Former Abbott executive Olivier Bohuon is to succeed Jean-Pierre Garnier as head of France’s second largest independent pharmaceutical company.

The Board of Directors of Pierre Fabre SA has appointed Bohuon as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer and President of Pierre Fabre Medicament.

Bohuon previously worked as the Executive Vice-President of Abbott Corporation and President of its pharmaceutics division. In this capacity, he directed the group’s entire pharmaceutical business from Chicago. He also became group President for Europe in 2003 and subsequently President of Abbott international.

Richard Gonzalez has been named as Bohuon’s interim replacement. Until his retirement in 2007, Gonzalez was Abbott’s President and Chief Operating Officer, but he took up the post of head of Abbott Ventures, the company’s device biotech venture group, last year.

Pierre Fabre employs a workforce of nearly 10,000. In 2009, the group achieved a turnover of 1.8 billion EUR and dedicated 28% of its medical turnover to R&D in its four main therapeutic areas: oncology, central nervous system, dermatology and cardiovascular/metabolism.