Bayer names Christoph Koenen as its new CMO

Bayer has looked internally for a new chief medical officer, appointing Dr Christoph Koenen to the position in addition to his current role as head of clinical development and operations for the pharma division.

He replaces Dr Mike Devoy, who left Bayer in February, ending a 19-year career at the German group, and subsequently took on the CMO job at Johnson & Johnson's innovative medicines division.

Bayer said that Koenen, who has been at Bayer since 2022 and has also held leadership positions at Bristol Myers Squibb, Novo Nordisk, Boehringer Ingelheim, and GSK in a 25-year career, will lead medical and scientific strategies across the group.

"The chief medical officer role reinforces Bayer's commitment to keeping patient needs and patient safety at the centre of medical and scientific decision-making throughout the product lifecycle," said Stefan Oelrich, president of Bayer's pharma division.

"Christoph Koenen brings deep experience as a physician, former chief medical officer, and global R&D leader," he added. "His leadership will help further integrate clinical development and medical activities as we advance our strategic focus in R&D on delivering transformative medicines to patients faster."

The changeover in the CMO role comes against a backdrop of massive structural changes at Bayer under chief executive Bill Anderson, who is in the process of introducing a new operating model, stripping out middle-management layers, and reducing the company's headcount in an effort to strip €2 billion out of its annual costs.

Koenen's new combined role ties in with Anderson's drive to reduce the size of Bayer's senior leadership teams, and he will now play a key role in its five-year strategic roadmap to steer the company back to mid-single-digit revenue growth and expand its pharmaceutical operating margin toward 30% by 2030.

Central to that objective will be making the most of growth products like mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist (MRA) Kerendia (finerenone) for heart failure and chronic kidney disease, prostate cancer therapy Nubeqa (darolutamide), and recently approved Hyrnuo (sevabertinib) for ER2-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Koenen will also be tasked with contributing to Bayer's target of boosting total R&D productivity by 40%, helped by investments in AI, and the integration of recently acquired Perfuse Therapeutics.

"In my new role, I look forward to helping ensure that patient perspectives continue to shape our decisions, our scientific priorities, and the way we develop medicines," said Koenen.

"By connecting medical insight, evidence generation, and clinical development even more closely, we can help translate scientific progress into real-world impact."