Teva’s CEO Richard Francis is adding to his constellation of new executives with a fresh business development hire from BeiGene.
Teva has enlisted Angus Grant, Ph.D., as its EVP of business development, the Israeli-American generics giant announced Friday. Grant will take up the BD torch on Aug. 1 and be based out of Teva’s U.S. headquarters in Parsippany, New Jersey.
Grant comes on board from BeiGene and boasts more than 25 years of experience in the biopharma circuit. Aside from business development acumen, Grant boasts R&D and regulatory affairs know-how, too, Teva said in a release.
At BeiGene, Grant served in a similar role as chief business executive, in which he oversaw BD, clinical and business insights and valuation, investments and collaborations and alliance management. It was during his tenure that BeiGene signed the high-profile PD-1 and TIGIT deals with Novartis.
BeiGene confirmed Grant’s departure to Fierce Pharma back in February. Since then, the company’s TIGIT alliance with Novartis has fallen apart, but it signed a potential $1.3 billion antibody-drug conjugate deal with Duality Biologics.
Before joining BeiGene in 2020, Grant was CEO of a specialist venture capital shop called Dementia Discovery Fund, and he previously served in various roles at Celgene, Novartis, Merck KGaA and others.
“We are pleased to welcome a leader of Angus caliber to our executive team at Teva,” CEO Francis said in a statement, describing Grant’s appointment as a “significant asset.”
Grant comes on board during “exciting times at Teva,” Francis continued, singling out the company’s pursuit of its new Pivot to Growth strategy, which hinges on both the company’s pipeline and its business development endeavors.
Francis outlined his “pivot to growth” strategy in May. Built on four “pillars,” the tactic will see the company leverage its commercial portfolio and biosimilars, its “innovative” pipeline, its arsenal of generics, as well as “focused capital allocation.”
“I have full confidence in Angus’ leadership and firmly believe that he is exceptionally positioned to lead the business development efforts during this era of transformation,” Francis added.
As for Grant’s dealmaking philosophy, it’s about whether teams on both sides of the partnership “share a common passion” and whether they enjoy working together, he said on a Fierce Pharma panel last year.
Speaking to Fierce at the 2022 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Grant opined, "I think what I've learned over my career in this industry, which is fairly long, is that collaboration is alive and well.”
Now, he’ll be putting those words to the test at Teva.