Merck has appointed Roger M. Perlmutter, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president and president of Merck Research Laboratories (MRL), effective April 15. Dr. Perlmutter will succeed Peter S. Kim, Ph.D., who has served in the role since 2003. To ensure a seamless transition, Dr. Perlmutter and Dr. Kim will work closely together for an initial period, after which Dr. Kim will remain with the company as an advisor until his retirement in August.

"Roger is a world-class physician-scientist with a proven track record of leading large research organizations and delivering a broad and diverse pipeline of medicines," said Kenneth C. Frazier, chairman and CEO of Merck. "With his deep knowledge of the ongoing changes in the industry's external environment and their implications for how we use R&D resources, Roger is ideally suited to lead Merck's global research and development."

Dr. Perlmutter was executive vice president and head of R&D at Amgen from 2001 to 2012. Previously, he was executive vice president of worldwide basic research and preclinical development at Merck. He joined Merck in 1997.

Before that, Dr. Perlmutter was a professor in the departments of immunology, biochemistry and medicine at the University of Washington, where he also served as chairman of the Department of Immunology and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.