Glenmark, Alessadro Riva
Gilead’s head of oncology has moved on from his position to take the lead of a newly spun out, but as yet unnamed, biotech business from Glenmark Pharmaceuticals. The ‘innovation company’ currently holds eight new chemical entities and biological entities in its portfolio, with three of these being at Phase II stage.
As CEO of the spun out company, Riva will be tasked with bringing through the assets to commercialisation, with the company having a focus on oncology – an area of specialty for Riva. During his career, Riva worked as head of oncology at Gilead for over two years and held the same role at Novartis for 12 years.
Glenn Saldanha, chairman and MD of Glenmark, “[Riva’s] extensive and diverse industry experience leading global R&D will no doubt be invaluable in driving our pipeline towards commercialisation. We are excited for this major step as a company and are confident Alessandro's talent and leadership will shape the innovation business into a major global biotech company.”
The new company begins life with two R&D centres located in Switzerland and India, as well as a biologics manufacturing facility in Switzerland. The company will also have 400 employees.