G&W Laboratories Appoints Jay Galeota as President and Chief Operating Officer

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J., June 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- G&W Laboratories today announced the appointment of Jay Galeota to the position of President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Galeota joins G&W following a 28-year career at Merck, where he was most recently Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer and President, Emerging Businesses. As President and Chief Operating Officer he will oversee all company business operations and will shape the company's long-term growth strategy. G&W's current President, Kurt Orlofski, will assume the newly-created role of President of Generics, where he will lead sales, marketing and commercialization of current and near-term generic products, a foundation for the company's long-term growth.

"Our past performance and vision for the future, coupled with our values-based approach to life and business, have helped us build a high-caliber senior team at G&W with the knowledge, experience and commitment to achieve our ambitious growth goals," said Dr. Aaron Greenblatt, CEO of G&W Laboratories. "Jay Galeota is an experienced global business leader with a track record of industry innovation and commercial success, who brings the expertise needed to build and scale our company for ever-increasing levels of growth, and most importantly he embodies values that are perfectly aligned with those of G&W. I want to sincerely thank Kurt Orlofski for his many significant contributions to G&W and his unwavering commitment to building the strong platform from which the company operates today. His in-depth industry knowledge and commercial skills have been and will continue to be of great value to us in his new role."

Since Carl Greenblatt founded G&W Laboratories in 1919, the company's focus has been on helping people realize their potential through development of reliable and effective medicines, caring for employees and the community, and generating value for the company's strategic partners.

"I am thrilled to join G&W, a leader in delivering high quality, hard-to-source generic pharmaceutical products to patients globally and look forward to expanding the portfolio into novel research-based medicines," said Mr. Galeota. "I have been impressed by G&W's high-performance culture and talented team, which drive the exceptional innovation they bring to the industry and uniquely position the company for success."

Prior to joining G&W Laboratories Mr. Galeota spent 28 years at Merck, where he served in many diverse positions across commercial operations, business development, strategy, and innovation, both globally and in the U.S. Most recently, he was Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer and President, Emerging Businesses at Merck. Prior to that he was President of Hospital & Specialty Care, which represented more than $10 billion in worldwide revenues for the company. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Global Human Health Strategy and Business Development, where he helped establish Merck's Global Health Innovation Fund and the Innovative Venture Group to incubate businesses that broadened the company's portfolio and established leadership in key therapeutic areas and markets. Mr. Galeota was instrumental in bringing Merck into diabetes and led the team that developed and launched Merck's top grossing products, Januvia and Janumet.  After the merger of Merck and Schering-Plough in 2009, he led the integration of the global pharmaceutical and vaccine businesses. Mr. Galeota started his career in Merck's commercial organization, where he held various U.S. and global leadership positions and led numerous brands and key product launches across a variety of therapeutic areas. 

About G&W Laboratories
Carl Greenblatt founded G&W Laboratories, Inc. in 1919 upon his return from military service as a pharmacist with U.S. forces in World War I. While establishing a reputation as an innovative specialist in suppository dosage forms, Carl guided G&W Laboratories with an uncompromising commitment to product integrity and customer service. In 1945, Carl's son, Burton, also a registered pharmacist, returned from military service in World War II and joined the small but growing company. 

During the post-war years, G&W expanded its product line beyond suppositories, into creams, ointments, gels, liquids, and oral medicines. G&W moved to a larger state-of-the-art laboratory and production facility, which now exceeds 180,000 square feet in South Plainfield, New Jersey.  G&W has since added two additional facilities which have tripled its manufacturing footprint:  a former Allergan plc facility in North Carolina and a former Teva Pharmaceuticals facility in Pennsylvania, adding to its broad portfolio and robust pipeline.

Burton passed the reins to his son, Ronald, who was CEO from 2009 until 2015, and remains Chairman of the Board, which named fourth-generation Aaron Greenblatt as CEO in 2015. Aaron continues to uphold the family and company legacy through his commitment to the company's ethical standards, values, and patient focus through this significant growth journey. 

Continuing the high ethical standards, patient focus and goal of helping people realize their potential established by Carl and his son Burton, and carried forward by Ron and Aaron Greenblatt, G&W is still privately-held and family-owned and operated.

SOURCE G&W Laboratories, Inc.