GSK Recruiting Score: Genentech's Kevin Sin to Help Drive R&D and M&A

GlaxoSmithKline Chief Executive Officer Emma Walmsley continues to hone her leadership team with a hire who will focus on potential research and development deals. Walmsley tapped Genentech’s Kevin Sin as the head of worldwide business development for pharmaceuticals research & development.

Sin currently serves as vice president and global head of oncology business development at Genentech. At the Roche subsidiary, Sin is responsible for partnering, acquisition and licensing activities for novel oncology therapeutics. He is expected to take on his new role at GSK in July and report to Hal Baron, who took over as GSK’s chief scientific officer last year.

After joining GSK Sin is expected to play a critical role in strengthening the company’s pharmaceutical pipeline and identifying enabling technologies to enhance delivery of innovative new medicines for patients. It is unknown what companies or assets GSK may be looking to acquire with Sin on board. Last month GSK plunked down $13 billion to gain complete control over its consumer unit. GSK bought out Novartis’ 36.5 percent stake in the joint venture.

Sin said he was excited about joining GSK during a critical stage of growth for the company.

"The incredible pace of scientific and technical innovation that is happening around the world is significant and presents an abundance of opportunities to combine GSK’s strengths and capabilities with that of others to pursue big ideas in science and medicine. I look forward to working with the team to explore collaborations that can accelerate the discovery and development of new medicines with the potential to significantly improve human health," Sin said in a statement.

Before joining Genentech in 2006, Sin worked as a legal advisor in the life science industry. In his role he advised private and public companies on business development and partnering deals.

Since taking over GSK Walmsley has been transforming the leadership team with a hard focus on its pharmaceutical R&D business. Her hires include top executives like AstraZeneca’s Luke Mielsand Calico’s Barron who were tapped to run the pharma and R&D sections. Earlier this year BioSpace noted that Walmsley had replaced about 50 of the company’s top managers since she assumed the reins of the company.

Last year Walmsley announced a major shakeup to GSK’s R&D division, which at the time accounted for 16 percent of the company’s revenue. The shakeup was in response to declining revenue from generic challenges to its asthma drug, Advair and a lack of blockbuster drugs coming out of its programming. The company closed more than 30 preclinical and clinical programs and said it will allocate 80 percent of its research-and-development budget to respiratory and HIV/infectious diseases. Additionally, GSK plans to strengthen its oncology and immuno-inflammation areas

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