Liz Barrett, UroGen Pharma
Just 11 months into her high profile appointment as CEO of Novartis Oncology, Liz Barrett opted to take on the role of CEO at UroGen Pharma.
The jump to work at a small biotech represents a major change of pace for Barrett. Previous to her role at Novartis, she built her reputation working at Johnson & Johnson, as VP of its oncology franchise, for 13 years, before working at Pfizer for close to nine years.
At Pfizer, she became global president and global manager of oncology before Novartis brought her on board to lead its own oncology business.
“I’ve built a career with some of the best companies in the industry and have had the opportunity to be entrepreneurial within each of those positions. This is an opportune time to take that experience and apply it to a smaller biotech company on the cusp of transformation,” said Barrett.
Joining UroGen will see Barrett take the opportunity to work outside of the large pharma companies’ framework and she will be tasked with bringing through the biotech’s clinical stage pipeline to the market.
UroGen announced that it expects the rolling new drug application submission to the US Food and Drug Administration for its lead candidate, UGN-101, to be completed in mid-2019. UGN-10 is designed to remove tumours by non-surgical means to treat several forms of non-muscle invasive urothelial cancer.