Pfizer

Edmund P. Harrigan, M.D. has been promoted to senior vice president of worldwide licensing and business development for Pfizer. The group will have overall responsibility for co-promotion and licensing agreements, venture capital investments in new technologies and the acquisition of promising new products and services from outside the company.

“While Pfizer’s core scientific capabilities are outstanding, the explosion in medical science and related technologies around the world means that we now have many more opportunities for strategic investments,” said David Shedlarz, vice chairman of Pfizer. “Worldwide Licensing and Business Development brings together previously separate functions so that all the capabilities and resources necessary to evaluate and secure these opportunities are in one place, with a clear strategy and accountability.

Dr. Harrigan, a board certified neurologist, has served as senior vice president of worldwide regulatory affairs and quality assurance at the company since 2003. He joined the company in 1992 and spent nine years in Phase II and III clinical development trials related to the central nervous system. He also led a team in achieving the approval of Pfizer’s new generation antipsychotic medicine Geodon. In 2003, he served as vice president, worldwide medical neuroscience and ophthalmology, where he focused on marketed drugs and late-stage development candidates in those therapeutic areas.

Dr. Harrigan also held the positions of senior vice president of medical operations at Sepracor and executive vice president and chief development officer at Neurogen Corp.