Novartis Chief Jeffrey Legos to join Pfizer as Chief Oncology Officer
New York: Pfizer Inc. has announced that Jeffrey Legos, PhD, MBA, will join the company as Chief Oncology Officer. In this role, Dr. Legos will be responsible for leading the company’s Oncology Research & Development, overseeing all functions from pre-clinical to late-stage clinical development activities. Dr. Legos will report to Chris Boshoff, M.D., PhD, Chief Scientific Officer and President, Pfizer Research & Development, and will represent Oncology on Pfizer’s R&D Leadership Team. Dr. Legos will succeed Roger Dansey, M.D., Interim Chief Oncology Officer, who will transition to retirement as previously communicated.
Dr. Legos has a proven track record of more than 20 years of experience successfully leading large multinational teams across all functions and stages of Oncology drug development, which has resulted in more than 40 global regulatory drug and companion diagnostic approvals, including new molecular entities, product line extensions, and premarket approvals for devices.
Dr. Legos will join Pfizer from Novartis, where he serves as Executive Vice President and Global Head of Oncology and Hematology Development. Prior to joining Novartis in 2015, Dr. Legos served as Vice President and Global Medicines Development Leader in Oncology at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). He also previously held senior leadership positions in clinical development, translational medicine, and was the head of Oncology Strategy, where he was instrumental in the creation and growth of the GSK Oncology Business Unit.
Dr. Legos earned his PhD in physiology from Temple University School of Medicine, an MBA in Finance from the Villanova University School of Business and completed his post-graduate fellowship training in pharmacology and pharmaceutical medicine. He is an author of more than 40 manuscripts and numerous abstracts published in peer-reviewed journals and serves as a scientific advisor to the Melanoma Research Alliance, a Strategic Advisory Board member for Gingko Bioworks.
Dr. Legos also currently represents Novartis as key expert advisor on several industry-wide Oncology Task Forces for Friends of Cancer Research (FOCR), LUNGevity, and Bloomberg New Economy.
