Pfizer has hired its new top dealmaker Aamir Malik, from the McKinsey and Company, as chief business innovation officer to manage its expanding treasures. According to the company, he will be replacing John Young, who will be retiring in early 2022, after a 34-year career at Pfizer.
Aamir Malik will be giving his services through managing company’s portfolio, extending business development, prioritizing pipeline, initiating new business ventures and innovating access programs with the stakeholders and government.
Young is leaving the company with some remarkable dealmaking achievements out of which the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine collaboration with BioNTech was the most prominent one, with which Pfizer is expecting to generate a whopping $33.5 billion through the sales, after signing up supply contracts by July.
The COVID-19 jab, branded as Comirnaty, has become the first vaccine to be fully approved by the FDA from its emergency use authorization (EUA). Its success has brought in a whopping amount of cash for the company to initiate further deals.
However, Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, has repeatedly asserted that the revenues generated through the COVID vaccine neither really influence company’s strategic direction, nor would help pulling off further M&A deals. He said, “Our strategy on capital allocation was not driven with how much capital we have; was driven with how much opportunity we have.”
Other than Pfizer-BioNTech successful collaboration, Pfizer’s acquisition of the Arixa, the antibiotics maker, in 2020, was also credited to John Young. Young also struck up Pfizer’s partnerships with Myovant Sciences, CStone Pharmaceuticals and Valneva, the previous year. In 2019, he also contributed in planning and coordinating the acquisition of cancer-specialist Array BioPharma for $11.4 billion.
The closing of two large-scale spinoffs, which parted with Pfizer with the intention to focus on innovative drugs, was carried out in Young’s supervision. Pfizer, in 2020, abandoned its Upjohn based medicine franchise in a deal with Mylan to form Viatris, which had been led by Young.
Pfizer’s recent acquisition of the immuno-oncology biotech, Trillium Therapeutics, for $2.3 billion, might be Young’s last dealmaking for the company.
Previously Young, and now Aamir Malik, in this Chief Business Officer role, will be leading a committee for managing and setting R&D priorities and strategies. According to securities filing in March, the committee, by its efforts, managed to get endorsements of five crucial and vital study starts, together with seven proof-of-concept readouts and prioritization of investments in six pivotal programs for the company.
Other than leading the management committee, the title includes ensuring integration of value-based access solutions into the plans of all phase III programs initiated by Pfizer.
Malik, currently serving as managing partner for McKinsey’s U.S. based operations, will soon be dealing with all these tasks with twenty-five years of experience “developing innovative growth strategies, guiding mergers and acquisitions, and implementing high-impact programs” for life sciences companies, noted Bourla.
