Vertex CEO Leiden Plans to Step Down After Stock’s 400% Climb

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Leiden will move to the executive chairman role next spring, marking a transition for the biotechnology company and its widely admired leader.

Chief Medical Officer Reshma Kewalramani will succeed Leiden as Vertex’s CEO, the company said in a statement, when he steps down from the post effective in April 2020. Kewalramani joined Vertex in February 2017 after spending more than 12 years at Amgen Inc. in a variety of research-and-development roles.

Leiden, 63, has presided over a period of robust growth at Vertex, which has three approved treatments for cystic fibrosis, a rare ...