Court Papers Reveal AstraZeneca PLC CEO Was Livid Over Protege's Defection to GlaxoSmithKline

July 6, 2017
By Alex Keown, BioSpa

LONDON – Sometimes business can become very personal. That appears to be the case with AstraZeneca Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot and the defection of top lieutenant Luke Miels.

In January, Miels was poached away from AstraZeneca by rival GlaxoSmithKline . Miels was hired to helm GSK’s pharmaceuticals division to replace the departing Abbas Hussain. Miels was the first big hire by new CEO Emma Walmsley, who took over the company helm from Sir Andrew Witty.

Miels’ departure from AstraZeneca was not amicable. In May, AstraZeneca filed a lawsuit claiming Miels is in violation of his employee contract. But it appeared to be more than just a contract violation. For Soriot, it was personal. According to court documents, first reported by The Sunday Times of London, Soriot was angered that Miels, a longtime associate, was leaving for top rival GSK. According to the Times, Soriot told Miels he could go to any company other than GSK. Soriot also allegedly reminded Miels in a threatening manner that AstraZeneca sponsored the visa required to live and work in the U.K.

According to the court documents Soriot made Miels a counteroffer to keep him at AstraZeneca, but that was rejected.

AstraZeneca has sought to block Miels from working for rival GSK for up to 12 months due to allegations that Miels had access to AstraZeneca’s proprietary information that could damage the company if it was made available to a rival such as GSK.

Despite all the hullabaloo, Miels is set to begin work at GSK in September, nine months after being hired. Miels has been on what is termed gardening leave, meaning he still remains on the company payroll (presumably GSK’s) even though he is not working.

The Times noted that Miels and Soriot have been working together for more than a decade. The two worked together at Aventis , which is now part of Sanofi , then later at Roche . When Soriot took over at AstraZeneca five years ago, he hired Miels away from Roche. While at AstraZeneca, Miels was head of Global Product & Portfolio Strategy, Business Development & Licensing, Corporate Affairs, Global Medical Affairs, and Pricing and Market Access.

This will be a pivotal year for both GSK and AstraZeneca. In April, GSK’s Walmsley pledged to focus on growing the company’s pharmaceutical business, which includes “making the right choices to develop our pharma pipeline, which is promising but unproven.” GSK is facing loss of revenue now that a generic of its asthma drug Advair has hit the market. Analysts predict GSK earnings to show the challenges from the new generic version of the inhaler later this year.

For his part, Soriot has been looking to overhaul AstraZeneca with a focus on developing its pipeline, particularly in the areas of oncology therapies. That strategy became necessary after the company saw numerous drug patents expire, which caused a revenue drop of $17 billion beginning in 2011 and projected into 2017. With the shakeup, Soriot has a goal of AstraZeneca hitting revenue of $45 billion by 2023. The company is anticipating data from a combination study of durvalumab and tremelimumab in treating tumors that have not traditionally responded to other immunotherapy treatments. If data is positive, AstraZeneca is anticipating a big payoff.