Kindler, 55, described his tenure as "extremely demanding" and said he plans to spend more time with his family while preparing for new challenges.
Kindler, a Harvard Law School graduate and former McDonald's Corp. executive who joined Pfizer in 2002, revamped its sprawling pharmaceutical sales operation into five divisions that gave their leaders more control and responsibility. That significantly boosted revenue in emerging markets and stabilized sales of older medicines hit by generic competition in the wealthiest countries by promoting them heavily elsewhere.
Kindler also pulled off a huge acquisition that ensures Pfizer remains at the top of the pharmaceutical industry for years to come, buying Wyeth for $68 billion in October 2009. The deal allowed Pfizer to metamorphosize overnight from a maker of blockbuster pills such as cholesterol fighter Lipitor, the world's top-selling drug at nearly $13 billion a year, to a highly diversified company. It now has an impressive and lucrative biologic drug business, plus veterinary medicines and consumer health products including Centrum vitamins and Advil and Anacin pain relievers.
"Now that we are about to complete a full year of operating Pfizer and Wyeth together, with our world-class team fully in place, I have concluded the time is right to turn the leadersip of the company over to Ian Read," Kindler said in a statement.
Not everyone has been happy with Kindler's performance at Pfizer, though. In the last couple of years, the company has suffered a string of failures of experimental drugs in the very expensive late stages of testing. The Wyeth acquistion has cost roughly 20,000 workers their jobs at a time when the entire industry is laying off huge numbers of people. And Pfizer's stock has been in the doldrums this year and is down about 30 percent from when Kindler became CEO in July 2006.
In September 2009, the company got hit with a record $2.3 billion government fine for illegally promoting a number of medicines for unapproved uses that were inappropriate for some patients — a practice that's widespread in an industry that markets some products relentlessly.
Meanwhile, Lipitor will face generic competition in the U.S. in December 2011, and it's unlikely Pfizer's newer drugs and recent deals to acquire others can make up for the billions in Lipitor sales that will quickly disappear.
As the chairman of the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Kindler was instrumental in lining up drugmaker support for this year's health care overhaul in a deal that ultimately will bring those companies more customers and sales. The industry had vigorously fought and helped defeat the Clinton administration's attempt to reform health care in 1994, but did an about-face this time.
Constance J. Horner, the lead independent director of Pfizer's board, said in a statement that Kindler had recruited talented new leaders, set up more focused and agile business units, and made the company stronger and more focused.
Read, 57, was promoted in 2006 to head the global pharmaceutical business, which has about 40,000 employees and brings in about 85 percent of Pfizer's revenue — about $61 billion a year. It sells everything from pain drug Lyrica and impotence pill Viagra to cancer drugs and specialty medicines, generally pricey injected drugs for complex, chronic diseases.
Horner said he "has brought to product development a focus and commitment to advance only medicines that have clear value to our customers," adding his track record shows he understands global markets and can quickly adapt to compeititive pressures.
Read began his career at New York-based Pfizer as an operational auditor in 1978, but his undergraduate training, at London University, was in chemical engineering.
He moved up through leadership positions in Pfizer's Latin America operations, then oversaw operations in Europe, Canada and other areas. By 2002, he was head of operations in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.
Read is well enough known to industry analysts and others in the business community that Pfizer spokesman Ray Kerins said the company is not planning an analyst conference call or other announcements on Monday.
The company declined AP requests for interviews with Kindler and Read.