Private equity firm Advent International-controlled Suven Pharmaceuticals Ltd has appointed former Piramal Pharma Solutions Ltd’s chief executive officer Vivek Sharma as its new executive chairman with immediate effect.
Sharma succeeds Annaswamy Vaidheesh, who is transitioning from the board to serve as vice-chair of Suven’s Advisory Council, the Hyderabad-based drugmaker said in a press release.
The development comes on the heels of Advent announcing its plan to merge its pharmaceutical portfolio companies Cohance Lifesciences and Suven to create a diversified contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) leader in India.
Advent acquired a majority stake in Suven in December 2022. It created Cohance in November 2022 after merging three portfolio companies that it had previously acquired—RA Chem Pharma, ZCL Chemicals and Avra Labs.
Suven said Sharma has extensive experience in managing CDMO businesses. He has held leadership roles, including CEO of Piramal Pharma Solutions from 2014 to 2019 and chairman and CEO of US-based Adare Pharma Solutions, a technology CDMO business, from 2020 to 2022. He also served as CEO of Decision Resources Group, a healthcare analytics company formerly owned by Piramal Group, from 2019 to 2020.
Sharma earned an executive MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and is a Chartered Accountant as well as a Certified Public Accountant.
Before joining Suven, Sharma served as the CEO of Saama, an AI clinical analytics company, from 2022 to early 2024. In February, Saama announced Bhaskar Sambasivan as its new CEO.
Suven posted a net profit of Rs 300.3 crore for FY24, down 27% from the preceding year. Revenue declined by 22% to Rs 1,051.3 crore from Rs 1,340.3 crore in FY23, mainly due to a global supply chain destocking.
