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GLAXO INC. NEW EXEC VP ROBERT INGRAM

Executive Summary

GLAXO INC. NEW EXEC VP ROBERT INGRAM will join the North Carolina subsidiary of Glaxo Holdings from the top spot at Merck's Canadian subsidiary, Merck Frosst. In the new position, Ingram, 47, will be responsible for corporate affairs, business development and regulatory affairs for the U.S. subsidiary. Glaxo Inc. President Thomas D'Alonzo continues in charge of sales, marketing and manufacturing. The senior management group also includes an exec VP for sales and marketing, Alan Steigrod. Ingram presumably has been recruited to broaden the pool of executive talent being groomed by Glaxo for the middle of the 1990s under the tutelage of CEO Charles Sanders. The Merck Frosst job was Ingram's first operating position. The $300 mil. Canadian subsidiary, the third largest drug operation within Merck, performed very well during his two-year tenure. During 1989, Merck Frosst sales reportedly climbed by 30% and operating earnings increased at a faster rate. The recruitment of Ingram continues an aggressive talent hunt by Glaxo Holdings chief exec Ernest Mario. Sanders, 58, joined Glaxo from the vice-chairman position at Squibb in July just prior to the Bristol-Myers Squibb merger. Mario was able to get Sanders to join Glaxo despite Sanders' lucrative and longstanding relationship with Squibb. Similarly, in Ingram, Mario is taking one of the rising stars from the Merck ranks. On a fast-track program, Ingram only joined Merck-Frosst in 1988. He had served as the company's government relations VP in Washington prior to joining the Canadian subsidiary. To lure away a top Merck exec, Mario would have had to overcome the notable persuasive powers of Merck Chairman Roy Vagelos. The Merck top exec has developed a mystique in the industry as the top recruiter and judge of scientific and executive talent. Glaxo, which has grown by leaps and bounds in the U.S., has a fluid management structure that Mario has used to advantage in recruiting from outside. In addition to Sanders and Ingram, Mario's other recent outside hirings for the U.S. business include Steve Conafay (from a senior government affairs position at Pfizer) and Geoff Littlehale (from the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association staff). Part of the management challenge at Glaxo over the next several years will be to oversee a slowing of infrastructure growth. On the back of Zantac, the company has expanded its drug sales force in the U.S. from 767 individuals in 1986 to 1,808 at the end of June last year. By the end of June 1990, the company projects only a slight increase to 1,820. The current Glaxo U.S. managers have to apply the brakes judiciously without killing the excitement of growth that has permeated the Zantac years. At Merck, the Canadian Merck Frosst job is emerging as a proving ground for the next generation of top executives. The current head of Merck's U.S. drug business, John Zabriskie, preceded Ingram at the Merck-Frosst position. Ingram's successor in Montreal will be Michael Tarnow, previously executive director of corporate development for Merck and one of the key individuals in the first stages of the J&J-Merck Consumer Products joint venture. Tarnow, a native Canadian, is a lawyer. Much of his 17-year career with Merck has been spent in the human relations and labor relations area. As a previous Washington representative for Merck and Merrell-Dow, Ingram has a thorough grounding in U.S. regulatory and policy issues to go with his operating experience. Glaxo has been attempting to build its influence in those areas to match its growing position in the drug industry as a force in the marketplace. Merck and Glaxo have not been head-to-head competitors with major brands but that may be changing as Merck's Losec (omeprazole) appears as a new treatment technology in Glaxo's foundation market, the gastrointestinal products field. Conversely, Glaxo is preparing for a co-market launch of the Roche ACE inhibitor Inhibace (cilazapril) into one of Merck's key markets. At Merck-Frosst, a prime research area under Ingram's purview was leukotriene work in the respiratory disease field. Glaxo has had a long presence in that area with an 18% share of the U.S. market in the year ended June 30, 1989.

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