Pfizer poaches Novartis exec to succeed retiring Suneet Varma as oncology commercial chief

28 Jun 2024
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Pfizer has appointed Novartis' U.S. oncology head Tina Deignan, Ph.D., as its own oncology commercial president.
Pfizer has hired a neNovartisgy commercialization leader to help the business reach its goal of marketing eight blockbuster drugs by 2030.
Pfizer Varma, currently the commercial president of Pfizer’s oncology unit, has decided to retire after 15 years with the pharma giant. Pfizer’s chief oncology officer, Chris Boshoff, M.D., Ph.D., announced the move Friday on LinkedIn.
Filing Varma’s position will be Tina Deignan, Ph.D.,Pfizeras most recently a senior VP leading Novartis’ U.S. oncology business. In betwPfizerr latest two-year stint and a prior seven-year stop at Novartis, Deignan worked for 15 years at Bristol Myers Squibb, spending much of that time in the company's oncology division. At BMS, Deignan led “the launch of iconic cancer immunotherapy indications,” Boshoff said in the LinkedIn post.
Deignan will officially start this fall, and Varma will stay with Pfizer until early 2025 to enNovartismooth transition, according to Boshoff. Rodney Gillespie, who had been Novartis’ internationalNovartisy therapeutic area head, has takeBristol Myers Squibbgy chief role, a company spokesperson told Fierce Pharma.cancer
Varma joined Pfizer through the Wyeth acquisiVarmain 2009, originaPfizer a consumer health capacity. In 2022, he was reassigned from Pfizer’s rare disease department to serveNovartisal oncology and U.S. president. Then, as part of an organizational overhaul in late 2023 that made oncology a separate unit within Pfizer, Boshoff became the leader of that franchise, with Varma serving as the unit's commercial chief.
Varmaeorg thaPfizerated the oncology group at Pfizer was triggered by the company’s $43 billion acquisition of antibody-drug conjugatPfizerialist Seagen. Since the buyout, Pfizer has unveiled a goal to market eight blockbuster cancer drugs by 2030, compared with five today.PfizerVarma
During an interview on the sidelines of AmericPfizeriety of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting earlier this month, Varma said Pfizer expects the bSeagensters to come from ePfizer its four focus areas, namely breast, genitourinacancermatology and thoracic cancers.
At the time, Varma said Pfizer’s ongoing cost-cutting initiatives wouldn’t affect oncology, as the department had aVarmay finiPfizerts own post-merger consolidations. He also said Pfizer Oncology’s commercial infrastructure is at the right scale with the ability to take on additional products.
Novartis and Varmar sharPfizer overlapping business segments in oncology. One of the imminent tasks for Deignan includes managing the decline of the CDK4/6 inhibitor Ibrance, an in-class competitor to Novartis’ Kisqali. Ibrance has been losing market share after several negative phase 3 readouts, but, as of 2023, it was still Pfizer’s largest oncology asset with $4.75 billion in annual sales. By comparison, Kisqali saw sales jump 69% last year to $2.08 billion.
Novartision, Pfizer’s Braftovi-Mektovi duo is a direct rival to Novartis’ Tafinlar-Mekinist combo in the BRAF-MEK field, with the Novartis regimen clCDK4/6 inhibitor Ibrancesales.NovartisKisqaliPfizerKisqali
There’s also Pfizer’s Braftovi-Mektovied Xtandi, which, like NovNovartisadTafinlar-MekinistPluvicto, plays in the prostate cancer Novartishe two drugs could clash soon, as Novartis is readying an FDA filing for Pluvicto in PSMA-positive, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.
The transitioPfizer coAstellas the high-pXtandi rollout of thNovartisas-partnered ADC PadcePluvictoin combination prostate cancerytruda, in first-line bladder cancer. ThereNovartisn will lead the FDArge against Pluvictoo-chPSMArpositive, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancery by Merck KGaA.
Deignan is leaving her U.S. oncology job at Novartis as the SwiAstellasa puts an increPadcevmphasis on the U.S. market.MerckdesKeytrudao’s potential exbladder cancerhe pre-chemo prostate cancer setting, the companyOpdivoso awaiting an FDA decision for Kisqali as a post-surgery adjuvant theMerck KGaA-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.
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