Shionogi, the Japanese firm and developer of blockbuster cholesterol drug Crestor, has split US operations into two divisions, one focused on sales marketing and distribution, and the other on R&D and regulatory functions.

The latter office (Shionogi Inc.), located in New Jersey, will serve as the company’s corporate headquarters and will oversee all US operations. The sales and marketing subsidiary, Shionogi Pharma, will remain in Atlanta.

Joseph Schepers, a spokesperson for the company, said the reorganization established one management team at the company, led by Sapan Shah, president and CEO of Shionogi Inc. Patrick Fourteau, previously CEO, president and director of Shionogi Pharma in Atlanta, has left the company, according to Schepers. Joseph Ciaffoni was promoted to president of Shionogi Pharma, and reports directly to Shah.

Fourteau was CEO of Sciele Pharma prior to Shionogi’s acquisition of that company in October 2008. Sciele was fully integrated into the Shionogi organization this year, said Schepers.

According to Schepers, details about the number of jobs shifting from Atlanta to Shionogi’s headquarters in New Jersey “haven’t been finalized,” but all sales and marketing positions at the company “will remain in place,” he said.

In addition to Crestor, AstraZeneca’s top-selling cholesterol drug, Shionogi also developed and manufactures doripenem, an injection for complicated intra-abdominal infection and urinary tract infection, marketed in the US by Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, as Doribax.