Merdad Parsey will leave Gilead next year

Gilead Sciences' chief medical officer, Merdad Parsey, will leave the company in early 2025, becoming the latest in a series of high-profile departures involving senior R&D figures at top drugmakers.

Parsey, who is in charge of the company's global clinical development and medical affairs activities, has said he will remain in the role during the search for a successor and to support the transition to a new CMO. He joined Gilead in 2019 from Roche's Genentech unit, where he was head of early clinical development.

The announcement comes shortly after AbbVie's head of global R&D Thomas Hudson retired, to be replaced by Roopal Thakkar, and after Pfizer chief scientific officer and president of R&D Mikael Dolsten also announced his intention to step down in the next few months after a successor is appointed.

Parsey joined Gilead just as it was in the midst of an expansion in its R&D focus into new areas like oncology, after concentrating for many years mainly on infectious diseases like HIV and viral hepatitis, and his departure comes after some setbacks in the company's efforts to build its pipeline.

Top of the list are recent disappointments in clinical trials for TROP2-directed antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan), which was the crown jewel in Gilead's $21 billion acquisition of Immunomedics in 2020, along with failures with CD47-targeting antibody magrolimab and Arcus-partnered A2 receptor antagonist etrumadenant.

In the other column are continued successes in the company's HIV franchise, the successful launch of lifesaving COVID-19 drug Veklury (remdesivir), and the promise of a forthcoming FDA approval of seladelpar for rare liver disease primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), acquired as part of Gilead's $4.3 billion takeover of CymaBay Therapeutics which closed in March.

Gilead's chief executive, Daniel O'Day, said that Parsey had made "significant contributions" as CMO over the last five years, which were "pivotal years for the company as we worked to strengthen and diversify the portfolio."

He added: "We have more than doubled our portfolio under Merdad's leadership, and with 54 ongoing clinical trials across virology, oncology, and inflammation, we are well positioned to build on our success for the future."

Shares in Gilead have been under pressure in recent months but gained a couple of points after the announcement. Analysts at Jefferies said that after a period of mixed success in R&D for Gilead, a change in R&D leadership would be an "incremental positive" for the stock.