Exelixis, Inc. announced it has appointed Amy Peterson, M.D., its next Executive Vice President, Product Development & Medical Affairs, and Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Peterson is a veteran oncology drug development leader whose experience includes senior clinical development and operational roles at Genentech, Medivation, BeiGene and CytomX. She joins Exelixis as the company accelerates development of its product pipeline and builds on the success of its global cabozantinib oncology franchise.

Dr. Peterson received her M.D. from Thomas Jefferson University, completed a residency in internal medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and undertook a hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Chicago. She began her industry career at Genentech, where she oversaw the development of early-stage molecules targeting multiple major pathways in oncology, including Investigational New Drug submission and phase 1 workstreams for atezolizumab (TECENTRIQ®). After Genentech, Dr. Peterson joined Medivation, where she was part of the filing team for the initial FDA approval of enzalutamide (XTANDI®) in prostate cancer and led breast cancer development for both enzalutamide and talazoparib (TALZENNA®).

At BeiGene, she was the company?s Chief Medical Officer, IO, a role in which she built the company?s global oncology development organization with oversight of all early-stage assets and solid tumor indications, including the checkpoint inhibitor tislelizumab. Most recently, Dr. Peterson was at CytomX, first as Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer and then as President and Chief Operating Officer.