Shortly after bringing in a former FDA official to serve as its chief medical officer, Pfizer’s latest leadership appointment is a new chief internal medicine officer.
In the role, James List, M.D., Ph.D., will be charged with leading the company’s pipeline of cardiovascular, metabolic, hematologic and obesity medicines from early discovery to late development, the company said in a March 6 announcement. The role is “inclusive of medical affairs and business development strategies,” the company explained.
Besides his decades of experience at other Big Pharma companies, List’s research background covers fields including viral pathogenesis and GLP-1, according to Pfizer. List is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and is a “world-class business and scientific leader with clinical experience in endocrinology,” the company said in its announcement.
The executive comes to Pfizer after wrapping up 10 years of service at Johnson & Johnson in October. Most recently, he served for two years as J&J’s global therapeutic head of cardiovascular, metabolism, retina and pulmonary hypertension.
Before J&J, List worked for 10 years at Bristol Myers Squibb. List capped off his BMS stint in 2014 in the role of vice president of diabetes development.
Pfizer has experienced a series of leadership shake-ups since last summer, when its former chief scientific officer and R&D head Mikael Dolsten, M.D., Ph.D., announced his retirement after 15 years with the company. Pfizer ultimately tapped internal pick Chris Boshoff, M.D., Ph.D., to fill the role, moving Boshoff from his previous position as chief oncology officer. Novartis vet Jeffrey Legos, Ph.D., was later brought in for the oncology leadership role.
More recently, the company elected a new CMO in Patrizia Cavazzoni, M.D. Cavazzoni succeeded Aida Habtezion, M.D., who served as CMO and head of worldwide medical and safety for four years and opted to leave the pharma to “pursue other opportunities.”
Pfizer’s new CMO is a seven-year FDA veteran who retired as the agency’s director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research days before President Donald Trump took office. She previously held several leadership roles across Eli Lilly, Sanofi and Pfizer.
By Zoey Becker
Source: fiercebiotech.com
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