AstraZeneca has poached Pascal Soriot from rival Roche Holding to be its new chief executive, hoping his track record in drug innovation and dealmaking can revive a company battered by clinical trial failures and patent expiries.

Soriot, a 53-year-old French national, has been chief operating officer of Roche's pharmaceuticals division since 2010. He will take up his new job on Oct. 1, AstraZeneca said on Tuesday.

Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca has been without a permanent CEO since June 1, following the abrupt departure of David Brennan, who was criticised by investors for failing to do enough to shore up the group as a wave of drug patents expired.

The British-based company's chief financial officer, Simon Lowth, has acted as interim CEO since Brennan's exit and will continue to do so until Soriot arrives.

After that, AstraZeneca said Lowth would resume his duties as finance chief and continue to serve as an executive director, although there is likely to be speculation over how long he will remain, since he was also considered a candidate for CEO.

Britain's second-biggest drugmaker has suffered repeated drug development setbacks, stoking fears about its long-term prospects given loss of exclusivity on key medicines, which exposes the group to generic competition and declining sales.

Roche, by contrast, has had a successful record of drug development and Soriot has been at the centre of that innovation as a former head of its U.S. biotech unit Genentech, where he negotiated the sale of full control of the business to Roche.

Challenging job

Soriot acknowledged his new job would be a challenge. The entire drugs industry is under pressure from patent losses and pressure on prices, but AstraZeneca's position is worse than its rivals, reflected in the lowest valuation multiple of any Big Pharma firm.

AstraZeneca shares trade on less than eight times this year's expected earnings, against 13 times for Roche.

"No-one is blind to the challenges that confront the pharmaceutical sector and this company, but the underlying strengths of AstraZeneca in delivering on its strategy are clear," Soriot said in a statement.

Appointing Soriot is the first big decision taken by AstraZeneca's new chairman Leif Johansson, who took over on June 1. He praised the Frenchman's "leadership qualities combined with his strategic thinking and relevant experience".

Industry analysts believe the fundamental question for the company's new leadership team is whether to steer AstraZeneca towards bolder large-scale acquisitions or further cost cutting.

Recently, AstraZeneca has stepped up its pace of bolt-on dealmaking. In April it agreed to buy Ardea BioSciences for $1.26 billion, giving it a new gout drug, and two months ago it chipped in $3.5 billion for a half share in Amylin's diabetes drugs in an alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Some analysts, however, argue that bigger deals are needed to offset the decline in sales of former blockbusters. Its antipsychotic drug Seroquel lost patent protection this year, while heartburn pill Nexium and top-selling heart drug Crestor lose U.S. protection in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

The company did announce European approval on Tuesday for a new antibiotic, Zinfor, but this is not expected to become a major seller and there are few other commercially promising new medicines in its late-stage pipeline.

Swiss-based Roche said diagnostics boss Daniel O'Day would take over as head of its dominant pharma division to replace Soriot and Roland Diggelmann, currently head of the Asia-Pacific region in the diagnostics division, would replace O'Day.