(Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. is planning to replace its top scientist after a more than 15-year career in charge of the company’s drug pipeline.
Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten will leave Pfizer after assisting in a months-long process to find his successor, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Pfizer said that it will search outside the company for candidates.
Dolsten’s lengthy tenure at Pfizer is uncommon in an industry prone to leadership shakeups. He joined Pfizer through the company’s merger with Wyeth in 2009, serving under three CEOs and numerous scientific pivots. Pfizer launched more than 35 new drugs and vaccines under his watch, and he presided over the company’s research efforts as it raced to develop medicines for Covid-19.
Pfizer’s drug pipeline has come under fire in recent years as Wall Street searches for potential blockbuster products to replace the company’s rapidly declining Covid revenue. The company’s recently approved vaccine for RSV has underperformed expectations, and a new vaccine from Merck & Co. is poised to challenge its top-selling Prevnar franchise. Pfizer’s shares are trading near 10-year lows.
The announcement of Dolsten’s departure comes as Pfizer awaits key data on a pill that might challenge Wegovy, the blockbuster obesity treatment from Novo Nordisk A/S. Pfizer’s drug, which is years behind a similar oral treatment from Eli Lilly & Co., represents the company’s best chance to compete in an obesity market expected to exceed US$130 billion a year by the end of the decade.
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