Boehringer Ingelheim’s (BI) US President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Paul Fonteyne, plans to retire after 15 years of service on December 31, 2018. Wolfgang Baiker, MD, PhD, MBA, currently senior vice president, human pharma supply and global quality and head of BI’s biopharma business unit, has been appointed to succeed him, effective March 1, 2018.

Baiker joined BI in 1989 as section head for clinical development in Biberach, Germany. Since then, Baiker has served in a number of senior leadership roles across several critical business functions, including head of international project management, head of global development, member of the board of managing directors responsible for the Corporate Board Division Biopharmaceuticals and Operations, and currently as a member of the worldwide Human Pharma Executive Committee. Baiker also has experience working in the US gained during a seven-year assignment in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the company’s US headquarters, where he held several different leadership roles within clinical development and clinical research.

Fonteyne will be turning his attention for the remainder of the year to leading the company’s US animal-health business, where he will continue to oversee the integration and normalizing of operations following the 2017 acquisition of Merial, a multinational animal-health company, from Sanofi. He will also remain chairman of the BI USA Board.

During his tenure at BI, Fonteyne oversaw an increase in top-line sales and the US launch of the company’s bestselling product to date, Spiriva (tiotropium bromide), a drug used to control symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Prior to becoming US president and CEO in 2012, Fonteyne spent three years as head of corporate marketing in Ingelheim, Germany, where he successfully launched Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate mesylate), a blood thinner, and Tradjenta (linagliptin), a diabetes drug, while continuing to grow the human pharmaceuticals portfolio globally. Over the last six years in his role as US president and CEO, Fonteyne has launched several products.

Source: Boehringer Ingelheim