Ipsen boosts specialty care and R&D leadership teams

Ipsen has strengthened its specialty care and R&D leadership teams with the appointments of Harout Semerjian and Dr Sotirios Stergiopoulos.

Semerjian (pictured right) becomes head of specialty care, international region and global franchises, reporting to the pharma company's chief executive David Meek.

He joins from Novartis, where he spent the last 17 years in a series of oncology and specialty care-focused roles across North America, Europe and North Africa and the Middle East. Most recently, Semerjian served as senior vice president and global launch head of ribociclib.

Meek said: “Harout brings extensive leadership experience in oncology and has achieved success across a diverse range of markets including the US, Europe and the Middle East.

“He will be a tremendous asset to Ipsen, particularly as we accelerate our growth across markets and strengthen our focus on specialty care and oncology.”

Meanwhile, Dr Stergiopoulos (pictured left) has been appointed as senior vice president and head of global medical affairs, reporting to R&D lead Dr Alexandre Lebeaut.

Dr Stergiopoulos moves to Ipsen from Shire, where he was vice president and head of global medical affairs for oncology, having first joined Baxalta in the same role in 2016.

Prior to this, he served as executive director and breast cancer lead for US oncology medical affairs, and held a number of medical affairs oncology positions at Novartis and Bayer.

Dr Lebeaut said: “Sotirios brings extensive experience in directing global medical affairs strategies along with a solid expertise in oncology drug development that includes immunology drugs and targeted agents across different tumor indications.

“Sotirios will play an important role within the R&D leadership team, particularly as we continue to strengthen Ipsen's oncology portfolio.”