Hal V. Barron (born 1962) is an American clinician-scientist and drug developer who served as president of research and development at

GlaxoSmithKline GSK plc, formerly GlaxoSmithKline plc, is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London, England. Established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham. GSK is the ten ...

from March 2018 until 2022, when he resigned in order to join the cellular reprogramming venture Altos Labs in August of that year. Prior to this he served as president of research and development at Calico. He has served as executive vice president, head of global product development, and chief medical officer of Hoffman-La Roche.

Career

Barron joined

Genentech Genentech, Inc., is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within R ...

in 1996 as a clinical scientist and was promoted in 2002 to Vice President of Medical Affairs. In 2002 Barron was promoted to vice president of medical affairs and in 2003 he became the senior vice president of development. In 2004 he was appointed chief medical officer and in 2009 he was appointed executive vice president. On September 18, 2013, Barron was named President of Research and Development of Calico, a new company focusing on the biology of aging. The company was created and funded by Google. On November 8, 2017, Barron became the new CSO and research chief at GlaxoSmithKline amid a shake-up from its new CEO Emma Walmsley. Barron was quoted: "GSK is a company with a rich history of innovation, with many talented scientists who care deeply about translating great science into therapies that make a meaningful difference for patients. I believe there is a significant opportunity to accelerate this effort and am looking forward to joining Emma and the team on this mission.” In April 2019, it was publicly reported that Barron spent excessively on travel expenses during the previous year. The total expenses exceeded $807,000 (£620,000). Shareholders, investors, and rank-and-file employees have all expressed concern tilting towards outrage that he has been allow to spend so freely while others are constrained and employee layoffs continue. In January 2022, it was announced that Barron will join Altos starting on 1 August 2022 at newly created biotech company Altos Labs, based in San Francisco. Barron's current academic positions at the University of California, San Francisco include Associate Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology and

Biostatistics Biostatistics (also known as biometry) are the development and application of statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experime ...

, and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine/ Cardiology. He has been issued several patents for his work in thrombosis and

angiogenesis Angiogenesis is the physiological process through which new blood vessels form from pre-existing vessels, formed in the earlier stage of vasculogenesis. Angiogenesis continues the growth of the vasculature by processes of sprouting and splitting ...

, and has published more than 80 papers in

peer-reviewed scientific journals In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such ...

. He was a member of the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

at Alexza Pharmaceuticals, and is a current member of the

Juno Therapeutics Juno Therapeutics Inc is an American biopharmaceutical company founded in 2013 through a collaboration of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and pediatrics partner Seattle Children's Research Instit ...

Education

Barron received his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering physics from Washington University in St. Louis. He completed his training in medicine and cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barron, Hal V 1962 births Biotechnologists Living people Genentech people GSK plc people Hoffmann-La Roche people Yale School of Medicine alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni Washington University physicists University of California, San Francisco faculty University of California, San Francisco alumni American epidemiologists Biostatisticians American cardiologists American corporate directors American transhumanists