Drug maker Novartis AG named Joe Jimenez, head of the company’s pharmaceuticals division, is reported to be appointed as chief executive officer.

He is a 1982 graduate from Stanford University, where he competed on the swimming team, in Palo Alto, California and fetched a master’s degree in business from the University of California at Berkeley.

Also the company on Tuesday reported a 54 percent jump in its fourth-quarter profit to $2.32 billion on account of strong sales and favourable exchange rates.

Earnings per share rose 53 percent to $1.01 from $0.66 in the same quarter of 2008, when Novartis posted a net profit of $1.51 billion, the company said.

Its hypertension drug Diovan and anticancer drug Glivec -- known as Gleevec in the United States, witnessed a rise of 28% in its sales to $12.93 billion in the September-December period from $10.08 billion the previous year.

Vasella revealed about his plans to acquire the eye-care company Alcon Inc., which has encountered resistance from some minority shareholders, would "propel Novartis to the global leadership position in eye-care and create a new growth platform".

Novartis hopes its 2010 sales to witness an increase at a mid-single-digit percentage rate in local currencies, “based on the rapidly growing contributions of recently launched products and targeted investments in emerging growth markets”.