After a decade, ViiV CSO John Pottage says it's time to step down — and he's handing the job to longtime colleague Kim Smith
ViiV Healthcare has always been something unique in the global drug industry.
Owned by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer — with GSK in the lead as majority owner — it was created 10 years ago in a time of deep turmoil for the field as something independent of the pharma giants, but with access to lots of infrastructural support on demand. While R&D at the mother ship inside GSK was souring, a razor-focused ViiV provided a rare bright spot, challenging Gilead on a lucrative front in delivering new combinations that require fewer therapies with a more easily tolerated regimen.
They kept a massive number of people alive who would otherwise have been facing a death sentence. And they made money.
And throughout, John Pottage has been the chief scientific and chief medical officer.
Until now.
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