Feb 17, 2023

Shaw, who joined Gilead in 2019 from Eli Lilly, helped build Kite into a leading producer of cell therapies, convincing Wall Street skeptics in the process. Published Feb. 17, 2023 A sign showing Gilead's logo. Justin Sullivan via Getty Images Top Gilead Sciences executive Christi Shaw will leave the company at the end of March after more than three years running the drugmaker’s Kite cell therapy division, Gilead annnounced Friday . Over that time, Shaw helped grow Kite into a leading producer of the complex medicines and an important contributor to Gilead’s overall business, which has long been dominated by pills for HIV and hepatitis C. Last year, sales of the Gilead’s two marketed cell therapies, approved to treat certain blood cancers, totaled nearly $1.5 billion , or about 6% of the company’s revenue outside of its COVID-19 drug Veklury. Gilead said Shaw will work with CEO Daniel O’Day and the Kite team to hand off her responsibilities while the company searches for her replacement. “Under Christi’s leadership, Kite has become a global leader in cell therapy,” said O’Day, who hired Shaw from Eli Lilly, where she had run the Indianapolis pharmaceutical company’s biologic medicines division. Prior to Lilly, Shaw worked at Novartis in several high-profile executive roles before stepping down in 2016 to care for her sister , who had multiple myeloma. “My journey with Kite has truly been the highlight of my career due to the very personal nature of cell therapy and the curative potential that it can provide patients with certain blood cancers,” Shaw said in Gilead’s statement. “There is no good time to end a labor of love, but I feel I have accomplished what I came to do.” She leaves Kite in a secure position, with sales growing strongly following the Food and Drug Administration’s April 2022 approval of Gilead’s cell therapy Yescarta for earlier use in treating large B-cell lymphoma. The clearance, a first in the field, significantly increased the number of people eligible for the therapy, which previously was reserved only for the sickest patients. She’s also overseen an expansion of Kite’s manufacturing capabilities , which are critical for producing personalized cellular medicines. The kind of cell therapy Kite specializes in, known as CAR-T, requires immune cells to be extracted from each individual patient, reengineered in a laboratory to more effectively target cancer and then reinfused. The multi-week process involves careful managing of supply chains spanning states, countries and oceans. “Our focus is really on the supply side and being able to ensure that we have the capacity to provide for patients,” Shaw said on a recent earnings call for Gilead. Notably, Kite has avoided some of the manufacturing problems that have bedeviled other large companies in the field, like Novartis . According to Gilead, Kite has now treated nearly 13,000 patients globally with Yescarta and its other cell therapy, Tecartus, which is approved for mantle cell lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Investors, who were previously skeptical of Gilead’s foray into cell therapy, have increasingly given the company more credit for Kite. Initially, many on Wall Street criticized Gilead for overpaying to acquire Kite Pharma in a $12 billion deal in 2017 that brought cell therapy into the company’s business. Since then, Gilead has made oncology a major focus , investing heavily in acquisitions, partnerships and research collaborations to build a cancer drug pipeline that’s now broader than what it has in testing for viral diseases. Whoever Gilead brings in to replace Shaw will face several challenges, however, among them growing competition. The company is behind rivals Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson in bringing to market a cell therapy for multiple myeloma, the other cancer beyond lymphoma and leukemia for which the treatments have proved strikingly effective. Gilead will also need to fend off challenges from smaller biotechs that seek to improve on existing CAR-T therapies by using donor, rather than patient cells, as well as by using newer techniques to improve their safety and efficacy. Recommended Reading