Dive Brief:

• Bayer CEO Bill Anderson’s structural overhaul is now reaching the highest ranks of the business, as the company reshuffles its pharmaceutical leadership team.
• Sebastian Guth is taking on a new role as chief operating officer, and Christine Roth will head a “global commercialization” group that will swallow up parts of former units, including those for oncology, marketing and medical affairs, Bayer said Wednesday. Christian Rommel will continue to lead research and development, and Holger Weintritt will keep running product supply.
• Overall, the team will shrink to eight members from 14 amid departures by marketing chief Anne-Grethe Mortensen, radiology head Gerd Kruger and consumer health president Heiko Schipper, among others, a spokesperson confirmed to BioPharma Dive. 

Dive Insight:

Since becoming CEO last year, Anderson has been open about his dissatisfaction with Bayer’s performance, blaming a large part of it on the 160-year-old German conglomerate’s swollen bureaucracy. In November, he promised a “radical realignment” of the company’s culture.

Two months later, Bayer announced plans for significant layoffs across the company after winning support from employee representatives who said they saw no other choice. Though Bayer expects to reap cost savings from the cuts, Anderson said that’s a side benefit to the larger goal of making the company more nimble and profitable for the future.

Employees and investors got a glimpse of what Anderson is planning with changes in the North American pharmaceutical unit at the end of last year. The group reduced the number of managers by 40% and set up teams of 15 to 20 people that have more autonomy over budgets and strategy, board member Heike Prinz said at a news conference earlier this month.

“We’re reducing layers to the minimum imaginable — in some areas we have 12 layers between Bill and our customers today,” Prinz said. “Our target is five to six layers across the entire company.”

The changes in the global pharmaceutical leadership team follow the departure of three executives from the crop science division in January. Guth, who is currently head of commercial operations for the Americas, will continue to live in the U.S. to help grow that market, Bayer said Wednesday. Roth, who currently runs the oncology business, will start her new role on June 1, while Guth will begin on April 1.