Biotech bound, Liz Bar­rett pass­es No­var­tis' top on­col­o­gy job to Su­sanne Schaf­fert

No­var­tis’ in­sis­tence on cen­tral­iz­ing top ex­ecs in its Swiss head­quar­ters has cost the phar­ma gi­ant a key leader: Liz Bar­rett has put in her no­tice just 10 months af­ter tak­ing on the on­col­o­gy chief role.

“Af­ter much per­son­al re­flec­tion, it be­came clear that my fam­i­ly would be un­able to re­lo­cate to Basel where the on­col­o­gy head­quar­ters is based,” Bar­rett said in a state­ment.

Su­sanne Schaf­fert, pres­i­dent of No­var­tis sub­sidiary Ad­vanced Ac­cel­er­a­tor Ap­pli­ca­tions, is re­plac­ing Bar­rett as CEO of the on­col­o­gy busi­ness unit. A 20-plus-year vet­er­an of the com­pa­ny’s sales and mar­ket­ing force, Schaf­fert has spent much of her time grow­ing the on­col­o­gy busi­ness, over­see­ing the in­te­gra­tion of GSK’s on­col­o­gy port­fo­lio and most re­cent­ly help­ing launch AAA’s Lu­tathera.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER