Gilead chief O'­Day re­cruits top Genen­tech re­searcher as new CMO in the wake of a high-lev­el R&D ex­o­dus

Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day has found his new chief med­ical of­fi­cer in the top ranks of Roche’s sto­ried biotech sub­sidiary Genen­tech, where O’Day had a front-row seat for years as a top ex­ec­u­tive in the Swiss phar­ma gi­ant.

O’Day an­nounced this morn­ing that Mer­dad Parsey, cur­rent­ly the se­nior VP of ear­ly clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment at Genen­tech, is step­ping over to Gilead as the new CMO at a time the new CEO is re­work­ing the en­tire top lead­er­ship in the wake of a high-lev­el ex­o­dus of ex­ecs. And in a switch, he says that Parsey will re­port di­rect­ly to him, with EVP of re­search William Lee al­so mak­ing a di­rect re­port as well. That move leaves O’Day with a con­sid­er­able hands-on role in the day-to-day man­age­ment of R&D.

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