Dr. Lena Brandt named Chief Scientific Officer at Meridian Pharma

Meridian Pharma has announced the appointment of Dr. Lena Brandt as Chief Scientific Officer, effective 15 September 2026. Brandt joins Meridian from Bayer, where she led the company's rare-disease discovery unit for the past eight years and shepherded two candidates through IND enabling.

Brandt holds a PhD in molecular biology from ETH Zurich and completed her postdoctoral work at the Max Planck Institute. She has authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of KRAS signalling and rare-disease target validation.

"Meridian's platform is one of the most exciting in the KRAS space," said Brandt. "The opportunity to shape the next wave of the pipeline was too compelling to pass up."

Meridian CEO Rahul Kapoor called the appointment "a signal to the scientific community that our platform is moving into a more mature discovery phase."