Lonza has fired chief executive officer Stefan Borgas. The news follows the company’s 2011 results, which revealed a 33% profit decline (-46% including the company’s recent acquisition of Arch). According to a company statement, the board made the decision to replace Borgas in the last 48 hours.

“CEOs have a responsibility to deliver on expectation and I think our company over the last few years has not fully lived up to the expectation,” said Lonza Chairman Rolf Soiron, according to Reuters.

Lonza makes pharmaceutical ingredients for companies including GlaxoSmithKline, Abbott, and Novartis, and has moved back into specialty chemicals in an effort to improve business. Lonza, which acquired U.S.-based Arch Chemicals last year, in order to focus on delivering expectations and improving its returns on capital invested, although company statements noted that the environment would remain tough. “We feel the capital invested is not generating the returns our investors would expect,” Mr. Soiron said.

Lonza

FY Revenues: CHF 2.7 billion (flat)

FY Earnings: CHF 154 million (-46%)

Comments: Custom Manufacturing sales were down 10% to CHF 1.3 billion. Life Science Ingredients sales were CHF 697 million (-1%), impacted partly by the warning letter received by the Hopkinton, MA site. Microbial Control sales were CHF 486 million, up 55%, related to the Arch Chemicals acquisition. Bioscience sales were CHF 202 million (-4%).

All numbers (in Swiss francs) include the impact of the Arch acquisition.