Marianne De Backer. J&J Innovation

In the midst of a deal spree, Bay­er turns to vet­er­an J&J deal­mak­er Mar­i­anne De Backer to bring home the tech­nol­o­gy

Long­time J&J deal­mak­er Mar­i­anne De Backer has found a new home.

Bay­er put out word on Tues­day that De Backer is tak­ing up res­i­dence as their new BD chief, right in the mid­dle of a promised sea change in their in­no­va­tion strat­e­gy.

Just weeks ago Bay­er joined the high roller club in the pre­clin­i­cal deal­mak­ing set, buy­ing stem cell in­no­va­tor Blue­Rock — or the ma­jor­i­ty in­ter­est it didn’t al­ready own — for $240 mil­lion in cash plus $360 mil­lion in mile­stones. And the phar­ma play­er used that op­por­tu­ni­ty to high­light its on­go­ing shift in fo­cus to ex­ter­nal R&D as it re­builds the pipeline.

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