In a telling move Johnson and Johnson have promoted New York-based R&D exec, Najat Khan PhD, to a newly-established chief data science officer role, signalling the companies ever increasing prioritisation of data science.
Whilst she will continue her role as global head of R&D strategy and operations, Khan will now also lead data science operations to unite its impact with the company’s product portfolio and pipeline assets.
Khan’s new role, say J&J, is to lead an R&D team “that leverages cutting edge data science capabilities to drive scaled impact and value, agile learning, and innovation-driven efficiency, balanced with deep medical and scientific domain expertise.”
What’s being said about the news:
“The first big pharma to appoint a highly-competent woman to the post of a Chief Data Science Officer (CDSO). Kudos to The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson and Najat Khan, PhD and other big pharmas should follow” commented Alex Zhavoronkov, Founder and CEO of Insilico Medicine, in a LinkedIn post.
