After over a decade spent building Incyte up into a competitive commercial drugmaker, the company’s longtime CEO Hervé Hoppenot is making his exit and passing the baton to biopharma veteran Bill Meury.
Formerly the president at Novartis Oncology, Hoppenot left an 11-year executive career at Novartis to take over at Incyte in 2014 from former CEO Paul Friedman, M.D., who later went on to lead Madrigal Pharmaceuticals. When Hoppenot joined the team, Incyte had just one commercial product, JAK inhibitor Jakafi, to its name in and 2013 revenues of $355 million.
Under Hoppenot’s leadership, Incyte has blossomed into a multibillion-dollar earner over the last decade, boasting a commercial portfolio that’s now six therapies wide.
Anchored by blockbuster Jakafi, the company’s array of meds include fast-growing JAK cream Opzelura, lymphoma med Monjuvi and PD-1 inhibitor Zynyz, among others. The drugs helped Incyte pull $4.2 billion in sales last year and even cross the $1 billion quarterly earnings threshold for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2023.
“It has been a privilege to lead Incyte over the past eleven years,” said Hoppenot said in a company release. “I am proud to retire at a time when Incyte has the strongest management team, internal R&D pipeline and commercial portfolio ever. With Bill’s leadership, I am confident that the Company will continue its legacy of delivering transformative solutions to patients for many years to come.”
The CEO requested last fall that the company’s board of directors engage in a “thorough succession planning process,” lead independent director Julian Baker, who has now been elected chairman of the board, explained in the release. Hoppenot, who fostered “a culture of innovation and collaboration that will carry on at Incyte,” according to Baker, will serve as an advisor to new CEO Meury and continue on the board through the end of the year.
Meury’s appointment, effective immediately, was a unanimous call from Incyte’s board as his skill set, leadership experience and ability to “effectively translate scientific breakthroughs into business results” stood out, Baker noted.
Meury joined Incyte with a track record of dealmaking, and his appointment raised the possibility of Incyte becoming an M&A target.
He recently led Anthos Therapeutic as CEO until Novartis picked up the company for $925 million earlier this year. Before that, Meury headed up Karuna Therapeutics until its $14 billion merger with Bristol Myers Squibb last year. The University of Maryland alum is no stranger to company transitions, having started his career at Forest Laboratories, which was bought by Actavis and eventually became part of AbbVie.
At Allergan, Meury led its branded pharma unit before stepping up to the chief commercial officer plate for nearly four years until the AbbVie buyout in 2020. He is credited with leading some 8,000 employees and 50 products at Allergan and having his hands in over 20 FDA approvals across his career.
“Incyte's track record for discovering innovative treatments for complex problems in human health is outstanding,” Meury said. “My priority is to build upon our exceptional R&D and commercial capabilities to accelerate new product flow, drive sustainable growth and create value for all stakeholders.”
2025 has been billed as an eventful year for Incyte with “a number of key catalysts” expected to bring the company closer to its goal of 10 launches by 2030, Hoppenot said in a February earnings release.
Jakafi is inching closer to a 2028 patent cliff, leaving the company to lean on expansion opportunities for rising star Opzelura and other and upcoming new launches. Incyte expects Opzelura to pick up between $630 million and $670 million in 2025 sales while Jakafi is expected to continue to drive revenues with forecasted sales of $2.92 billion to $2.97 billion.