After a few years in biotech, Mike Quigley, Ph.D., is returning to the pharma fold, taking up the top science spot at Sanofi.
Quigley will start Sept. 30 as the French Big Pharma’s chief scientific officer and global head of research, Sanofi told Fierce Biotech in an emailed statement.
Quigley is replacing Frank Nestle, M.D., who left Sanofi this spring amid a global overhaul of the company’s R&D unit. Nestle, who spent eight years with the pharma, jumped over to Deerfield Management, where he currently serves as a partner on the therapeutics team and CEO of the firm’s therapeutic discovery and development operations.
Quigley will join Sanofi from a San Francisco-based biotech that’s in stealth, according to his LinkedIn profile. He’s currently listed as the company’s co-founder, president and CEO.
The soon-to-be Sanofi leader also previously helmed Therini Bio, an immunotherapy biotech working to develop treatments for neurodegenerative diseases driven by vascular dysfunction.
Before spending the last few years in biotech, Quigley has an even longer track record in Big Pharma, most recently serving as Gilead’s senior vice president of research biology until the summer of 2021. Before that, he clocked in more than four years across various leadership roles at Bristol Myers Squibb and served as a scientific director at Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen arm before that.
Sanofi said Quigley’s mission in his new role would be to “maximize our probability of success through optimal collaborations across our organization and beyond, bringing best-in-class innovation as well as developing and sourcing new industry-leading talent with a commitment to diversity,” according to an internal memo obtained by STAT.
By Gabrielle Masson
Source: fiercebiotech.com
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