Andrew Witty replaces Higgins as EFPIA president

GlaxoSmithKline's chief executive Andrew Witty has taken over from Arthur Higgins as president of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, the industry body serving the European research-based drug industry.

Commenting on his appointment, Witty said "the policy considerations of healthcare have probably never been more pertinent." 

Witty will now head EFPIA as it comes to the end of its serialisation project in Sweden, designed to gauge the feasibility of adding unique codes to medicines in order to authenticate them at the point of dispensing.

He thanked Higgins, CEO of Bayer Healthcare, for his efforts at the group which provided a "solid base" for "future engagement and cooperation with the new Commission, European Parliament, Member States, patients and other stakeholders."

Higgins is also relinquishing his post at Bayer "for personal reasons," and is expected to make way for new CEO Marijn Dekkers, formerly of Thermo Fisher Scientific, in the first half of 2010.