INDIA — GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline plc has appointed Bhushan Akshikar as Managing Director for a four-year term beginning December 1, 2022.
He succeeds Sridhar Venkatesh, who will move to a new senior role within the GSK Group on November 30, 2022, according to a GSK note. Venkatesh took over as MD in India in April 2020.
According to the company, Bhushan Akshikar has over 26 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.
In September 2011, he joined GSK India to lead the specialty and commercial excellence business units, and in 2014, he was appointed head of the Mass Markets business.
In 2016, he was promoted to Managing Director of the publicly traded entity GSK in Nigeria. He then relocated to Turkey in 2019 to lead GSK’s vaccines business in the Middle East, Russia, CIS, and Africa, driving strategic initiatives and launches in both private and tender segments.
Apart from a strong business turnaround, he also built a high-performing, resilient team.
He returned to India in December 2020 as Commercial Head of the General Medicines business and has led a cultural transformation journey for the large 2,500-plus crore (over US$303M) business, according to the note.
Prior to joining GSK, Bhushan worked for Janssen, Johnson & Johnson in various roles leading both specialty and primary care business units in both local and regional positions in India, South Korea, and Belgium for 15 years before joining GSK.
Bhushan possesses a postgraduate MBA degree in Marketing from SPJIMR as well as a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Pune.
In another recent development, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is the latest multinational corporation to leave Kenya due to low-budget sales and global restructuring of the company.
The company, which manufactures Sensodyne, Augmentin, and Panadol, will close its Nairobi Industrial Area plant and instead supply the region through a distributor-led model.
GSK will join a long list of global manufacturers, including Reckitt Benckiser (the maker of Dettol), Cadbury, and Colgate-Palmolive, in discontinuing local production due to rising costs and an uneven business environment.
GSK’s exit comes as the company works to overhaul its global business, including the spinoff of its consumer health unit, which owns the Sensodyne and Panadol brands.
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