Gilead Sciences, the biopharmaceutical company, announced the promotion of two employees to executive vice president positions.
Dr. Andrew Cheng has been promoted to executive VP of HIV therapeutics and development operations, and Taiyin Yang has been promoted to executive VP of pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. They'll both join the company's senior leadership committee.
After joining Gilead in 1999, Cheng has led clinical development for the company's development-stage programs for drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS. Since 2009, he has served as senior VP of HIV therapeutics and development operations, overseeing biometrics, project management and regulatory affairs, among other activities.
Yang, who most recently served as a senior vice president at Gilead, joined the company in 1993 after serving as director of analytical chemistry at Syntex Corp., a pharmaceutical company that was later acquired by biotech giant Roche. In her new role, she is responsible for analytical operations, laboratory information, quality assurance and manufacturing of both clinical and commercial drug substance and drug product.
Gilead competes with several other companies to produce the very expensive drugs used to treat hepatitis C. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, one of the largest not-for-profit health insurers in New England, announced Thursday that Harvoni, Gilead's newest hepatitis C drug, would become its preferred drug for patients with the most common version of the liver disease. Harvard Pilgrim negotiated a pricing discount with Gilead that is lower than the regular cost of $94,500 for a full 12-week course of treatment.
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