James Sabry, global head at Roche Pharma Partnering, is moving on from the Swiss pharma giant.
Roche announced Monday that Sabry was retiring after 14 years at the company and stepping down from his spot on the corporate executive committee.
He will be succeeded by Boris Zaïtra, Roche’s head of group business development, who will take on the title of head of corporate business development on July 1. He will report to Roche CEO Thomas Schinecker.
An industry stalwart, Sabry blazed his own trail prior to joining Roche in 2010 when he was appointed head of Genentech Partnering, a role he held until mid-2018 when he was named to his current position.
In 1997, he founded Cytokinetics, which he led as president and CEO until 2006. He remains a member of the company’s scientific advisory board. From 2008 to 2010, he led Arete Therapeutics as president and CEO.
He has also served as a council member of the American Society of Cell Biology as well as a member of the board of directors for HopeLab, the California Life Sciences Association and Chugai Pharma.
Sabry began his career as a neurology resident at Harvard Medical School, rising to chief resident before departing to serve in the department of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco.
Over the years, Sabry has been a key figure in terms of bolstering the pipelines for both Genentech and Roche as a whole.
Just last fall, Genentech signed onto a $47 million partnership with biotech Orionis Biosciences to focus on discovering novel small molecule therapies across various therapeutic areas.
A deal announced one week later involved Roche adding two novel RNA-targeted programs for Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington’s disease from Ionis Pharmaceuticals for $60 million upfront.
“James has been instrumental in forging important deals for our Pharma R&D pipeline that have led to numerous launches of new medicines,” Schinecker said in a statement. “I am grateful for James`s contributions to our company and for his dedication to our purpose.” Schinecker further commented: “Leveraging external innovation has always been and continues to be a critical part of our business strategy. I am excited to have Boris Zaïtra take on this new role. He brings an excellent combination of expertise in M&A, experience in the industry, and leadership to the role.”