Gilead woos Cindy Perettie from Roche to lead Kite after Christi Shaw departs

Gilead has found the next leader for Kite in Roche oncology vet Cindy Perettie, putting her in charge of a cell therapy unit that brought in $1.5 billion in 2022.

Perettie joins Gilead as EVP of Kite almost two months after former Kite CEO Christi Shaw stepped down. While Perettie spent the past few years in the diagnostics world — first as CEO of Foundation Medicine and later heading Roche’s Molecular Lab Solutions after Roche bought Foundation — she also had a background in oncology drug development and commercialization, beginning at Genentech and later at Roche.

In an email to Endpoints News, a Gilead spokesperson confirmed that Perettie will be filling Shaw’s role and reporting to Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day. The EVP title — instead of Kite CEO — reflects the reporting relationship.

“It’s important to note Cindy remains fully accountable for delivering on our cell therapy goals and delivering for the patients that are eligible for our cell therapies,” the spokersperson wrote. “That has not changed.”

At Roche, Perettie was in charge of multiple big-name franchises, including Avastin and Herceptin, and eventually became SVP, global product strategy oncology.

One of the pioneers in CAR-T, Kite markets two CD-19 targeting therapies, Yescarta and Tecartus, across five indications.

“The cell therapy business continues to play an important role in Gilead’s ambition to become a top oncology company,” Perettie said in a statement. Her appointment is effective May 30.

Gilead bought Kite in 2017 for $11.9 billion and recruited Shaw from Eli Lilly two years later to run the subsidiary. During her tenure, the company went from treating a few hundred patients to reaching nearly 13,000 around the world, according to Gilead.

It also ramped up manufacturing, which CFO Andrew Dickinson described as a “real area of competitive strength for Kite and for us” on a recent earnings call, with two manufacturing centers in the US and one in the Netherlands.

In addition to expanding the labels for Yescarta and Tecartus, Kite is also developing new CAR-Ts that target BCMA (in partnership with Arcellx), CLL-1 and CD19/20.

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