AstraZeneca has announced a reorganization of its research and development (R&D) and commercial units and has changed some of its executive management for those areas.

Under the new structure, AstraZeneca will form two R&D units: one focused on the therapeutic areas of cardiovascular, renal & metabolism (CVRM), and respiratory, which will collectively be called its BioPharmaceuticals unit, and a second unit focused on oncology. Each unit will be responsible for discovery through late-stage development for their respective medicines. The company also has created two commercial units aligned with these therapeutic areas.

The R&D units and the commercial units will each be represented on the Senior Executive Team of AstraZeneca and report to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pascal Soriot. The units will also share common basic biology and science platforms as well as product supply, manufacturing, and information technology infrastructure to improve efficiency. These resources will continue to be allocated on a company-wide basis according to the overall therapy area considerations and strategy.

“We are entering what we expect will be a period of sustained growth for years to come, which is why we have decided to more closely align our R&D and commercial operations,” said Pascal Soriot, CEO, AstraZeneca, in a January 7, 2019 company statement. “This new structure will support growth and sharpen the focus on our main therapy areas, speeding up decisions and making us more productive in our mission to bring innovative medicines to patients.”

The R&D unit for BioPharmaceuticals will be led by Mene Pangalos, who was previously responsible for the company’s Innovative Medicines and Early Development Biotech unit. The R&D unit for Oncology will be led by José Baselga, who most recently was Physician-in-Chief at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Prior to this, he was Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Associate Director at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The commercial unit for BioPharmaceuticals will be led by Ruud Dobber, who was most recently responsible for the company’s commercial operations in North America. The commercial unit for BioPharmaceuticals mirrors the company’s existing commercial unit for Oncology, which continues to be led by Dave Fredrickson. The International commercial organization remains under current leadership.

Source: AstraZeneca