PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, Feb. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- GlaxoSmithKline plc has announced today that Dr. Moncef Slaoui, currently Senior Vice President, Worldwide Business Development and External Alliances, GSK R&D, will become Chairman, Research & Development, effective June 1st, 2006. Reporting to Dr. Jean-Pierre Garnier, Chief Executive Officer of GSK, Dr. Slaoui will also join the Corporate Executive Team and the company's Board of Directors.
Dr. Slaoui, 46, will succeed Dr. Tadataka (Tachi) Yamada, who will retire from the company on June 1st to become Executive Director of the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The retirement of Dr. Yamada is the subject of a separate announcement today.
Dr. Slaoui will bring to his new role broad experience in scientific research, product development, and executive management. In his current position, he has served on the R&D Executive Team and spearheaded recent changes in R&D to enhance drug discovery and accelerate product development. Previously, in GSK Biologicals, he engineered the development of a robust vaccines pipeline, including Rotarix, to prevent infantile gastroenteritis, and Cervarix, to prevent cervical cancer.
"Moncef combines scientific acumen, sound business sense, and a fervent commitment to public health," said Dr. Garnier. "Following a career in academia, he has demonstrated during his 17 years at GSK that he can create a strategic vision and then vigorously pursue it to develop new products that profoundly enhance healthcare."
"Moncef is an outstanding scientist and a charismatic leader. Most importantly he and I share a common commitment to the welfare of patients," said Dr. Yamada.
Dr. Slaoui said, "GSK has one of the most promising pipelines in the industry. Our challenge, going forward, is to deliver to patients the many medicines we have in development, whilst continuing to grow the pipeline. Along with my colleagues in R&D, we are embracing this challenge and we fully expect to be able to deliver medicines of great value for patients and for GSK in the coming years."
Dr. Slaoui earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Immunology from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston. He was a professor of Immunology at the University of Mons, Belgium. He has authored more than 100 scientific papers and presentations. A citizen of Morocco and Belgium, he is fluent in English, French, and Arabic.
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