Bristol Myers Squibb has raided AstraZeneca to find its next chief medical officer, persuading Cristian Massacesi, M.D., to leave the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker and take responsibility of all its product development.
Samit Hirawat, M.D., currently occupies the CMO seat at BMS. However, Hirawat, who is also BMS’ head of development, is stepping down to pursue new, currently undisclosed professional opportunities. After six years in the job, Hirawat is set to leave his current role Aug. 1 but will continue as an advisor through Nov. 1.
Massacesi is starting at BMS on Aug. 1, taking up the CMO and head of development titles freed up by Hirawat’s departure. At AstraZeneca, Massacesi serves as CMO and oncology chief development officer. The incoming BMS executive worked at Novartis and Pfizer earlier in his career.
The new role gives Massacesi oversight of BMS’ product development from early to late stage across all therapeutic areas. Massacesi will inherit a R&D pipeline that has undergone changes since Christopher Boerner, Ph.D., took over as CEO of BMS in 2023. Boerner has overseen significant spending, splurging $18 billion on two buyouts in one week late in 2023, and the scuttling of internal and partnered assets.
The changes have left BMS with a pipeline that is scheduled to deliver a series of data drops. BMS’ 2026 is stacked with readouts from pivotal trials, with data on the anticoagulant milvexian, the idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis prospect admilparant and the radiopharmaceutical RYZ101 on the road map.
Massacesi will oversee the progress of those trials toward the key readouts while ushering the next wave of BMS’ candidates through earlier tests. Phase 2 readouts that should happen on Massacesi’s watch include the reporting of results on golcadomide in lymphoma, an ex-MyoKardia asset in heart failure and an anti-MTBR tau antibody in Alzheimer’s disease.