After some six years at the post, Amgen’s finance chief is telegraphing his exit from the California pharma by early next year.
Peter Griffith, who became Amgen’s CFO in 2020, is hanging up his hat at the end of August, to be replaced by former company finance exec Thomas Dittrich on Sept. 1, Amgen said in a release this week.
While Dittrich—who most recently served in the same role at Swiss dermatology specialist Galderma—will officially don the CFO mantle in September, Griffith will remain onboard at Amgen until January of next year to help with the transition process, the company said.
For his part, Dittrich previously held a number of “senior financial roles” at Amgen before departing for the wider biopharma world. Boasting stints at Shire and Sulzer, too, Dittrich is now returning to his former company with some 30 years of leadership expertise and a deep understanding of “consumer-focused healthcare markets” under his belt, Amgen added.
To attract him back into the fold, Amgen is offering Dittrich a one-time equity award of 4.7 million Swiss francs that vests 25% per year from the date it's granted, part of a bid to compensate the exec for “forgone equity and incentive compensation” at Galderma, according to an Amgen securities filing (PDF).
Moreover, Amgen is handing Dittrich a 4 million franc ($5 million) cash bonus “as part of his Swiss employment,” in addition to a separate “one-time, two-year retention bonus” equaling 5.8 million francs ($7.3 million).
Dittrich will receive a yearly base salary of 1.07 million Swiss francs (around $1.4 million) to start and is eligible for Amgen's incentive-based payout programs, the company explained.
He is also in line for a smaller “relocation allowance” given that he'll eventually set up in Amgen's hometown of Thousand Oaks, California, for his CFO role, according to the filing.
In thanking the retiring Griffith for his service as chief financial officer, Amgen CEO Robert Bradway said in a statement Tuesday that “Peter has helped position Amgen to deliver attractive long-term growth and expand our ability to serve patients in the years ahead.”
Griffith’s retirement comes after Amgen late last month reported revenue growth of 6% year over year to $8.6 billion in the first quarter despite plummeting sales of the company’s osteoporosis treatment Prolia, which suffered a 34% sales decline in Q1 amid mounting biosimilar pressure.
Still, Bradway declared on a conference call in April that 2026 will be a “springboard year” for the drugmaker, in which growth from new meds will help offset sales crunches tied to patent expiries like Prolia’s.
Driving that sales charge in the first quarter was Amgen’s PCSK9 heart med, Repatha, which grew sales 34% in the period to $877 million. For all of 2026, the company expects revenues to land between $37.1 billion and $38.5 billion, versus the $36.8 billion it brought home last year.
Other leadership changes have been afoot at Amgen this year, too.
Late last month, the company announced that its chief technology officer, David Reese, M.D., will retire as well at the end of June, capping off a career at the company that began in 2005.
Reese's impending departure was telegraphed alongside several other role shifts at the company, which will see research chief James Bradner, M.D., take on the position of EVP of R&D, artificial intelligence and data, while Amgen's commercial lead Murdo Gordon is set to become EVP of Amgen global markets and policy, which the company notes covers medical, commercial operations, government affairs and policy.
The chief technology officer post, being vacated by Reese, will be filled by Sean Bruich, currently the company's SVP of artificial intelligence and data.
Regarding Dittrich’s recent bona fides, the last pitstop in his career, Galderma, has been riding high lately thanks to the strong launch of its inflammatory skin condition drug Nemluvio.
In March, the company doubled its previous peak annual sales projection for the medication—approved for atopic dermatitis and prurigo nodularis—to more than $4 billion after Nemluvio’s impressive first full year on the market. In 2025, the drug generated sales of $425 million, with growth picking up dramatically in the back half of the year.