaker to "recharge".

Analysts saw the unexpected departure as an ouster, however, coming amid repeated failures from Pfizer's labs to produce new, much-needed blockbuster drugs, multiple patent expirations that threaten its income and a questionable strategy of relying on acquisitions and cost cutting to overcome those mammoth problems.

The move, announced unexpectedly late Sunday night, may be an attempt to palliate investors unhappy with Pfizer's languishing stock price, which is well below that of its peers and down about 30 per cent since Kindler took the helm.

Ian Read, 57, a 32-year Pfizer employee who has run Pfizer's worldwide pharmaceutical operations since 2006, took over immediately as chief executive and president.

The board appears to want a tighter rein for now, saying it will elect one of its members as a non-executive chairman within the next two weeks.

Kindler, 55, who reorganised most of the New York-based company's operations in an effort to maintain sales, said he plans to "recharge my batteries" and spend more time with his family while preparing for new challenges, according to a company statement. It gave no further details.

"I think what you're seeing is board frustration," said analyst Steve Brozak of WBB Securities.

He said Kindler's latest big acquisition, a pending US$3.6-billion deal for pain drug maker King Pharmaceuticals, may have been the last straw for the board.

He noted Pfizer also mysteriously backed out of at least one partnership with a small biotech company whose experimental drug subsequently did well in an important clinical study.

Kindler, a Harvard Law School graduate and former McDonald's Corp executive who joined Pfizer in 2002, revamped its sprawling pharmaceutical sales operation into five divisions that gave their leaders more control and responsibility.

That shift boosted revenue in emerging markets — currently the industry's key target — and stabilised sales of older medicines hit by generic competition in wealthy countries by promoting them heavily elsewhere.

Read began his career at Pfizeras an operational auditor in 1978, but his undergraduate training was in chemical engineering.

He moved up through leadership positions in Pfizer's Latin America operations, then oversaw operations in Europe, Canada and other areas. By 2002, he was head of operations in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

- AP