Suven Pharma gets a new board as Advent International completes stake buy

As US-based private equity (PE) firm Advent International completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Hyderabad-based Suven Pharma, it announced a change in the pharma company's board.

Now Suven Pharma, a contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), will be led by a team comprising Annaswamy Vaidheesh, as executive chairman, V Prasada Raju as managing director, and Sudhir Kumar Singh as chief executive officer. Advent had announced the acquisition of a significant stake in Suven Pharma in December of the previous year from the Jasti family. Advent acquired a 50.1 per cent stake in Suven at an agreed price of Rs 495 per share. An open offer for the remaining 26 per cent of the stake will be triggered within stipulated timelines, it said on Friday.
 

Venkateswarlu Jasti, founder of Suven Pharma and Suven Lifesciences; Abhijit Mukherjee, former chief operating officer of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories; James Mullen, former president and chief executive officer of Patheon and Biogen; and Stefan Stoffel, former chief operating officer of Lonza, have now been appointed to the advisory council of Suven Pharma. In terms of the board of directors, along with Vaidheesh and Raju, Pankaj Patwari, managing director at Advent, will also join the team.

Suven will also have three independent directors joining the board: K.G. Ananthakrishnan, former managing director of MSD India and former director general of OPPI, and chairman of PNB; Matangi Gowrishankar, former BP Global Head of Capability Development and former director of human resources, Castrol India, strategic advisor and certified coach; and Vinod Rao, former global treasurer and head of investor relations for Diageo and former chief financial officer of PepsiCo Asia Pacific, and board member at Eureka Forbes.

Vaidheesh has over 35 years of experience, including as managing director of GSK India, president of OPPI (Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India), and earlier with J&J Asia Pacific in senior regional leadership positions. Prasada Raju has over 29 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with leadership roles at Cohance Life Sciences, Granules India Ltd., and Dr Reddy's Laboratories. Singh was the former chief operating officer at Aragen Life Sciences for more than 10 years.

Shweta Jalan, managing partner at Advent International, said that the new leaders are 'stalwarts' in the industry and they are the 'right team' to deliver on the vision Advent has for Suven Pharma. Vaidheesh said, "We aim to leverage our expertise, resources across Advent, and the Suven team’s proven capabilities to deliver high-quality services to Suven’s customers worldwide. I am delighted to be leading this transformational journey.”

Pankaj Patwari, managing director at Advent International, pointed out they aimed to scale up manufacturing and R&D capabilities at Suven as well as effectively execute the pipeline.