Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) Korea said it has appointed Lee He-young, the country manager of Viatris Korea, as its new CEO.

According to industry sources, the current BMS Korea CEO, Kim Jin-young, has recently been appointed as the head of BMS’ global compliance organization and decided to recruit Lee as her successor.

Lee will resign her post at Viatris at the end of this month and join BMS.

Lee, the first country manager of Viatris, which spun off from Pfizer in 2020, graduated from Seoul National University College of Pharmacy and earned an MBA from Korea University. She has been working in the healthcare industry for more than 20 years.

Lee started working at Pfizer Korea in 2000 and became the marketing director of the primary care division after working in various departments such as clinical research, business development, and strategic planning. In 2012, Lee moved to Shanghai and Hong Kong, where she oversaw the cardiovascular treatment sector in the APAC region of Pfizer's Global Established Product (GEP) business.

Lee became the country manager of Pfizer Singapore from 2015 to 2017 and returned to Korea in May 2017 as Pfizer Korea Vice President and PEH (Pfizer Established Health) Korea Lead.

An official at Viatris Korea said that the company business would continue as usual.

“Lee has decided to leave the company for personal reasons on July 31,” Park Su-hee, Viatris Korea's corporate communications manager, told Korea Biomedical Review on Monday. “Viatris's mission to provide high-quality products and services to customers and patients is stronger than ever, and business will continue as usual.”

Park added that Viatris’ head of commercial development in emerging markets, Amr Ammar, would closely work with the Korean leadership team to ensure that business and operations continue without a hitch until a successor is appointed.