An­oth­er Big Phar­ma 'lif­er' in the top ranks of R&D is start­ing a new chap­ter in biotech

Fouad Namouni, a sto­ried re­search ex­ec who went from project leader on Op­di­vo and Yer­voy to the top of the on­col­o­gy re­search group at Bris­tol My­ers Squibb, is join­ing the mi­gra­tion to biotech, pick­ing up a new hat as pres­i­dent of R&D at Blue­print Med­i­cines.

Once again, he’s head­ed in­to a toe-to-toe show­down with a ri­val phar­ma or­ga­ni­za­tion.

Namouni will like­ly be com­ing on board just one step ahead of an ap­proval for pralse­tinib, Blue­print’s RET ri­val to Eli Lil­ly’s Retev­mo, which got out in front with a May ap­proval. Iron­i­cal­ly, Lil­ly’s deal to buy in­to RET with its ac­qui­si­tion of Loxo al­so brought Josh Bilenker and his crew to the phar­ma gi­ant, mark­ing a rare ca­reer tra­jec­to­ry from a biotech in­to phar­ma, which has been bleed­ing tal­ent for years now.

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