New President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR)

Novartis' James (Jay) E. Bradner, M.D. will step down from the Executive Committee of Novartis (ECN), effective October 31, after seven years leading research at Novartis as President of the NIBR.

Fiona H. Marshall, Ph.D., currently Senior Vice President and Global Head of Discovery Sciences, Preclinical Development and Translational Medicine at MSD (Merck & Co., Inc in USA), will take on the role of NIBR president, effective November 1st, 2022, also becoming a member of the ECN.

As a biomedical scientist, Marshall brings with her three decades of leading drug discovery and early development across large biopharma, biotech and academia.

Prior to joining Merck in 2018, Dr. Marshall was a Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Heptares Therapeutics, a successful UK Biotech company focused on structure-based drug design that was subsequently acquired by the Japanese biotech company Sosei, where she continued to serve as Chief Scientific Officer.  Earlier in her career, Dr. Marshall was Director of Molecular Pharmacology at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and spent 10 years at GSK, holding senior positions in Molecular Pharmacology and Neuroscience.

She holds a BSc in Biochemistry from University of Bath (UK) and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from University of Cambridge (UK). 

Dr. Marshall is the recipient of the 2012 WISE Women of Outstanding Achievement for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award, and the 2015 RSC Malcolm Campbell Award for chemistry and the Vane Medal from the British Pharmacological Society. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences, Honorary Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.