CSL rebrands Australian businesses

CSL Limited (ASX:CSL) has been a fixture of the Australian biotechnology industry for decades. Yet it is now rebranding its domestic operations to bring it in line with a company reorganisation announced earlier this year.

As a part of the shuffle, CSL’s Australian plasma business, formerly under the banner of CSL Biotherapies, will now take on the name of the company’s global plasma business, CSL Behring.

Other aspects of CSL Biotherapies’ remit, including vaccines, pharmaceuticals and in-vitro diagnostics will now operate under the newly created title of bioCSL.

According to the company, the integration of its Australian plasma operations with CSL Behring will create a single globally-integrated supply chain for the its full portfolio of plasma and recombinant protein products.

Formerly, CSL Biotherapies serviced only Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.

CSL CEO and Managing Director, Dr Brian McNamee, stressed that the name change will not alter the company’s focus on the Australasian region.

“While the structure and name of our Australian operations are changing, both CSL Behring and bioCSL will remain fully committed to the reliable supply of high quality, life-saving medicines for Australians,” he said.

CSL Behring in Australia will be led by Dr Simon Green, a biochemist who has held a number of positions since joining CSL in 1998, most recently as Senior Vice President, Global R&D Product Development, where his focus has been on building CSL’s recombinant protein manufacturing capabilities.

Prior to this, Green spent several years as General Manager at CSL Behring’s manufacturing site in Germany and also led the global R&D program for CSL Behring.

bioCSL will be led by Dr John Anderson, who was formerly Vice President Commercial Operations of CSL Biotherapies. He has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry.

Since joining CSL in 2002 his achievements have included the successful commercialisation of cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil and the expansion of the Company’s in-licensed portfolio of products and partners.

CSL also released its latest corporate responsibility report entitled Our Corporate Responsibility 2012.

According to the report, the priority areas include research into new and improved medicines, ensuring the safety and quality of its portfolio of therapies, providing a positive and healthy work environment for employees, behaving responsibly in the global marketplace, providing charitable support for communities in need around the world and minimising the environmental impacts of its operations.

CSL shares (ASX:CSL) dropped fractionally in morning trading, down 43c to $52.97 as of around 10am.