Merck KGaA’s chief executive Belén Garijo will end her time at the helm of the company next April, five years after taking the job, and will be replaced by Kai Beckmann, who is currently CEO of the company’s electronics business.
The German group said that Beckmann will become deputy CEO “effective immediately,” and continue to lead the electronics unit until a successor is found.
The change at the top of Merck comes in the midst of a major shake-up of the company’s senior management, with new CEOs also installed this year for its healthcare (Danny Bar-Zohar) and life sciences (Jean-Charles Wirth) divisions, as well as new leadership in healthcare R&D with the appointment earlier this month of David Weinreich as chief medical officer.
Garijo has been at Merck for 15 years, and served as head of the healthcare business for six years before taking over from Stefan Oschmann as chair and group CEO.
In a statement, Merck’s board praised her steadfast management of the company during the COVID-19 pandemic and periods of geopolitical volatility, as well as Merck’s ‘string-of-pearls’ programme of bolting on smaller, early- to mid-stage biopharma companies or technologies.
That effort includes the recently closed $3.9 billion takeover of SpringWorks, which included rights to two FDA-approved products, Ogsiveo (nirogacestat) for desmoid tumours and Gomekli/Ezmekly (mirdametinib) to treat plexiform neurofibromas in neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) patients, a $2 billion alliance with Skyhawk devoted to finding small-molecule drugs for neurological disorders, and a $1.6 billion oncology partnership with Jiangsu Hengrui.
“I would like to thank Belén Garijo for expertly steering Merck safely through tumultuous years of transformative change and returning the company to profitable growth,” said Merck’s chairman of the board, Johannes Baillou.
“Under her exceptional leadership, Merck strengthened its position across life science, healthcare, and electronics, driving innovation and delivering impact on millions of patients and customers worldwide,” he added.
Baillou also called Beckmann “the perfect homegrown leader” and said his expertise will be “fundamental to deliver the next chapter of our company’s growth.”
Beckmann will take over Merck as the company has come under pressure to revitalise its healthcare pipeline following a series of setbacks, including the failure of multiple sclerosis (MS) candidate evobrutinib and xevinapant for cancer, both of which had reached phase 3 development.
At the same time, pharma products like cancer therapy Erbitux (cetuximab) and Mavenclad (cladribine) for multiple sclerosis are still delivering sales growth but are now very mature.
