WILMINGTON — In a surprise announcement, Incyte CEO Hervé Hoppenot said he will step down from the biopharmaceutical company, handing the reins to industry veteran Bill Meury, effective immediately.
Hoppenot led Incyte for 11 years, growing the company’s headcount and sales, turning the start-up into a $13 billion company with several drug candidates in its pipeline and securing approvals for six other drugs in the past three years.
He will stay on as a board member and an advisor to the end of the year to smooth the transition, and he will be paid $1.39 million for his time. Filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show that Hoppenot will be paid half his salary for the next six months until June 26, 2026 or a date determined by Incyte or Hoppenot.
Incyte’s board of directors started the quiet process for a new leader months ago at Hoppenot’s request last fall. The company announced the leadership change on Thursday morning.
“I believe it’s a good thing for me personally, but also for the corporation,” Hoppenot told the Delaware Business Times on Friday. “After 11 years, it’s good to have new eyes looking at the current process and staff. Everything was in place and we decided to announce it a little, bang bang.”
Hoppenot joined Incyte in 2014 when he took over for Incyte’s outgoing leader Paul Friedman, leaving behind an executive career at Novartis Oncology. At that time, Incyte had just one commercial product: blood cancer drug Jakafi. That drug is on track to bring in $3 billion for the year.
But Hoppenot had been bullish on expanding Incyte’s offerings, inking development and distribution deals under his leadership. The company secured U.S. Food and Drug approval for other drugs like vitiligo treatment Opzelura and chronic graft-versus-host disease drug Niktimvo, among others. In other successes, Incyte also expanded its footprint across the world with team members now in Japan and Europe.
“There’s a sense of pride looking back, because you see the number of people who have been impacted by what we do,” Hoppenot said. “We made the choice to develop products for rare diseases where there could be an argument about the economics behind it and we never even blinked. That, to me, is the hallmark of Incyte: the spirit of ‘nobody has done this before, that must be a good reason to go and see.’”
With biotech companies battling for small ponds of private investment, companies like Incyte have gone public in order to raise funds via shareholders, but that has added pressure to deliver on products that take years to see the light of day.
Hoppenot characterizes life in a public biopharma company as moments with incredible optimism and, in some cases, disappointments.
“That creates waves of perception, sometimes even emotions about what people invest in, so I do recognize it has been a little chaotic the way the pipeline has evolved over time. Where we are today is a relatively low tide, and I do think when the potential of our product is seen and recognize, it will normalize,” he said. “When you build a company, you keep an eye on the way the investors look at prospects, but you have to have your own calibration in what needs to be done.”
Hoppenot plans to move back to New Jersey to spend time with his family. Once he is completely transitioned out of Incyte, he said he would likely find “other activities in the biopharma world.”
Meet Incyte’s next CEO
Meury joins Incyte with years of experience leading biopharmaceuticals to the next stage of growth with many of those companies later acquired down the line. He most recently served as CEO of Anthos Therapeutics which was acquired by Novartis for up to $3.1 billion in February.
Prior to that, Meury was the CEO of Karuna Therapeutics, leading its transition into a fully integrated research and development company. Karuna was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb in 2024. Meury also spent more than two decades at Allergan, serving as Chief Commercial Officer. There, he managed a global business with 50 products, $16 billion in revenue and approximately 8,000 employees across a range of therapeutic areas.
When asked about joining Incyte, Meury joked that it was an IQ test he was “not going to fail.”
“It’s a product-driven business and with a deep product line with both pipeline products and marketed products. Incyte works in the two most structured, attractive markets in all of biopharma: oncology and immunology. The R&D capabilities the company has built over the years is a real competitive advantage,” Meury said.
He brushed off questions about the potential of Incyte merging with another company, pointing that Anthos and Karuna were smaller, pre-revenue biotech companies that can be attractive to larger companies. Meury said his focus at Incyte was to build upon the last decade and grow the company in the years to come, especially as Jafaki’s exclusive patent is set to expire in 2028.
“The company has got great DNA and the ingredients for success are here. Just like with any company, you just have to convert the science into business results,” Meury said, pointing to promising studies from Incyte’s possible drug candidates.
“The company’s at a very pivotal point in its life as we try and launch the next series of innovative treatments,” Meury said. “My focus is on the employees and the people who use our products, and then all our stakeholders.”
Meury is stepping into the C-suite of a company not only looking to continue to solve and cure rare diseases, but one that is poised to help reshape Wilmington. Incyte is continuing to renovate the Bracebridge I and III buildings in Wilmington’s business district, bringing 400 employees from its offices in Pennsylvania to the First State with plans to hire 500 more over the years.
“I have an obligation to the community that serves us and what we serve. I think Hervé has established an excellent relationship at the local and state level. It’s incredibly important, and I’m glad I don’t have to create that, all I have to do is not damage it,” Meury said.
