James Sabry is set to take the helm of Roche’s deal-making business from 1 August, following the imminent departure of Roche’s current head of partnering Sophie Kornowski-Bonnet.
She leaves to ambiguously pursue “other opportunities” according to the Swiss drug maker, who received similar news just two months ago when its head of Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) John Reed left to join rival Sanofi as its head of research and development.
Sabry however, – who has ample experience striking deals in the US biotech scene – joins from Roche’s blockbuster-producing arm Genentech as its senior vice president.
Genentech was acquired by Roche back in 2009 for a whopping $46.8bn and since then opened the biggest biotech factory in the world, which is based in California, US.
Under Sabry (pictured), Genentech has seen through a number of deals, most recently signing a $1bn drug discovery alliance with Lodo Therapeutics to research genomes of microbes in soil.
As Roche’s global head of partnering however, Sabry’s new role will combine the partnering functions across the business, simultaneously becoming a member of the corporate executive committee.
Roche’s chief executive Severin Schwan said: “James brings a wealth of medical, scientific and business development expertise to successfully identify the best external innovation opportunities and bring them into the Roche Group.”
Prior to joining Genetech Sabry was chief executive officer for start-up biotech and was founder and chief executive of biopharma Cytokinetics.