Hoping to echo the success of blockbuster cancer med Darzalex and create a new line of pipeline meds, Genmab has promoted its head of oncology Tahamtan Ahmadi, M.D., Ph.D., to run its research.
Ahmadi, who joined the Danish biotech back in 2017 and served as its senior vice president and head of oncology, has been moved up into a new role as executive vice president, chief medical officer and head of experimental medicines.
Here, Ahmadi will lead research, discovery, regulatory and medical activities and will be based out of Genmab’s New Jersey office.
Before joining Genmab, Ahmadi was head of experimental medicines and early development oncology at Janssen, where he led the global development of daratumumab including clinical R&D and medical affairs strategy. There’s synergy here, given that Darzalex is partnered up with Johnson & Johnson’s biotech unit.
He will now help oversee its pipeline, much of which is made up of partnered deals, including with Janssen, Horizon/Roche, Novartis, Seagen, BioNTech and AbbVie, to name but a few, across a range of solid and blood cancer targets as well earlier research work in hemophilia, celiac disease and Parkinson’s disease.
“Given his proven track record of drug development leadership and innovative thinking, I am confident that Tahi will effectively drive our R&D teams alongside Judith to deliver on our promise to create, develop and bring truly differentiated next-generation antibody medicines to cancer patients,” said Jan van de Winkel, Ph.D., CEO of Genmab.