±±¾©Èü³µpk10

Novartis has consolidated its top two marketing roles into one with

the appointment of former Boots skincare marketer Nick Evans to the new

position of marketing director for consumer healthcare. He will report

to chief executive Kevin White.

The position gives Evans control of a £6.7m advertising budget and

the marketing of all Novartis consumer products. These include

over-the-counter (OTC) brands such as Nicotinell, Isostar, Tixylix,

Ex-Lax and food product Ovaltine.

The post had previously been shared by marketing directors for OTC

products and for health and functional foods.

Both OTC market-ing director James Bull and health and functional foods

marketing director Alistair Paton have taken up posts with the firm's

North American medical nutrition arm.

Evans takes up the post from pharmaceuticals firm Merck KGAA, where he

had been general manager for Asia Pacific since 1999.

Before joining Merck, Evans had served for four years in various

marketing roles at Boots Health Care in the UK and Australia.

Following Boots Health Care's acquisitions of the Hermal and Lutsia

skincare brands, he was appointed marketing director, skincare. Prior to

joining Boots, Evans spent six years at Warner Lambert Consumer Health

Care, where he worked on the launches of the first Listerene variant in

a century and the turnaround of the Halls brand.

Evans said he was drawn to Novartis because of the potential of its

brands.

"There's a latent energy in a lot of the brands in the portfolio," he

said. "It's just a case of which ones to prioritise." He added that the

consolidation of Novartis' OTC and health and functional foods divisions

would spark innovation in both areas. "I think there's a lot of mileage

to be gained from applying FMCG principles to the OTC market. It will

enable us to cross-fertilise learnings and skill."

In July, the pharmaceuticals to foods group unveiled a global branding

campaign for its pharmaceutical products and consolidated the global

media agencies for its animal, consumer healthcare, eye care and

pharmaceutical divisions.

The pitch pits the CIA network, which handles planning in the UK,

against MindShare and Initiative Media.