Eli Lilly Seeks New Neuroscience Leader as Longtime Executive Anne White Retires

Eli Lilly is looking for a new leader for its neuroscience division after announcing that Anne White, the current head, will retire at the end of December. White has spent 30 years at the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company. She took over the neuroscience division in 2021 when Lilly split its biomedicines unit to focus on new drugs for the immune system and Alzheimer’s disease. Before leading neuroscience, White was in charge of Lilly’s cancer division and helped successfully acquire and integrate Loxo Oncology, which became key to Lilly’s current cancer drug efforts. David Ricks, Lilly’s CEO, praised White’s dedication to developing treatments for some of the most difficult diseases. The company plans to consider both internal and external candidates to replace White, who will retire on December 31. As head of Lilly Neuroscience, White oversaw the approval and launch of Kisunla, a drug designed to slow Alzheimer’s disease progression. This approval was a major milestone for Lilly, which had faced repeated setbacks in its Alzheimer’s research before Kisunla. White has personally connected with this work, having written about her mother’s experience with Alzheimer’s and her hope that recent advances will lead to better treatments. In a Fortune editorial, she expressed optimism that progress in Alzheimer’s research could also help with other brain diseases like ALS, Parkinson’s, and multiple sclerosis. Recently, Lilly received FDA approval for a modified dosing of Kisunla to reduce a potential side effect called ARIA, which has been a concern for similar drugs like Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi. While analysts expect Kisunla to eventually become a major success, its sales have been modest since its launch last year, with $49 million in revenue in the second quarter. Lilly is also developing another Alzheimer’s drug, remternetug, which is currently in late-stage testing. The company’s neuroscience pipeline includes gene therapies for Parkinson’s, Gaucher disease, and frontotemporal dementia, as well as four new pain treatments. One of these pain therapies was recently added through Lilly’s acquisition of SiteOne Therapeutics. Lilly also credited White with helping speed up drug development across the company.

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