CSL任命GSK系Deborah Waterhouse为新CEO，同日披露澳大利亚集体诉讼

Australian biotech company CSL Ltd. named Deborah Waterhouse its next chief executive officer and managing director, turning to an industry veteran to steer a turnaround at the embattled company.

Waterhouse, who has been leading GSK PLC-backed HIV drugmaker ViiV Healthcare and serves as president of GSK Global Health, will take over on Feb. 1, CSL said in a statement Wednesday. Gordon Naylor, who stepped in after the abrupt departure of former CEO Paul McKenzie, will continue as interim CEO until then.

The appointment comes at a critical juncture for Melbourne-based CSL as it struggles to recover from its $11.7 billion acquisition of iron deficiency specialist Vifor Pharma in 2022. The unit’s weak performance has weighed on results, with CSL projecting flat revenue growth and around $200 million in impairments for fiscal 2027.

Shares of CSL were trading down 0.8% at 10:17 a.m. in Sydney Thursday.

“CSL has gone for a commercial operator, someone whose career has been about turning science into sales, which shows the priority now is growth and getting more out of the businesses it already owns,” eToro analyst Josh Gilbert said.

Still, “she’s still got a mammoth task on her hands,” he said. “She’s walking into a business guiding to flat revenue this year, so investors shouldn’t expect a quick fix, and the market will want to see a clear plan for getting growth back before it starts rewarding the stock again.”

The challenges facing CSL were underscored Thursday when the company disclosed a class action had been filed in Australia’s Victoria state over allegations that it breached laws, including those related to continuous disclosure obligations and representations about its medium-term performance and fiscal 2026 outlook. CSL said it had complied with disclosure obligations, denied any liability and said it would “vigorously defend” the proceeding.

The stock is up 13% so far this year, underperforming the broader ASX.

Portfolio Expansion

Through developing multiple medicines based on the HIV treatment dolutegravir, ViiV has become a critical part of GSK’s business. With patent expiry looming, Waterhouse has focused on developing the next generation of HIV treatments that can be taken less frequently. While rival Gilead has had success with a longer acting HIV prevention medicine, ViiV is leading in treatments designed for extended dosing intervals.

CSL expects Vifor revenue to fall 25% in 2027 amid continued generic competition and the European Union’s decision to revoke marketing authorization for one of its marquee therapies. Naylor has warned that problems facing the business will “materially affect” earnings over the next year.

CSL is responding by combining parts of Vifor with its plasma division, reviewing products priorities and pushing to lift profit margins at its core plasma therapies business.

At the same time, the company is expanding in kidney medicine. Earlier this month, CSL agreed to pay as much as $1.6 billion to jointly develop and sell an experimental treatment for rare kidney and liver diseases, giving it another potential therapy in an area it has targeted for growth beyond its established plasma and vaccine businesses.

CSL invested $30 million on commercial initiatives in fiscal 2026, and plans clinical trials next year on immunoglobulin made with its Horizon 2 technology, which is designed to produce more medicine from donated plasma. The company also committed roughly $1.5 billion last year to expand US production capacity for plasma-derived therapies.

Her experience “should sharpen CSL’s focus on portfolio expansion and innovative growth avenues,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jamie Maarten wrote.