Novartis said on Thursday that Merck executive Fiona Marshall has been named president of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research to succeed Jay Bradner, who is leaving after seven years as the Swiss pharmaceutical company’s research leader.
The pharmaceutical company says that Marshall will start his new job on November 1. He is currently senior vice president and global head of discovery sciences, preclinical development, and translational medicine at Merck & Co.
CEO Vas Narasimhan said, “I am very grateful to Jay for his major contributions to changing how we make new medicines, attracting world-class scientific leaders, and making more partnerships with top biotech companies and academic institutions.”
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He emphasised Marshall’s three decades of expertise guiding drug research and early development across giant biopharma, academia, and the biotechnology industry.
Before joining Merck in 2018, Marshall was the founder and chief scientific officer of the British biotech business Heptares Therapeutics, which was bought by the Japanese firm Sosei, where she continues to serve as chief scientific officer.
Novartis said that Marshall was the director of molecular pharmacology at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and had important jobs at GSK for ten years in molecular pharmacology and neurology.
