Research chiefs play musical chairs as AstraZeneca poaches Pfizer man
The heads of research at two major pharmaceutical companies were in the limelight yesterday, as Anglo-Swedish major AstraZeneca announced the appointment of Martin Mackay to the newly-created position of president of R&D, having lured him away from global behemoth Pfizer.
Dr Mackay will lead the company's R&D organization and will have overall accountability for delivering new products ' small molecules and biologics ' from AstraZeneca's pipeline. He will start his new role on July 1, and will be based at the company's headquarters in London. He will report to chief executive David Brennan and will be a member of AstraZeneca's senior executive team
At Pfizer, Dr Mackay was head of PharmaTherapeutics Research & Development and a member of the Pfizer executive leadership team. Prior to joining Pfizer in 1995, he held several discovery and development roles culminating with his appointment as head of molecular and cell biology, CNS research at Ciba-Geigy.
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