Hongquan Liu will become chief executive and executive director of the board of Chinese drugmaker Simcere Pharmaceutical Group on 8 October. He has been an independent director of the company for the past 9 years.
Jinsheng Ren will continue as the company’s chairman.
In addition, Yehong Zhang, currently Simcere’s president, will become chief executive of Simcere MSD (Shanghai) Pharmaceutical Co, the newly established joint venture between Simcere and Merck & Co.
Between 2000 and 2012, Liu held the positions of director and general manager of Sino-Swed Pharmaceutical, the first pharmaceutical joint venture between China and Sweden.
Prior to this, he was chief financial officer and chief marketing and business officer of Pharmacia & Upjohn (China), and general manager of Pharmacia Corporation.