The scientist who played a crucial role in defending AstraZeneca from a takeover by its American rival Pfizer is leaving the drug maker to join a small biotech firm.
Briggs Morrison, AstraZeneca’s chief medical officer and one of its leading drug developers, is leaving the company in “a matter of weeks”, the Anglo-Swedish company confirmed.
He is joining a small, privately owned biotech company whose identity has not been revealed, in a move that surprised industry watchers.
AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, will take over the job of late-stage drug development on an interim basis, while Elisabeth Björk, an associate professor of medicine at Uppsala university, who leads cardiovascular and metabolic drug development at AstraZeneca, becomes acting chief medical officer.
Morrison’s departure was a surprise because he joined AstraZeneca relatively recently, in 2012, and had quickly become an integral part of Soriot’s project to bolster its pipeline of profitable drugs.
“It is surprising because he was brought in by Soriot and has been a key part of Soriot’s leadership team,” said Colin White, an analyst at Datamonitor Healthcare.
When Soriot took over the then-ailing pharmaceutical giant in 2012, he wanted to put science back in the spotlight. In a wide-ranging management shakeup, he promoted three research and development staff responsible for drug discovery and development, including Morrison.
A geneticist with a post-doctoral degree from Harvard university, who specialises in cancer drugs, Morrison has also had senior roles at Pfizer and Merck.
When Pfizer came knocking at AstraZeneca’s door with a £70bn takeover bid, Morrison was well qualified to pronounce on the merger with the American company best known for Viagra and cholesterol drug Lipitor.
As the political temperature around the takeover increased, he raised concerns about the commercial culture at Pfizer. “We are trying to create an organisation where the whole organisation is focused on science,” Morrison said. “I didn’t have the feeling that every part of [Pfizer] was science-based.”
AstraZeneca warned the unwanted takeover could lead to cost-cutting likely to delay the development of key drugs and cost lives. One of the key treatments AstraZeneca pointed to was cancer drug MEDI4736, which Morrison said could redefine how the disease was treated.
One industry analyst, who asked to remain anonymous, suggested that Morrison’s departure could be part of the upheaval caused by the failed bid. “It is a bit of a delayed aftershock of the aborted Pfizer acquisition [of AstraZeneca]. It is natural for people to start looking around at these times.”
The analyst said Morrison would have played a key role behind the scenes in AstraZeneca’s defence against Pfizer, by informing investors about its pipeline of drugs.
But he added that Morrison’s departure didn’t “create a huge vacuum” because AstraZeneca’s chief executive has “significant involvement in clinical trials and is scientifically minded”.
AstraZeneca’s staff were informed about his decision to stand down on Wednesday, but a spokeswoman was unable to confirm his official leaving date.
“Everyone acknowledges what a tremendous leader Briggs has been, but we respect his wishes to take his career in a different direction,” the spokeswoman said. “We have succession plans in place and we are staying focused on delivering our long-term plans.”
AstraZeneca’s drug pipeline is in better shape since Soriot took over and the company has promoted its immuno-oncology portfolio of drugs that harness the body’s immune system to fight tumours.
But despite feverish interest in immunology-based cancer treatments that have had “spectacular results” across the industry, AstraZeneca has suffered setbacks. The latest clinical trials into heart drug Brilinta, which it believes can generate annual sales of $3.5bn by 2023, failed to live up to expectations. Trials were positive as the drug reduces the likelihood of heart attacks. However, it raises bleeding risks and as a consequences its use could be limited to patients with serious heart problems.
An ovarian cancer drug, Olaparib, was deemed too expensive for the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Nice said there was not enough evidence to justify the drug’s £49,000-a-year cost, prompting Soriot to complain that the UK was falling behind in cancer care.
