Genentech chemistry leadership shifts

Medicinal chemist Wendy Young has been promoted to senior vice president for small-molecule drug discovery at Genentech. Young previously led a team of roughly 100 medicinal, computational, and analytical chemists; she will now run the 350-scientist small-molecule research engine for Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche. Young is taking over the reins from medicinal chemist Bruce Roth, who is retiring. Roth, known for being the first to synthesize atorvastatin—better known as Pfizer’s multi-billion-dollar cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, joined Genentech in 2007, after Pfizer laid off thousands of scientists at its Ann Arbor, Mich., site.