Christine Roth Joins Bayer as Head of Oncology to Drive Growth of Key Assets Including Darolutamide

Christine Roth, Senior Vice President of Global Oncology at GSK, will join Bayer on March 1 to lead its oncology business, reporting to Stefan Oelrich, member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG and President of the Pharmaceuticals Division. Robert LaCaze, former head of Bayer’s Oncology Strategic Business Unit, has decided to leave to pursue external development opportunities, with his next move yet to be disclosed.

Christine Roth

Christine Roth has served as an executive at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Novartis, and Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), focusing on global product strategy and commercialization, building oncology pipelines, and driving new product launches.

Bayer has always been at the forefront of the cardiovascular field. Its best-selling drug, Rivaroxaban (Xarelto), generated revenue of 4.5 billion pounds in 2020. In comparison, the sales of oncology products were much lower, with the most successful liver cancer drug, Nexavar (Sorafenib), achieving sales of only 639 million pounds in 2020.

As Rivaroxaban faces generic competition, achieving the potential peak sales forecast of $1 billion for Darolutamide (Nubeqa) is Christine Roth's top priority. Darolutamide is an androgen receptor inhibitor that received FDA approval in July 2019 and NMPA approval in February 2021 for the treatment of non-metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (nmCRPC).

Currently, the progress of darolutamide has been relatively slow due to fewer approved indications, fierce competition from similar drugs (such as Pfizer and Astellas' enzalutamide, Johnson & Johnson's apalutamide), and the impact of the pandemic. However, darolutamide is soon expected to expand into a new indication for hormone-sensitive prostate cancer, aligning it with the two indications of apalutamide. Reportedly, Johnson & Johnson’s apalutamide achieved sales of $1.291 billion in 2021, with a year-over-year growth rate of up to 70%. This demonstrates the enormous potential in this field.

In the field of prostate cancer, in addition to darolutamide, the marketed drug Xofigo (radium-223 dichloride [223Ra]) is also used for treating bone metastases in patients with advanced castration-resistant prostate cancer.