Pfizer Taps Harvard Professor to Lead Neuro R&D Unit

Pfizer has named Ole Isacson, a neurology professor at Harvard Medical School, the chief scientific officer and senior vice president of its neuroscience research division. Isacson, who has done more than two decades of work in Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases, will report to Pfizer R&D chief Mikael Dolsten at the pharma giant’s research hub in Cambridge, MA.

Author: Ben Fidler

Ben is former Xconomy Deputy Editor, Biotechnology. He is a seasoned business journalist that comes to Xconomy after a nine-year stint at The Deal, where he covered corporate transactions in industries ranging from biotech to auto parts and gaming. Most recently, Ben was The Deal’s senior healthcare writer, focusing on acquisitions, venture financings, IPOs, partnerships and industry trends in the pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostics and med tech spaces. Ben wrote features on creative biotech financing models, analyses of middle market and large cap buyouts, spin-offs and restructurings, and enterprise pieces on legal issues such as pay-for-delay agreements and the Affordable Care Act. Before switching to the healthcare beat, Ben was The Deal's senior bankruptcy reporter, covering the restructurings of the Texas Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, GM, Delphi, Trump Entertainment Resorts and Blockbuster, among others. Ben has a bachelor’s degree in English from Binghamton University.