Biogen Idec R&D Boss Retires

Biogen Idec said today that its president of R&D, Cecil Pickett, is retiring. Pickett, 62, will stay in the job until a replacement is filled, and he will keep his seat on the board of directors after retirement, the company said in a regulatory filing. Pickett joined the Cambridge, MA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) in September 2006 from Kenilworth, NJ-based Schering-Plough. Biogen didn’t say when it expects to name its new R&D leader.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.