Long-time Lilly CEO Lechleiter to retire in December

This undated photo provided by Eli Lilly shows David A. Ricks. Ricks said the company has the right strategy as it surges forward in a new era.

Lechleiter joined Lilly in 1979 as a senior organic chemist and later took on roles that involved pharmaceutical product development, regulatory affairs and operations.

Lechleiter has led Indianapolis-headquartered Eli Lilly as CEO since April 2008 and served as chairman since January 2009.

“We had some pipeline failures along the way that forced us in essence to rebuild our late-stage pipeline and delayed the launch of new products [until] 2014”, Dr. Lechleiter said. Ricks now serves as senior vice president and president of Lilly Bio-Medicines. “Now, we must realize our growth potential in an increasingly challenging global marketplace”.

Mr. Ricks in 2012 was named president of Lilly Bio-Medicines, which markets drugs including the erectile dysfunction pill Cialis and the new psoriasis treatment Taltz. He first joined the company in 1996 as a business-development associate. Ricks also sits on the executive board of the Crossroads of America Council of Boy Scouts of America, and on the Advisory Board of the Purdue University Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

Citing its bright business prospects, Lilly said it would be reinstating annual dividend increases-because of a wave of patent expirations on blockbuster drugs, the company had frozen its dividend from 2010 until announcing an increase in December-and confirmed its prior guidance that adjusted earnings for the full year would fall between $3.50 and $3.60 a share. His medical leave from the company in 2013 for surgery to fix an enlarged aorta “convinced me even more that the end of 2016 would be a good time” to step down, he said. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism.