Eli Lilly's new cancer R&D chief has some things to say about drug discovery, the difficulty in finding new drugs to buy and the Venn dilemma
Josh Bilenker’s abrupt exit from the top job at Loxo Oncology at Lilly on Friday came as a surprise to many. But then everything about the Loxo approach has been surprising, starting with the decision by Eli Lilly’s top execs in late 2019 to put the biotech team brought in through an $8 billion buyout in charge of oncology research.
Bilenker’s successor, his longtime Loxo colleague Jake Van Naarden, who had been the chief business officer of the independent company, tells me the handover was all part of a natural progression that occurred as Bilenker took stock of the progress they had made in 2020, spurring his decision to take some time to figure his next move.
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