MSD Romania announces the appointment of Kostas Papagiannis as General Manager

Kostas Papagiannis takes over the general manager position of MSD Romania starting February 1. In the new role, he will focus on further developing the company’s presence in the local market, as well as creating sustainable solutions to increase patients ‘access to innovation and improve patients’ quality of life.

For the past three years, Kostas Papagiannis has been the Managing Director of MSD Bulgaria, Northern Macedonia and Kosovo. In this capacity, he has transformed the organization into one of the most dynamic pharmaceutical companies in the Balkans region, developing business processes and focusing on priority therapeutic areas in line with the regional and global strategy of MSD. During his tenure, the company has achieved significant growth in terms of both financial and operational performance. Driven from his commitment to creating an environment that welcomes pharmaceutical innovation, he had extensive focus on public policy and stakeholder engagement. While being a member in the local industry association (ArPharm), he was also selected for the Board of the Executive committee of AmCham in Bulgaria and led the efforts of AmCham Healthcare Committee as Chairman.

“I am very excited to join MSD Romania team, which I know very well, having worked closely in recent years on the implementation of projects aimed at improving health systems in the Balkans, including digital innovation initiatives. We will continue to focus on increasing the access of Romanian patients to innovative treatments and vaccines, on developing a partnership for health, collaborating with health authorities, patient associations, academic and business communities. I am a firm believer that open dialogue and collaboration are key to accelerating innovation that solves complex healthcare issues. We remain committed to delivering major impact on society, through our portfolio of innovative medicines and vaccines, to increase sustenability of the national vaccination program, and to invest in social business innovation projects. Concrete examples of our commitment to contribute to a solid foundation for positive change in Romanian healthcare are the grant awarded to a research project implemented by the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest on the subject of cancer care and as well our continued investment in MSD for Mothers flagship initiative addressing maternal mortality, since 2016 to date”, said Kostas Papagiannis, the new General Manager of MSD Romania.

Papagiannis joined MSD in 2015 in a Business Unit Director role in MSD Greece, where he focused expecially on hospital acute care. He has extensive international experience that goes beyond pharmaticeutical industry, gained in highly dynamic domains such as FMCG and in several European and Middle Eastern countries, in companies like General Mills, Kellogg’s and SC Johnson. He holds a degree in marketing from the University of Middlesex, UK.