Novartis’ president of Innovative Medicines International and chief commercial officer, Marie-France Tschudin, will step down in mid-September, the company announced Wednesday.

Tschudin will explore other opportunities outside of Novartis, the company said, after almost seven years in leadership, including four years as a member of the executive committee.

“[Marie-France] has been integral to our reimagining our commercial model and the way we deliver innovative medicines to patients around the world,” Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said in a statement. “Marie-France has led her teams to remarkable growth. The impact she has had on our business, on our people, and on patients around the world will be long-lasting.”

Additionally, Patrick Horber, SVP and president of immunology at AbbVie, will join Novartis as president, international.

Horber spent more than 10 years at AbbVie, starting out as a GM in Switzerland then rising to leadership roles including VP, head of global marketing and commercial operations. In his most recent role as SVP and president of immunology, Horber oversaw the Immunology Business Unit and spearheaded global strategy and U.S. execution. 

Before that, Horber spent seven years at Roche, where he served as business area director of oncology and hematology. He also previously worked at Bristol Myers Squibb as a marketing and sales manager and European brand lead for HIV products.

In a statement, Narasimhan noted that Horber “is a proven leader with deep experience enabling commercial performance on a global scale, and I am confident he will catalyze our growth journey as Novartis enters our next chapter as a fully focused innovative medicines company.”

The new hire comes after Novartis rolled out a global restructuring last year, during which it laid off more than 8,000 employees. Part of that revamp involved combining Novartis’ pharma and oncology business into the same unit – its Innovative Medicines arm, which Tschudin headed.

Novartis is also in the process of spinning out Sandoz, its Switzerland-based generics and biosimilars business, into a standalone company this month. 

On Tuesday, Novartis announced it will hold an extraordinary general meeting on September 15, with the plan to complete the spinoff around October 4.