Bausch and Lomb announced on October 12 that Brent Saunders will depart as chief executive after a mutual agreement with the board, and that board chairman Thomas Appio has been named interim chief executive effective immediately. The company did not disclose a reason for the change. US-listed shares fell more than 5 percent in early trading, and by some reports more than 7 percent.
Saunders had led Bausch and Lomb since 2023, in a second stint after running the company from 2010 to 2013. He previously led Allergan until its 63 billion dollar sale to AbbVie in 2020, and built a reputation as a serial dealmaker. Appio has been chief executive of parent Bausch Health since 2022 and will hold both roles during the transition. He joined Bausch and Lomb in 2010, ran its China business and later its international business, and became chairman of the eye-care company’s board in August.
The leadership news came with a financial signal in the opposite direction. Both Bausch and Lomb and Bausch Health said they expect to raise their full-year 2026 forecasts for adjusted EBITDA, excluding acquired research and development costs, based on preliminary third-quarter results. Bausch and Lomb’s current forecast is 1.025 billion to 1.075 billion dollars, and updated figures are due with third-quarter results on October 28.
Analyst reaction split along that same line. Citi called the timing of Saunders’s departure sudden while noting Appio’s long history with the business, and Leerink Partners described the change as unexpected but said operating momentum is growing and the fundamental trajectory is intact. The strategic question the change reopens is structural: Bausch Health listed Bausch and Lomb separately in 2022, retains about 87 percent ownership on Reuters’s reporting, and a sale process for its stake ended without a deal in 2025. An interim chief executive drawn from the parent suggests that question, not operations, is what the board is working on.