AstraZeneca chief medical officer quits for pastures new

Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca has confirmed that its chief medical officer, Briggs Morrison, has decided to leave his post, which he has held since 2012, joining the company from Pfizer.

Dr Morrison will be “leaving in a matter of weeks,” the company said. He has apparently taken up the position of chief executive of a small, privately owned biotech company whose identity has not been revealed, in a move that surprised industry watchers.

AstraZeneca’s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, will take over responsibility for late-stage drug development on an interim basis, while Elisabeth Björk, an associate professor of medicine at Uppsala University, Sweden, who leads cardiovascular and metabolic drug development at AstraZeneca, becomes acting chief medical officer.