BRIEF—AstraZeneca announces death of José Baselga, head of oncology R&D

UK pharma major AstraZeneca yesterday announced the death of José Baselga, executive vice president oncology R&D, and member of its senior executive team.

Pascal Soriot, chief executive of AstraZeneca, commented: “An outstanding scientific leader, José leaves a lasting legacy in the scientific community and here at AstraZeneca. He set our Oncology R&D function on a remarkable trajectory, and his visionary leadership, deep scientific expertise and strategic insight have delivered so many achievements that we can all be proud of and that will benefit patients’ lives in the years to come.

“José championed our transformative collaborations with Daiichi-Sankyo in relation to the clinical development of Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) and datopotamab deruxtecan, two medicines which have demonstrated great potential to benefit cancer patients. He led a team to accelerate other exciting new science in antibody-drug conjugates, cell therapy, epigenetics, as well as new cancer treatments. He also championed the use of real-world evidence and digital tools to transform the way we design and implement clinical trials,” he said.

Prior to AstraZeneca, Dr Baselga, aged 61, was chief medical officer at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

According to Spanish media, the cause of his death was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rapidly progressive and lethal neurodegenerative disease closely associated with mad cow disease that is triggered in about 1 in every million people.