Once charged with speed­ing up Eli Lil­ly’s slow-mo R&D group, Anne White is hand­ed the reins at Lil­ly On­col­o­gy

Eli Lil­ly has tapped one of its se­nior R&D ex­ecs to take the top job in charge of Lil­ly On­col­o­gy.

The phar­ma gi­ant an­nounced that Anne White — who’s been play­ing a high-lev­el role in an at­tempt to cut drug de­vel­op­ment times — is tak­ing the reins from Sue Ma­ho­ny, who’s com­plet­ing her planned re­tire­ment from the com­pa­ny to­day. 

White has been in charge of “next-gen” re­search at Lil­ly, a post that has giv­en her a spot­light role as Eli Lil­ly lays claim to greater R&D ef­fi­cien­cy. Af­ter a no­to­ri­ous­ly long drought in the clin­ic, the com­pa­ny has im­proved con­sid­er­ably on that score in the last few years. But it’s rep for a go-slow ap­proach to drug de­vel­op­ment is deeply en­trenched. Even Lil­ly’s new R&D chief — Dan Skovron­sky — has point­ed to his frus­tra­tion with the com­pa­ny’s fre­quent last-place fin­ish­es in com­pet­i­tive R&D are­nas and the need for much greater speed.

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