Pfizer exec jumps ship to head AstraZeneca's R&D

LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The co-leaders of research at Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) split up on Wednesday as Martin Mackay left to head research at rival drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L), leaving Mikael Dolsten in charge.

Dolsten was previously research head at Wyeth, which Pfizer acquired in October for $67 billion. Revenue from lucrative Wyeth biotech products, including blockbuster arthritis drug Enbrel, will help Pfizer endure expected plunging sales of its Lipitor cholesterol fighter when the world's top-selling medicine faces generic competition late next year.

Pfizer said Mackay, a soft-spoken and personable native of Scotland, had resigned and left the company "immediately." He had led Pfizer's PharmaTherapeutics research team since October, having been the company's global research chief for the previous two years.

Mackay will take on the new role of president of R&D at AstraZeneca on July 1.

Dolsten, who headed Wyeth's research operations for about a year and a half, became Pfizer's president of BioTherapeutics Research after the merger.

That left Mackay and Dolsten as highly visible co-heads of research. Mackay took the lead on conventional drugs made from chemicals, while Dolsten headed up research on biotech products, complex proteins made in living cells that Pfizer aims to make a highly lucrative mainstay of its business.

"That structure was unusual," Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez said. "It struck me as potentially a vetting period for Dolsten," to better assess his leadership skills.

For its part, AstraZeneca has separated the two stages of R&D by having a head of drug discovery and a head of drug development, leaving some investors uncertain about the focus of its pipeline.

Mackay's appointment brings the two roles together as the company overhauls R&D operations to prepare for a wave of patent expiries on top drugs like Nexium, for acid reflux, and Seroquel, for schizophrenia.

AstraZeneca spokesman Neil McCrae said a unified head of R&D would speed up decision making and help in the allocation of resources between different projects at a time of major change in the company's research laboratories.

"We set out our strategy for R&D in January, which calls for some significant changes as we seek to improve the productivity of our pipeline," he said. "In addition, since the acquisition of MedImmune, it has become clear that we need a single point of accountability to manage the entire R&D portfolio."

Mackay has extensive experience working on both sides of the Atlantic. Prior to joining Pfizer in 1995, he focused on research into central nervous system diseases at Ciba-Geigy, now part of Novartis (NOVN.VX).

Shares of AstraZeneca were up 0.7 percent in London. In morning New York Stock Exchange trading, the stock (AZN.N) was down 0.7 percent at $41.03, while Pfizer gained 1.0 percent to $15.21.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler and Ransdell Pierson; additional reporting by Lewis Krauskopf; editing by Paul Sandle and Lisa Von Ahn)