ONE MORE MOVE At least one other ex-DuPont executive is on the move. Richard U. De Schutter, the former president, executive chairman, and CEO of DuPont Pharmaceuticals, has been appointed to the board of Varian, the scientific instrument maker. De Schutter served as CEO of G. D. Searle before joining DuPont Pharmaceuticals in 2000.

Paul A. Friedman, 58, president of DuPont Pharmaceuticals Research Laboratories until its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb in October, will be Incyte's CEO. Robert Stein, 51, executive vice president of research and preclinical development at DuPont Pharmaceuticals, has been chosen as Incyte's president and chief scientific officer. Both men have worked together not only at DuPont, where they helped to develop Sustiva, the company's AIDS treatment, but also at Merck (which at one time was in a joint pharmaceutical venture with DuPont).

Roy A. Whitfield, Incyte's cofounder and outgoing CEO, has been elected chairman of the board. He says Incyte's strong intellectual property position will provide Friedman and Stein with opportunities to expand its database and licensing business as well as to develop new therapeutic agents.

The appointments are in line with Incyte's intentions--made clear early this year--to leverage its genomics knowledge into the more profitable drug development arena. The company believes this is the next logical step in utilizing its large intellectual property base and its understanding of gene transcripts and proteins.

In expanding its focus to include the discovery and development of drugs, Incyte has entered into partnerships with Lexicon Genetics and Medarex that are expected to yield commercial pharmaceutical products.

At the same time, Celera and Human Genome Sciences, Incyte's chief genomics rivals, have also taken steps to leverage their genomics capabilities to identify drug targets and new drug candidates.

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