GSK chief scientist Barron to leave for U.S. biotech start-up

LONDON (Reuters) – GlaxoSmithKline said on Wednesday that Hal Barron will end his position as chief scientific officer in August after less than five years to run a new privately owned start-up biotech company.

Tony Wood will become CSO designate and assume full accountability for Research and Development (R&D) on Aug. 1.

Barron will become a GSK non-executive director on Aug. 1, with additional responsibilities to support R&D, GSK said. He joined GSK in January 2018.

Barron is joining Altos Labs, a new biotech company based in San Francisco, California, focused on the biology of cellular rejuvenation programming with the goal of reversing disease, GSK said. (This story corrects first name to Hal, not Hall)

(Reporting by Josephine Mason; editing by Jason Neely)