Boehringer Ingelheim, Mehdi Shahidi

Boehringer Ingelheim promotes Mehdi Shahidi to take on the position of chief medical officer, after 14 years with the company. Shahidi was placed in the role on March 1 and succeeds Thor Voigt, who retires from the role and company at the end of April, after 27 years.

“[Voigt] will have a great successor in Dr Shahidi who takes over this important role as chief medical officer with a well-deserved, excellent reputation inside and outside our company,”​ said Allan Hillgrove, member of the board of managing directors.

Shahidi is a trained clinical oncologist and early in his career was a senior clinical research fellow at the Institute of Cancer Research. From there, he moved into the pharmaceutical industry through his role at PRA Health Sciences, a contract research organisation.

Shahidi previously worked at the Novartis Oncology unit for a year before moving to Boehringer, where he has worked in various positions over the last 14 years. Prior to becoming CMO, he was global head of oncology for Boehringer.