AstraZeneca, a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business, has appointed Sean Bohen MD, PhD, as executive vice president of global medicines development and chief medical officer. He will join the company on September 15.

Dr. Bohen will be responsible for driving the progress of AstraZeneca’s portfolio of small molecules and biologics investigational medicines through late-stage development to regulatory approval. As chief medical officer, he will be responsible for patient safety across the entire AstraZeneca and Medimmune portfolio.

Dr. Bohen joins AstraZeneca from Genentech where he was most recently senior vice president of early development. He oversaw preclinical and clinical development programmes across all therapy areas, including oncology, respiratory and autoimmune diseases, to deliver trial-ready drug candidates to late-stage development. Before this, he held a number of positions in early and late-stage development, playing a key role in the growth and progress of the Genentech/Roche portfolio. Dr. Bohen was instrumental in bringing a large number of new medicines to patients, in particular for cancer, and led activities to incorporate diagnostics into clinical programmes.

Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Bohen was a clinical instructor in oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, a research associate at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute.

Pascal Soriot, chief executive officer, said, “I’m delighted to welcome Sean to AstraZeneca at a very exciting time for our company. Our continued strategic investment in science is driving momentum across all therapy areas. Sean is a tremendous scientist and an accomplished drug developer. His impressive expertise in key areas of our exciting pipeline, including oncology and immunology, will further strengthen and accelerate the delivery of new medicines for patients. His extensive diagnostics experience will also reinforce our efforts in precision medicine.”

Dr. Bohen will be a member of AstraZeneca’s senior executive team, reporting to Pascal Soriot. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later earned his doctorate in biochemistry and his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco.