Takeda Pharma names GSK's Weber as COO, CEO candidate

Takeda Pharmaceutical, Asia's biggest drugmaker, named GlaxoSmithKline's Christophe Weber as chief operating officer (COO) and a candidate to become the next chief executive. Weber, president of Glaxo's vaccines division in Belgium, will take on the COO role by April, Osaka, Japan-based Takeda said on Saturday. Weber was previously Glaxo's Asia-Pacific regional director based in Singapore.

Takeda, maker of the Actos diabetes treatment, has been globalising its leadership in recent years, hiring outsiders such as Frank Morich, who led Bayer AG's healthcare, and Tachi Yamada, who oversaw Glaxo's research and development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's health programmes. Takeda rose 0.5 per cent to 4,975 yen in Tokyo trading on Friday.

The company predicts "mid single-digit" annual revenue growth till 2017 and said operating profit should advance 20 per cent or more a year over the same period. It aims to extract 100 billion yen ($978 million) in annual costs by 2017, including reduction in staff.