CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Foundation Medicine, Inc. today announced the appointment of Brian Alexander, M.D., M.P.H., as chief executive officer, effective April 6, 2021. Dr. Alexander previously served as Foundation Medicine’s chief medical officer since 2019 and brings with him years of experience as a radiation oncologist at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. He succeeds Cindy Perettie, who has taken on a new role within Roche Diagnostics.
“Brian has been instrumental in leading Foundation Medicine in its mission to rapidly advance personalized medicine for cancer patients on a global scale,” said Severin Schwan, CEO, Roche Group. “As an oncologist, he is uniquely positioned to help the company become an ever-more-essential partner for patients, physicians, and the researchers developing new cancer medicines by providing them with the insights they need to support critical decisions.”
Dr. Alexander joined Foundation Medicine as senior vice president of clinical development in September 2018 and was promoted to Chief Medical Officer the following year. He has directed Foundation Medicine’s decision insights strategy to help more oncologists, both in community and academic settings, determine the right treatment, at the right time, for each unique patient. Under his leadership, Foundation Medicine’s medical team has expanded its molecular tumor board program to include over 90 leading oncology centers globally, launched a cross-functional genomics and health disparities effort, and has developed hundreds of studies and publications to advance the clinical utility of genomic profiling.
“I am proud to be part of a team that has delivered groundbreaking innovations catalyzed by our unparalleled insights into cancer genomics,” said Dr. Alexander. “I am grateful to Cindy for her leadership and mentorship during such a transformative time for the company, and I’m excited to lead the next chapter for this remarkable organization as we work to enable better therapeutic decision making and help our pharmaceutical and biotech partners advance the breakthrough therapies of tomorrow.”
Dr. Alexander was the founding director of the Program in Regulatory Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Harvard/MIT Center for Regulatory Science. He also co-founded the Global Coalition for Adaptive Research, a non-profit organization focused on clinical trial innovations to accelerate the discovery and development of cures for patients with rare and deadly diseases and served as chair of the FDA/Project Datasphere task force on external control arms. He previously co-authored a book on the interpretation of diagnostic tests for medical decision making. Dr. Alexander is an is an affiliated researcher at the MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering and affiliated faculty of the Harvard Kennedy School Healthcare Policy Program. He was named to Boston Magazine’s “Top Doctors List” in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Previously, Dr. Alexander served as a White House fellow and Special Assistant to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, where he helped prepare the VA for the transition of administrations, worked to develop a public reporting system for quality, and served as a health policy advisor to the Secretary. Dr. Alexander organized the standup of the VA’s Coordinating Council on National Health Reform and directed the activities of its multi-team Health Reform Working Group. He was also a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Governance and Financing of Graduate Medical Education.
Dr. Alexander received his B.A. from Kalamazoo College, M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School, and M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his training in radiation oncology at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program.
About Foundation Medicine
Foundation Medicine is a molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care in which treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the genomic changes that contribute to each patient’s unique cancer. The company offers a full suite of comprehensive genomic profiling assays to identify the molecular alterations in a patient’s cancer and match them with relevant targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials. Foundation Medicine’s molecular information platform aims to improve day-to-day care for patients by serving the needs of clinicians, academic researchers and drug developers to help advance the science of molecular medicine in cancer. For more information, please visit www.FoundationMedicine.com or follow Foundation Medicine on Twitter (@FoundationATCG).
