Roche’s head of Pharmaceuticals departs

Bill Anderson, CEO Roche Pharmaceuticals and member of the Corporate Executive Committee, has decided to pursue opportunities outside of Roche after 16 years with the company.

Roche says a successor will be appointed by March 2023.

In 2006, Bill Anderson joined Genentech as Senior Vice President of the Immunology and Ophthalmology Business Unit in South San Francisco (SSF), California, before leading the BioOncology Business Unit. He moved to Basel and became Head of Global Product Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer for the Pharma business in 2013.

By 2016, Anderson returned to San Francisco to lead the North American Operations of Genentech and, shortly thereafter, he was appointed CEO of Genentech before taking over his current role in 2019. Prior to joining Roche, he began his career in engineering and quickly assumed business leadership roles with increasing scope in the biotech industry.

Anderson completed his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas in Austin.

In July, Roche announced that CEO Severin Schwan would depart in March, with Thomas Schinecker becoming the ad interim CEO starting 1 January 2023, when he hands over the CEO Roche Diagnostics role to Matt Sause.