Nearly three years after originating the role, Erica Taylor, Ph.D., is stepping down as chief marketing officer of Genentech.
She’s not going too far, however: Taylor is now serving as lifecycle leader for TL1A and head of the gastroenterology franchise at Genentech parent company Roche, according to a LinkedIn post this week.
“I’m excited about this opportunity to return to my roots as a scientist and get closer to the decision-making and pipeline planning for our medicines,” she wrote in the post, alongside a throwback photo of her working in a lab to illustrate the “full-circle moment.”
In her new role, she continued, “I’ll build upon my experiences across commercial disciplines and in my scientific training—returning to my immunology roots!—to guide our TL1A and Gastroenterology pipeline assets through development and commercialization.”
Taking Taylor’s place as Genentech’s marketing chief is Zoë Harris Lazarre, Ph.D., who has been with the company for 15 years, including stints in leadership roles for hematology, oncology and neuroimmunology marketing.
In a LinkedIn post of her own, Harris Lazarre wrote, “Moving forward, my focus is to accelerate progress to shape a world-class, future-ready marketing team. My decades-long commitment to public health combined with my business leadership and global experience will not only allow us to [deepen] our trust with patients and the communities we serve, but also build bridges across Genentech, Roche and with colleagues across the industry.”
She added, “The work ahead has extraordinary potential.”
Genentech did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new appointment.
In her post, Harris Lazarre also credited Taylor with having “built this role from the ground up and laid the foundation for a modern, strategic marketing function that amplifies our science and impact for patients.”
Taylor was named Genentech’s first-ever chief marketing officer in late 2022, when the company also tapped its inaugural head of digital marketing, Ozgun Demir, Ph.D., who remains in the role.
Since then, the company’s marketing efforts have included awareness-raising initiatives that spread a message on TikTok and Facebook about the importance of biomarker testing for lung cancer patients and pushed for improvements to food allergy safety and diabetes-related eye health.
The company has also ramped up promotional work related to spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), for which it sells the treatment Evrysdi. In recent years, Genentech has recruited people with SMA to stage an “edgy” musical comedy to tackle ableism and to perform an original song about SMA at the White House for 2024’s Disability Pride Month.
In one of its most recent marketing moves, Genentech put out a short film ahead of Mother’s Day this year that chronicled life with hemophilia A through the eyes of patients’ mothers.