FUJIFILM Corporation today announced that the company has appointed Lars Petersen as the new President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies, effective immediately. Petersen succeeds Martin Meeson who has served as FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies president and CEO since 2020.
Petersen has over 30 years of operational and leadership experience in life sciences and biopharmaceuticals. He most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer of the FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies site in Hillerød, Denmark, as well as head of the company’s large-scale strategic business unit. In this capacity he has been responsible for the company’s $6.2B global expansions in both Hillerød and Holly Springs, North Carolina. He has also played a pivotal role in driving the successful execution of FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies’ Climate Strategy in alignment with Fujifilm’s Sustainable Value Plan 2030. Prior to joining FUJFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies he held leadership positions at Biogen, Novo Nordisk and Genentech/Roche.
“Lars is a visionary leader with an excellent reputation for delivering outstanding operational and financial results and for establishing and delivering long-term value for our Bio CDMO customers,” said Toshi Iida, Corporate Vice President of FUJIFILM Corporation and chairman of FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies. He added “I have every confidence in Lars’ ability to lead the FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies to realise its full potential as a true partnership development manufacturing organisation for Advancing Tomorrow’s Medicine. His organisational knowledge, breadth and depth of experience in biopharmaceuticals make him the ideal leader to spearhead the company successfully through its next growth phase.”
Fujifilm has set a target to achieve an annual revenue of 200 billion yen for its Bio CDMO business by fiscal year ending March 2025. Beyond fiscal year ending March 2026, Fujifilm expects the annual growth rate of its Bio CDMO Business to 20%, due to new process capabilities, in-house capacity, inflation and increasing global demand for large scale mammalian production capacity. Going forward, Fujifilm will continue to contribute to the healthcare industry by providing a stable supply of high quality biopharmaceuticals.