Professor Martin Cowie has resigned as non-executive director of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to join pharma giant AstraZeneca.
He was appointed as a non-executive director of the NICE board in 2016 and leaves shortly before his four-year term of office was due to end.
NICE chief executive Gillian Leng said: “Martin has played a key role on the NICE board for nearly four years and I would like to publicly thank him for the enthusiasm and expertise he brought to this important position. We will miss his insightful challenge on the board.
“I know in his new role he will be heading up research in the area of heart failure and cardiology, which he is so passionate about.”
NICE chairman Sharmila Nebhrajani added: “In the short time Martin and I have worked together I have appreciated both his clinical wisdom and his understanding of the potential for new technologies to revolutionise medical practice. He has been a hugely valued board colleague and I wish him every success in his new role.”
In his resignation letter, Cowie wrote: “It has been an enormous pleasure to work with NICE over the past 20 years (and the last four as a board member), and I know that it is safe in your and Gill’s hands, with a very strong and competent senior management team, as it moved into all the challenges of the Covid-19 era and beyond.”
Cowie joins AstraZeneca as the company’s chief physician scientist – heart failure.