Karen Lackey Named Vice President and Head of Medicinal Chemistry at Roche

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Jul 26, 2010, 09:58 ET

NUTLEY, N.J., July 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Roche announced today that Karen Lackey has been named Vice President and Head of Medicinal Chemistry, effective immediately. In her role at the company's Nutley facility, Karen will be responsible for small molecule drug discovery in oncology, virology and inflammation. She will also oversee the Nutley Discovery Chemistry Management Team and be a member of the Global Chemistry Leadership Team. Karen will report to Hans-Joachim Boehm, Ph.D., Global Head of Chemistry at Roche.

"Karen's appointment reinforces Roche's continuing commitment to innovation and to being at the forefront of medical discovery," said Hans-Joachim Boehm, Ph.D., Global Head of Chemistry at Roche. "Her extensive experience and knowledge of the industry will serve Roche well as we address the challenge of bringing new medicines to patients with unmet medical needs."

Most recently, Karen was Vice President, Discovery Medicine Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where she was responsible for overseeing more than 150 GSK chemists in both the UK and US as well as extensive external resources in China, India, Europe, and the USA. Also, as a member of the GSK Molecular Discovery Executive Team, Karen was responsible for the entire early stage research portfolio.

"I am excited about contributing to Roche's drug discovery efforts and look forward to working in a research-based organization committed to creating effective medicines," noted Karen.

During her 22-year career at GSK, Karen held a variety of positions. Most importantly, she played an active role in the discovery of the dual erbB2/EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, lapatinib, which is currently marketed as Tykerb®. In recognition of this important discovery, Karen received the "Heroes of Chemistry" award from the American Chemical Society in 2008. Prior to GSK, Karen held positions at Pfizer where she was involved in research on semi-synthetic ionophores, carbohydrates, peptides and heterocyclic chemistry, and the Richardson Polymer Corporation where she conducted research in the areas of plastics and resins.

Karen holds a MS in Chemistry from Duke University in North Carolina and did her undergraduate study at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. She has held positions on several professional advisory boards and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Foundation at North Carolina State University and the Expert Review Group, Wellcome Trust Translation Awards & Seeding Drug Discovery. She has also served on the External Advisory Board for the National Science Foundation Science & Technology Center at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Karen has been a sought after speaker, authored numerous publications, books and book chapters on targeted molecular design, kinase inhibitors and drug discovery and holds 24 patents. She is also a member of several professional organizations including the American Chemical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Association of Cancer Research.

Karen is married to Bill Lackey, owner of Activity Fitness Journals, has three children (ages 19, 21, 26) and two granddaughters (ages 2 1/2 and 1).

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche's personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2009, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested almost 10 billion Swiss francs in R&D ($9.1B US). The Group posted sales of 49.1 billion Swiss francs ($45.1B US). Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com or www.roche-nutley.com.

Tykerb® is a registered trademark of GlaxoSmithKline.