Pharmaceutical company Almirall has hired Francesca Domenech Wuttke as chief digital officer from US-based pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co’s Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (GHI) subsidiary where she was managing director.
Wuttke had headed Almirall’s corporate development strategy team for a year prior to joining Merck GHI in 2016, and has taken the chief digital officer position upon her return. During her earlier tenure at Almirall, she focused on medical device and pharmaceutical M&A deals.
While at Merck GHI, Wuttke led Europe-based investments including an $11m round for clinical-test access service Antidote Technologies and a round of undisclosed size for natural language processing technology developer Clinithink. She formed part of GCV’s 2018 Rising Stars selection.
Wuttke will develop and implement the company’s end-to-end digital strategy in her new role, reporting to Almirall chief executive Peter Guenter.
Guenter said: “Digital transformation in healthcare is a huge opportunity for any biopharmaceutical company. We are certain that Francesca is the best person to lead the transformation with Almirall.
“She will join us after more than 25 years of international strategic, commercial and transactional experience. She has excellent first-hand knowledge of the potential that digital technology has in the healthcare industry, so we are fortunate to have her.”
Wuttke told Global Corporate Venturing: “My mandate goes beyond digital health. At Almirall I’m tasked with digital transformation applied to product transformation and beyond to bring efficiencies through digital solutions and services to the entire company.
“One of the benefits of Almirall’s culture is that our teams can move very quickly together to effect change through this digital transformation effort which is exciting and is what attracted me back to Almirall – the willingness to change, as well as alignment among the CEO, the management team and the board of directors.”
Photo courtesy of Francesca Domenech Wuttke.
