Glenmark has appointed Dr. Kurt Stoeckli as president and chief scientific officer (CSO). Dr. Stoeckli joins Glenmark from Sanofi where he was group vice president, global biopharmaceuticals division & chief scientific officer for R&D France.
He will report to Glenn Saldanha, chairman and MD and will be based out of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. He will also be president and general manager of Glenmark’s Switzerland-based business units.
Dr. Stoeckli will lead the company’s global research portfolio consisting of NBE, NCE, generics and branded formulations. He will be responsible for sustaining and enhancing the environment of collaborative research and for driving successful commercialization of Glenmark’ research pipeline in partnership with other leaders.
“We are pleased to bring Dr. Stoeckli’s expertise to Glenmark which will further drive the advancement of our new molecular entity portfolio and enable us to continue discovering NMEs both small molecules and biologics,” said Glenn Saldanha, chairman and MD, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. “Dr. Stoeckli’s invaluable scientific knowledge and leadership will enable us to achieve our goal of becoming a global innovative pharmaceutical organisation.”
Having spent more than two decades in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Stoeckli has an extensive industry experience in driving biologics from early research up to phase 3. He has played a pivotal role in fostering and managing Sanofi’s JV with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. During his 15 year tenure at Sanofi, he was a member of global R&D board and held global leadership positions as head of the therapeutic unit immunology & inflammation, VP biological sciences & scientific site director of the R&D Centre in Paris-Vitry (France) and VP lead discovery for small molecules research, based in Frankfurt (Germany).
Dr. Stoeckli’s achievements include the successful leadership of scientific teams responsible for discovery and development of both NBEs and NCEs. Under his leadership, more than 20 projects advanced to clinical stage (ranging from Ph1 through Ph3) in the areas of autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, and oncology.
Graduating from the Biocenter of University of Basel, ETH Zurich and Max-Planck-Institute (Munich), Dr. Stoeckli was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics, University of California Medical Center (UCSF) before he started his career in industry at Novartis/Sandoz Pharma AG in Basel, Switzerland.
Glenmark’s previous president and CSO, Dr. Michael Buschle, will have a new role as chief scientific mentor and will continue to provide strategic and scientific direction to Glenmark’s worldwide drug discovery programmes and pharmaceutical development Dr. Buschle will work directly with Glenn Saldanha.