Belén Gar­i­jo ris­es to the top at Mer­ck KGaA amid ex­ec board makeover

Belén Gar­i­jo is get­ting a big pro­mo­tion to the top job at Mer­ck KGaA, tak­ing over from Ste­fan Os­chmann as chair of the ex­ec­u­tive board and CEO start­ing next May.

Join­ing Glax­o­SmithK­line’s Em­ma Walm­s­ley in the tiny club of women run­ning a top 20 glob­al phar­ma, she will be flanked by two sea­soned bio­phar­ma vets who are join­ing the man­age­ment ranks.

Dur­ing her nine-year tenure — start­ing as COO of the bio­phar­ma busi­ness and lat­er tran­si­tion­ing to the pres­i­dent/CEO of health­care — Gar­i­jo over­saw a long and painful re­vamp for the Ger­man phar­ma R&D group, marked by the turn­around of the MS drug Maven­clad,  suc­cess­es it’s had with the Pfiz­er-part­nered PD-L1, Baven­cio, and the spin­out of its con­sumer health di­vi­sion.

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