South San Francisco, Calif. – September 28, 2026 -- IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDYA) promoted Dr. Michael White from Chief Scientific Officer to President, Research and Development, effective September 28, 2026.
White expands authority over IDEAYA's oncology pipeline after five years as CSO
Dr. White has served as Chief Scientific Officer at IDEAYA since 2021, overseeing research into synthetic lethality and antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) programs targeting solid tumors. The precision medicine oncology company's pipeline spans multiple indications, including uveal melanoma, pancreatic cancer, small cell lung cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer and breast cancer.
New president brings prior Pfizer and NCI credentials to expanded role
Before joining IDEAYA, Dr. White served as Chief Scientific Officer and Head of Tumor Biology at Pfizer, Inc., where he built an oncology small-molecule clinical pipeline that produced multiple INDs and late-stage development programs. He spent more than two decades in academia at UT Southwestern as a Professor of Cell Biology and founding Director of the Cancer Intervention and Prevention Discovery Program. In 2015, he received the inaugural Outstanding Investigator's Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and has authored over 150 publications cited more than 30,000 times.
CEO frames promotion as continuity for late-stage and early-stage programs
Yujiro S. Hata, President and Chief Executive Officer of IDEAYA Biosciences, said the promotion reflects White's leadership in advancing the company's precision medicine oncology pipeline across multiple solid tumor indications. Dr. White stated he intends to accelerate delivery of small molecules and antibody-drug conjugates for molecularly defined cancers.