Briggs W. Morrison, M.D.
Drug development and clinical trial advisor
Briggs W. Morrison, M.D. is the Chief Executive Officer of Syndax Pharmaceuticals since June 2015 and is a member of its board of directors. He currently serves as a managing director of MPM Capital, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm, since June 2015. Prior to joining Syndax, he served as Executive Vice President, Global Medicines Development and Chief Medical Officer at AstraZeneca plc, a publicly traded company, from January 2012 to June 2015, leading the company’s global, late-stage development organization and serving as a member of the AstraZeneca senior executive team.
He previously held a number of positions at Pfizer Inc., a publicly traded company, from 2007 to January 2012 that culminated in his appointment as Head, Medical Affairs, Safety and Regulatory Affairs for Pfizer’s human health business, and also served in roles of increasing responsibility at Merck Research Laboratories, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., from 1995 to 2007, ascending to the role of Vice President, Clinical Sciences, Oncology, responsible for clinical development of all novel anti-cancer drugs. Dr. Morrison was chairman of the board of TransCelerate BioPharma Inc., an industry-funded company charged with improving aspects of clinical trials, from 2014 to 2015, a member of the executive committee of the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI) sponsored by FDA, and is on the board of ACRES (Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety). Dr. Morrison received a B.S. in biology from Georgetown University and an M.D. from the University of Connecticut.