Boshoff currently serves as chief oncology officer and is credited with delivering 24 approved new medicines and biosimilars during his 11-year tenure at the company. Boshoff has also worked as Pfizer’s head of development in Japan and as chief development officer for oncology and rare disease.
“Dr. Boshoff is the ideal leader to propel Pfizer’s R&D engine forward and transform it into a world-leading organization with a more focused strategy,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in the company’s statement. He credited Boshoff with running one of the company’s most productive divisions and said he has a “compelling vision” for future research and development.
As the new head of research, Boshoff will be tasked with revving up a pipeline that some investors have found disappointing. Pfizer achieved an astonishing success developing a COVID-19 vaccine in a matter of months in 2020 and raked in billions of dollars during the pandemic, pushing its shares above $59 in late 2021. Since then, the stock has more than halved, however.
The activist investor Starboard Value argues that Pfizer executives wasted their COVID-19 windfall on bad acquisitions while neglecting innovation. Last month, Starboard pushed the company’s board “to hold management accountable for earning appropriate returns on R&D and M&A moving forward.” READ MORE
By Kristin Jensen
Source: biopharmadive.com
One of the most compelling acquisition sagas in the pharma industry in recent times has come to an end, with Pfizer prevailing over Novo Nordisk in a fierce bidding war to acquire obesity biotech Metsera. After mulling over competing offers from both Pfizer and Novo Nordisk, Metsera has decided to go with the former’s $10bn offer.
French industrial group Anjac Health & Beauty has acquired food supplements supplier PharmaLinea and now comprises 17 complementary companies with R&D and production capacities in health, beauty, personal care, and food supplements.
The big pharma company will pay $221.50 per share in cash to buy Cidara, a US biotech that has developed a platform of drug-Fc conjugates (DFCs). The technology has allowed Cidara to build molecules with prolonged half-life whose efficacy does not require an immune response.
