NOVO's NEW HEAD OF DRUG OPERATIONS IS ERIK SOERENSEN

NOVO's NEW HEAD OF DRUG OPERATIONS IS ERIK SOERENSEN, effective Jan. 1, the Danish firm announced Dec. 8. Currently exec VP and head of Novo's Bioindustrial Group, Soerensen will report to Senior VP and Chief Operating Officer Niels Holm, who for the past seven months has had the additional responsibility for the firm's Pharmaceuticals Division. The vacancy was created last spring by the shift of Sonnich Fryland to exec VP-corporate development. Since joining Novo in 1970, Soerensen has held positions "in many different areas of the company including the corporate finance department, the enzymes division, the pharmaceutical division and the business operations and product division," Novo reported. Soerensen was appointed to VP in 1974 and exec VP in 1980. He holds masters degrees in chemical engineering and international finance. Replacing Soerensen as head of the Bioindustrial Group is Steen Riisgaard, who becomes exec VP. Riisgaard has been VP of the Detergent Enzyme Division, the largest of the Group's five units, since 1980. Detergent Enzyme Division Marketing Manager Halling Hansen will assume the new title of VP and succeed Riisgaard. One of Soerensen's key responsibilities in his new job is the company's insulin business. Pharmaceuticals accounted for over half, or $429 mil., of Novo's $805 mil. worldwide sales in 1987. Insulin accounted for about 80% of total drug sales. "It is important for Niels Holm to devote all of his attention as Novo's chief operating officer and as a full-time member of the office of the chief executive," Novo President Mads Oevlisen commented on the in-house appointments. "I am glad that Niels Holm has managed the Pharmaceuticals Division and with the appointment of Steen Riisgaard as head of the Bioindustrials Group, I am confident that Novo's two main business areas are in the best of hands."