Manufacturing & Supply Chain

Janssen, the pharmaceutical companies of Johnson & Johnson, has appointed Dr Thorsten Giesecke (pictured) as General Manager, Commercial Business, Janssen Sciences Ireland UC, which is responsible for commercialising six areas of medicines where the need is high including: oncology, immunology, neuroscience, infectious diseases and vaccines, pulmonary hypertension and cardiovascular and metabolism.

Thorsten joins Janssen from the Company’s headquarters in New Jersey where he worked as Director of Global Commercial Strategy for early assets in oncology and prior to that as lead of the EMEA regional haematology strategy for multiple myeloma.

Thorsten, who has relocated to Ireland from the US, is a performance and purpose-driven leader with an impressive track record of building and leading high performing teams, together with solid experience in Global/Regional Strategic leadership roles.

In these roles, Thorsten has spearheaded several strategic projects including ensuring a transformational pipeline in prostate cancer through earlier and better commercial input, improving the global patient advocacy interaction, assessing the dynamic impact of new market entrants on cancer epidemiology, and developing biomarker strategies. He has also driven the digital agenda in EMEA, introducing and implementing a digital customer experience at scientific conferences across the region.

Thorsten first joined Janssen Germany in 2006 as Medical Development Manager and assumed roles of increasing responsibility before being appointed as Business Unit Director for therapy areas including neuroscience and metabolics.

Originally from Germany, Thorsten began his career as an anaesthesiologist and scientist at University Hospitals in Germany and the US. He is a board-certified anaesthesiologist and pain therapist and holds an MD and a PhD from the University of Cologne.

Commenting on his appointment, Thorsten said: “I am delighted to be joining the Irish team and to be taking on the role of General Manager with responsibility for the Janssen commercial business at such an important time, and I believe we have a huge opportunity ahead of us. As we emerge from this pandemic, a new era of partnership between the government, the health service and industry will be vital to achieving the best for Irish patients. I am fully committed to building on the remarkable work that has already been done here to improve care and ensure timely access to innovative treatments as we continue to make a real difference to the lives of people, health systems and society as a whole.”

With a passion for putting patients first, Thorsten brings his vast international experience to support the teams at Janssen working to address some of Ireland’s most pressing health challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic and tackling cancer with precision medicines and cutting-edge technologies in cell and gene therapy.

Janssen is part of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies in Ireland which employs over 5,000 people at 10 sites in Ireland across manufacturing, R&D and business operations, representing all three sectors of the company – Pharmaceutical, Medical Devices and Consumer Health. Many of Janssen’s innovative medicines are manufactured for global export from Irish sites.