Biogen announced the appointment of Paul McKenzie, as executive vice president, pharmaceutical operations & technology, effective July 1, 2016. He will report to George A Scangos,  chief executive officer, and will be a member of the Biogen management team. Dr McKenzie was promoted from his previous position as senior vice president of global biologics manufacturing and technical operations.

Dr McKenzie will lead the organization responsible for asset management, technical development, global manufacturing , supply chain operations, quality, and engineering . He will also oversee construction and operation of Biogen’s advanced biologics manufacturing facility in Solothurn, Switzerland. He replaces John Cox, who last month was named chief executive officer of a new Biogen spin-off company dedicated to advancing treatments for haemophilia.

“With his extensive technical and development expertise, we believe Paul is ideally suited to lead the next phase of growth across Biogen’s development and manufacturing operations,” said Dr Scangos. “He will play an essential role, building upon our tradition of world-class manufacturing while leading the development of next-generation capabilities to ensure global availability of our current and future therapies.”

Dr McKenzie joined Biogen in February from Johnson & Johnson, where he held a variety of leadership roles, most recently as vice president of R&D for J&J’s Ethicon business. Prior to that role, Dr McKenzie led the manufacturing and technical operations team responsible for internal and external manufacturing of Janssen’s pharmaceutical portfolio. He also ran global development for Janssen R&D, helping to manage pipeline activities from discovery through clinical development and commercialization. Dr McKenzie also held various R&D and manufacturing positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck.

“This is an exciting time to be at Biogen, and I am honoured to take the reins of pharmaceutical operations and technology from John Cox, who has been instrumental in creating one of the best teams in the industry and driving leading-edge innovation and operations for our clinical and commercial portfolio,” said Dr McKenzie. “Our team will continue to build on a very successful track record of safety, quality and reliability to advance our diverse portfolio in biologics, oligonucleotides, gene therapy and small molecules.”

Dr McKenzie graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received his doctorate in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.