Novartis has named Marie-France Tschudin as its new president of the pharmaceuticals division. She will be replacing Paul Hudson who is leaving the drugmaker to become CEO of Sanofi.

Commenting on the news, Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said "I am pleased that…Tschudin is ready to take over from…Hudson to further grow the business and lead the expected upcoming launches of our transformative medicines." Narasimhan added Tschudin "has a strong record of accomplishments in driving commercial excellence and a culture of inclusiveness and integrity."

Tschudin joined Novartis in 2017, holding the position of head of pharmaceuticals for Europe, having previously worked at Celgene. She has more than 25 years of broad, multi-national experience in the pharmaceuticals and biotech industry and joined Novartis in January 2017.  As a member of the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Executive Committee and head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Region Europe she successfully grew the largest regional business within Novartis across countries, therapeutic areas and products to over $8b in sales by the end of 2018.