Despite an ongoing ebb and flow in their representation at the highest levels of leadership, women continue to shatter glass ceilings.

Even as the first female vice president in U.S. history left office at the start of this year, for example, the recent elections of female governors in New Jersey and Virginia—a first for the latter—are set to result, once they take office next year, in the most women to ever serve simultaneously as governors in the U.S.

A similar push-and-pull is happening in the life sciences industry. While 2025 saw two members of the already small pool of women leading major pharmas announce their departures—GSK’s Emma Walmsley and Merck KGaA’s Belén Garijo—other biopharmas have recently named female leaders of their own.

Takeda, for one, is set to welcome Julie Kim as CEO next summer, while one of the honorees in this report, Najat Khan, Ph.D., will take on the chief executive role at Recursion Pharmaceuticals at the start of 2026. Meanwhile, Reshma Kewalramani, M.D., another of this year’s Fiercest Women in Life Sciences, is holding steady at the helm of Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Read more at: https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/2025s-fiercest-women-life-sciences