June 19, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Wilmington, Del.-based Incyte Corporation announced Friday that is reorganizing its corporate structure into two new units and said its chief commercial officer will leave the company for personal reasons.
Its new structure will now have an American silo that will lead commercial and medical affairs in the U.S. and a Global Product Strategy and Business Development & Licensing (BD&L) unit. That global department will be used primarily to lead global competitive strategies for Incyte‘s expanding portfolio beyond Jakafi (ruxolitinib).
The company added that Jim Daly, currently its executive vice president and CMO, will leave company at the end of this month “for personal reasons.”
“My decision to return to California was a personal one,” said Daly in a statement. “I leave Incyte knowing that the business is performing well and that the team is well-prepared to grow Jakafi, and to advance Incyte’s pipeline of innovative medicines, as the company seeks to make a major difference for cancer patients in the years ahead.”
He will be replaced by Barry Flannelly, as EVP and General Manager U.S., effective immediately. Incyte said it is now on the hunt for a new Head of Global Product Strategy and BD&L.
“Jim created significant commercial momentum for Incyte. We sincerely thank him for all his efforts, including driving towards our goals for Jakafi, and we wish him well,” said Hervé Hoppenot, president and chief executive officer of Incyte, in a statement.
“Incyte has a large development portfolio and significant global opportunities, and now is the opportune time for us to organize the company to include both a regional operating unit for the U.S. as well as a global strategic product team. We are also delighted to be able to immediately move Barry into his new role and draw on his more than 20-year track record in the biopharma industry.”
Incyte is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of proprietary therapeutics, primarily for oncology.
In January, Incyte raked in a $25 million milestone payment from its partner on Jakafi, larger drugmaker Novartis AG . This payment was triggered by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) adopting a positive opinion for Jakafi (ruxolitinib) for the treatment of adult patients with polycythemia vera (PV) who are resistant to or intolerant of hydroxyurea.
“We are very pleased with the progress that Novartis has made in the global development and commercialization of Jakafi,” said Hoppenot at the time, “This recommendation for approval in Europe, the second indication for Jakavi and many months ahead of schedule, is further evidence that our innovative scientific advances can offer significant benefit to patients.”
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