Garraway, most recently Eli Lilly's senior vice president, oncology research and development and Lilly research laboratories novel target research, will take up the post as of Oct. 1 and be based in South San Francisco.

Horning, who joined Roche and its Genentech division nearly a decade ago and has been chief medical officer since 2014, will retire as of the end of 2019, Roche said in a statement.

She led the product development organisation, oversaw late-stage clinical development, and co-chaired the committee that invests in pivotal registrational trials.

Garraway joined Lilly in 2017 as senior vice president, global development and medical affairs for the oncology division. Before that he was director of the Joint Center for Cancer Precision Medicine, which spanned Harvard teaching hospitals.

In 2010, Garraway, a Harvard graduate, co-founded Foundation Medicine, which provides tumor molecular information.