AstraZeneca appoints new head of cancer R&D

AstraZeneca has created a new corporate structure based on two divisions, one focusing on cancer and the other on cardiovascular, diabetes and respiratory drugs. The fact that cancer research has been granted its own division emphasises just how important the therapy area is to the company’s continued growth. Dr José Baselga, a world class oncology researcher, has been appointed to lead the division.
Dr Baselga’s appointment is not without controversy however. He was chief medical officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, and resigned from that post, along with his post at Weill Cornell Medical College, in September 2018 following an investigation by the New York Times and ProPublica which concluded that he had failed to disclose financial ties to pharma companies.
Dr Baselga is quite clear to point out that the disclosure failures were completely unintentional, and considers his appointment at AstraZeneca to be an end to the matter. He said: “Bringing the discovery through to late-stage development chain into one unit will make the process more agile and accelerate our work to bring transformative medicines to patients. This really is a dream job.”