Greenidge To Step Down As Director Of IFPMA

Alicia Greenidge, director general of the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA), has stepped down from the post.

An IFPMA press release dated 30 April said she will leave the organisation in November 2009, and an out-of-office email reply indicates that she has left already. Greenidge took over the leadership position of IFPMA in the summer of 2008, after nearly 10 years with the United States mission to international organisations in Geneva. She is leaving to pursue other opportunities, IFPMA said. Greenidge could not be reached for comment.

Greenidge had high hopes that her negotiating experience might help to find common ground and help build relationships between IFPMA, as a key representative of the innovative research and development industry, and other stakeholders in Geneva.

”I got the impression that if I were to accept this job as director general of the IFPMA, I might be able to make a difference,” she said in an interview with Intellectual Property Watch earlier this year, available for subscribers here: IPW, Lobbying, 23 January 2009.

Michael Boyd, the vice president of public affairs at Schering-Plough Corporation, which currently holds the IFPMA presidency, is the acting director general of IFPMA effective immediately. Laurent Renaud, the current director of finance and administration at IFPMA, will take over the administrative operations associated with the position.

IFPMA said Egon Zehnder International, a global executive search firm, will manage the search for a new director general by November.

Greenidge replaced longtime association head Harvey Bale, who retired last year. The changes come as the industry and the public health sector are facing numerous policy and competitive challenges.

It is unclear what prompted this change at the brand-name pharmaceutical trade association. IFPMA declined to comment other than what is in the press release.