While many people were watching Tony Soprano struggle tonight with his the thinning ranks in his crew, Jeff Kindler chose that moment to announce changes in his own managerial team, the first big move since becoming ceo last fall.

John LaMattina, the 57-year-old R&D chief who championed the failed torcetrapib cholesterol drug (that’s him to the right), is taking early retirement, although he won’t actually leave until a successor is found. That failure marked a significant turnaround in company fortunes and there was speculation that an R&D overhaul would occur.

At the same time, Alan Levin, the cfo and a 20-year Pfizer veteran, is also leaving to “explore opportunities outside the company.” By replacing him, Kindler is signaling Wall Street that he will rely on an emissary who is more visible and experienced. Levin succeeded vice chair Dave Shedlarz, who developed a lot of credibility with the street.

The moves underscore the depth of the problems facing Kindler, whose statement emphasized the drugmaker’s development work when, in reality, Pfizer is scrounging for a sufficient number of new drugs and alliances to compensate for a thin pipeline.

These changes alone won’t transform Pfizer overnight, but hold enormous symbolic potential for Kindler, who is eliminating thousands of jobs as he struggles to remake a company that has relied over the past decade on blockbuster drugs and mergers for growth.

In the statement, Kindler strongly hinted that he’ll look outside the drugmaker for a new R&D chief, although The Wall Street Journal suggests that Marty Mackay, an R&D vp and head of world-wide development, is an insider mentioned frequently as a possible contender.

Further reading…
Pfizer’s statement;
A profile of LaMattina before the torcetrapib failure in The New York Times (registration required).[tags]John LaMattina, Pfizer[/tags]