Shire has appointed Andreas Busch, PhD, as executive vice president, head of research and development (R&D), chief scientific officer, and a member of the company’s Executive Committee beginning in January 2018.

Howard Mayer, MD, currently serving as the company’s head of research and development (ad interim), has been appointed chief medical officer, also effective in January 2018.

Busch is currently head of drug discovery and a member of the Executive Committee for the Pharmaceuticals Division of Bayer, where he leads a team of approximately 3,300 researchers. During his 13 years at Bayer, he has held roles of increasing responsibility within the company, including senior vice president, head of discovery in Europe at Bayer HealthCare and executive vice president, global head of drug discovery. Prior to joining Bayer, Busch was global head of Cardiovascular Research at Hoechst and Sanofi-Aventis.

Previously, Mayer was senior vice president and head of global clinical development at Shire. Mayer joined Shire in 2012 and has been responsible for global clinical development across immunology, hereditary angioedema, hematology, lysosomal storage disorders, gastrointestinal / internal medicine / endocrine, ophthalmics, a franchise in oncology, and neuroscience. Prior to joining Shire, he served as chief medical officer at EMD Serono, a division of Merck KGaA.

Source: Shire