Hsiao Lieu has been appointed senior vice president and chief medical officer of NGM Biopharmaceuticals. Lieu is joining South San Francisco, CA-based NGM from Roche’s Genentech unit, where he was vice president of early clinical development. NGM has a five-year research partnership with Merck (NYSE: [[ticker:MRK]]), which recently exercised its option to acquire rights to an experimental NGM treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and type 2 diabetes. On Wednesday, the partners announced that they are extending the collaboration to 2022. NGM’s wholly owned lead drug, NGM282, is in Phase 2 testing in NASH.
