Name: Thomas Pike
New title: Labcorp, President and CEO of Drug Development Clinical Development Business Unit
Previous title: Independent Advisor
Labcorp has persuaded Thomas Pike to re-enter full-time employment. Six years after retiring as CEO of contract research organization IQVIA (formerly known as Quintiles), Pike has taken up the top job at Labcorp’s clinical development unit ahead of its planned spin-off to form an independent business.
The divestiture will leave Labcorp focused on its global laboratory business once again and end its vision of offering an end-to-end drug and diagnostics development and commercialization service.
Scheduled for mid-2023, the spin-off will reverse Labcorp’s $5.6 billion acquisition of Covance. Pike will report to Labcorp CEO Adam Schechter prior to the spin-off, before taking full control of the independent company after the split. At that point, Pike, who oversaw the transformational merger of Quintiles and IMS Health, will be in charge of a contract research organization (CRO) for the first time since 2016. Pike shared his plans for the company in a statement to disclose his appointment.
“As an independent company with access to Labcorp’s deep health and clinical data set, the Clinical Development business will have increased agility to invest in innovation to better serve customers and advance life-saving therapies,” Pike said. “I am excited to begin working closely with the team on developing a long-term growth strategy that will benefit patients, customers, employees and our future shareholders.”
Pike is replacing Dr. Paul Kirchgraber, who was CEO of Covance and took up the same post at Labcorp Drug Development when the unit was rebranded two years later. Kirchgraber will remain CEO leading Labcorp’s early development, central laboratories and global oncology businesses until the spin-off, at which point he will “pursue other opportunities outside of the company.”
