(AOF) – Transgene announces the appointment of James Wentworth to the position of director of business development (chief business officer). This biotechnology company, which designs and develops immunotherapies against cancer based on viral vectors, specifies that it will be in charge of the definition, supervision and implementation of the business development strategy, commercial affairs , as well as the partnership strategy. Since 2022, he has managed business development at Adaptimmune, a biotech specializing in cell therapies based on T cell receptors.
Holder of a BSc and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Bristol as well as an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, James Wentworth has also worked for biotechnology companies in development stage as inVentiv Health (now Syneos Health), or Shire, and managed commercial launches in European markets for ViroPharma Europe.
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Oncology, priority of pharmaceutical giants
Sanofi’s stock market disappointment recorded at the end of October 2023 underlines the new direction for the group, which has now set oncology as its number 1 priority. Efforts in this segment, where therapies are advancing the fastest, notably involve investments in R&D which weigh on profitability. Sanofi therefore announced a drop in its earnings per share in 2024 and the abandonment of its objective of an operating margin of 32% in 2025. Merck has just unveiled a new alliance. It will pay up to $22 billion to the Japanese group Daiichi Sankyo as part of a partnership on experimental cancer treatments. While some experts estimate that the United States represents nearly half of global oncology spending (drugs and treatments), or $196 billion in 2022, Chinese spending in this area has more than doubled in five years, going from 5 to 11.8 billion dollars.