Novartis (VTX: NOVN) has appointed Dr John Tsai as head of global drug development (GDD) and chief medical officer (CMO), the company announced on Thursday.

Joining Novartis on 1 May 2018, Dr Tsai will be based in Basel, Switzerland and will report to CEO Dr Vas Narasimhan. Upon joining the company, he will also become a member of the executive committee.

Dr Tsai will succeed Dr Narasimhan, who became CEO on 1 February 2018. Dr Rob Kowalski has led GDD ad interim since then but will resume his responsibilities as head of global regulatory affairs for GDD.

His most recent position has seen Dr Tsai serve as CMO and senior vice president of global medicine at Amgen Inc (NASDAQ: AMGN) since May 2017 where he oversees all clinical and medical functions across multiple sites worldwide.

Previously, Dr Tsai worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) for 11 years. He served as global head of clinical development for marketed products and global clinical operations and played a leadership role in advancing the company's late-stage pipeline. He also served as the company's CMO in Europe and as head of US medical and VP of cardiovascular medical. Prior to this, Dr Tsai worked as a cardiovascular group leader at Pfizer (NYSE: PFE).

At Novartis, Dr Tsai will be responsible for advancing the company's industry-leading pipeline of innovative medicines and biosimilars and will lead the GDD organisation's ongoing transformation to embrace the power of advanced data sciences and digital technologies to create a more agile model for drug development.