Senior management team leaves Aenova

Published: 19-Oct-2015

Company cites differences of opinion between Supervisory Board and some members of management team


The Aenova Group, a German provider of contract manufacturing and development services to the pharma industry, has begun to restructure its management team following the abrupt departure of Chief Executive Heiner Hoppmann, Chief Commercial Officer Dr Friedrich Sernetz and Chief Development Officer Dr Birgit Kudlek.

Hoppmann has been CEO of Aenova Holding since November 2008 and was in the position when the company acquired Haupt Pharma, also a German company, in 2013. The merger added sterile manufacturing and the production of special active ingredients (including hormones, antibiotics and cytostatics) to Aenova’s range of solid, semi-solid and liquid dosage forms. The integration of the two companies was completed before the end of last year.

Hoppmann said at the time that the company was planning for an IPO 'in a couple of years'.

Elisabeth Hartmann, Head of Corporate Communications at Aenova, told Manufacturing Chemist that Hoppmann and his fellow directors had left the firm because of 'differing views on the further strategic course of the Aenova Group'.

She said the vacant positions on the Management Board would be filled as quickly as possible, and the Supervisory Board has already begun its search for suitable candidates.

In the interim, Dr Axel Müller will take the position of Chief Executive. Hartmann said Müller's work on Aenova's Advisory and Supervisory Boards means that he is 'particularly well acquainted with the Aenova Grup and its strategy'.

Müller has held a number of international management positions in the pharma industry and thus has extensive management and industry experience. Among other positions, he has been CEO at Acino Holding, Switzerland and at Skypharma, UK.

Hartmann added that the new management team, when appointed, would have 'a clear mandate to continue enhancing customer focus, service and quality and to take all three to a new level; this lies at the heart of our strategic reorientation'.

Aenova is owned by private equity group BC Partners, which annually invests between €30–40m in the production facilities.

'There will be no changes to this approach in future,' said Hartmann. 'It is the intention of BC Partners and the Aenova Group to continue the intensive cooperative partnership developed over many years'.

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