Dec 15 (Reuters) - Global healthcare company Viatris on Friday appointed Theodora Mistras as its chief financial officer, effective March 1.

The company said the current CFO Sanjeev Narula will work closely with Mistras to support a smooth transition and will then depart the company on March 1.

Mistras most recently was the managing director of healthcare investment banking at Citigroup Global Markets and has almost two decades of leadership, advisory and capital markets experience, Viatris said.

The drugmaker also appointed Philippe Martin as chief research and development officer with immediate effect.

In October, Viatris

said

it had reached agreements to divest some of its businesses for a total of up to $3.6 billion as part of long-term strategy to streamline focus on three core therapeutic areas - ophthalmology, gastroenterology and dermatology. (Reporting by Christy Santhosh and Granth Vanaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)