After about six years in the job, Amgen’s finance chief has written a letter announcing his departure from the California drugmaker by early next year.
Amgen announced in a release this week that Peter Griffiths, who became Amgen’s chief financial officer in 2020, will retire at the end of August, and will be replaced by former corporate finance chief Thomas Dietrich, effective September 1.
Dietrich, who most recently held the same role at Swiss dermatologist Galderma, will officially become CFO in September, while Griffiths will remain at Amgen until January to help with the transition process, the company announced.
Mr. Dietrich held a number of “senior financial positions” at Amgen before departing for the broader world of biopharmaceuticals. Dietrich, who also previously worked at Shire and Sulzer, now returns to the company with nearly 30 years of leadership expertise and a deep understanding of the “consumer-centric healthcare market,” Amgen added.
To lure Mr. Dietrich back to the company, Amgen is offering to provide him with a one-time stock award of 4.7 million Swiss francs vested at 25% annually from the date of grant, as part of Galderma’s compensation to the executive for “stranded stock and incentive compensation,” according to an Amgen securities filing (PDF).
Amgen also gave Mr. Dietrich a cash bonus of CHF4 million ($5 million) “as part of his employment in Switzerland” and a separate “two-year one-off retention bonus” worth CHF5.8 million ($7.3 million).
As an entry-level employee, Dietrich will receive an annual base salary of 1.07 million Swiss francs (approximately $1.4 million) and will be eligible for Amgen’s incentive-based payment program, the company said.
He will receive a smaller “relocation allowance” in consideration of his eventual CFO position in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Amgen’s home base, according to the filing.
In a statement Tuesday, Amgen CEO Robert Bradway thanked the outgoing Mr. Griffiths for his work as chief financial officer, saying, “Peter has worked tirelessly to position Amgen for attractive long-term growth and expand our ability to serve patients in the coming years.”
Mr. Griffith’s departure comes after Amgen reported late last month that first-quarter sales rose 6% from a year earlier to $8.6 billion, even as sales of the company’s osteoporosis drug Prolia plummeted amid mounting pressure from biosimilars.
Still, Bradway declared on a conference call in April that 2026 will be a “breakthrough year” for the company, with growth from new medicines likely to offset the squeeze in sales from patent expirations like Prolia.
Amgen’s PCSK9 heart drug Repatha led sales in the first quarter, with sales up 34% to $877 million in the period. The company expects revenue for all of 2026 to be between $37.1 billion and $38.5 billion, compared to $36.8 billion last year.
Other management changes are underway at Amgen this year.
Late last month, the company announced that Chief Technology Officer Dr. David Reese will also retire at the end of June, ending a career with the company that began in 2005.
Reese’s impending departure was announced in conjunction with several other role changes at the company, with chief investigator James Bradner, M.D., becoming vice president of research, development, artificial intelligence and data, while Amgen sales chief Mardo Gordon will become Amgen’s vice president of global markets and policy, with responsibility for healthcare, commercial affairs, government affairs and policy.
The chief technology officer position vacated by Reese will be filled by Sean Bruich, currently the company’s SVP of artificial intelligence and data.
As for Dietrich’s recent goodwill, Galderma, the last pit stop of his career, has been on a roll lately thanks to the strong launch of inflammatory skin disease drug Nemrubio.
The company doubled its previous peak annual sales forecast for the drug, approved for atopic dermatitis and prurigo nodularis, to more than $4 billion in March, after Nemulvio delivered impressive results in its first full year on the market. In 2025, sales of the drug reached $425 million, with growth accelerating dramatically in the second half of the year.
