Recursion Welcomes Najat Khan as Chief R&D and Commercial Leader, Bolstering TechBio Drug Discovery Vision

A Strategic Leadership Move in Drug Discovery Innovation

Recursion Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: RXRX) has unveiled a major leadership appointment that signals the clinical-stage TechBio company’s commitment to scaling its drug discovery platform. Najat Khan, PhD, joins as Chief R&D Officer and Chief Commercial Officer, bringing deep expertise from Johnson & Johnson’s Innovative Medicine division. She will also take a seat on Recursion’s Board of Directors.

The appointment marks a pivotal moment for Recursion, which operates an advanced computational platform designed to decode biology and industrialize the drug development process. By combining massive experimental scale with cutting-edge machine learning, the company aims to accelerate the creation of transformative medicines. Khan’s leadership, particularly in data science and commercial strategy, positions her to drive both Recursion’s research pipeline and emerging market capabilities.

From J&J to the TechBio Frontier

Khan’s career trajectory demonstrates a rare blend of scientific rigor and business acumen. At Johnson & Johnson, she served as Chief Data Science Officer and Global Head of Strategy and Portfolio for Innovative Medicine R&D—a role that placed her at the intersection of biology, chemistry, computational science, and organizational leadership. During her tenure, she was instrumental in building an industry-leading pharmaceutical pipeline that delivered multiple transformational medicines.

More significantly, Khan has been a pioneer in scaling data science and AI across one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. She established and led a top-tier data science team while co-chairing J&J’s Data Science Council, where she championed best practices in AI ethics, talent recruitment, and enterprise data deployment. Her background includes a doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania (combining experimental and computational approaches), an undergraduate degree in Computational Chemistry from Colgate University, and publications in high-impact scientific journals.

Why This Matters for Recursion

Chris Gibson, Recursion’s Co-Founder and CEO, emphasized Khan’s strategic fit: “Najat brings a unique blend of leadership in biological, chemical, and medical sciences, data science, and business. She shares our vision for transforming drug discovery and has an urgency to accelerate the industry’s future.”

Khan herself sees the alignment as natural. “My mission has been to harness science, data, and AI to revolutionize how we discover, develop, and deliver medicines,” she stated. “Recursion’s approach to decode biology and chemistry represents the future of the industry. I’m thrilled to be part of this mission.”

Beyond her role at Recursion, Khan serves as a board member for the Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and contributes to the White House’s Moonshot CancerX program. She also founded and co-chairs DISRUPT (Data Science in Industry Roundtable), a cross-industry forum focused on driving measurable impact through data science applications.

The TechBio Vision Takes Shape

The move reflects broader industry momentum toward AI-enabled drug discovery. Dean Li, Recursion’s Co-Founder and President of Merck Research Laboratories, welcomed Khan to the board, noting that her insights will prove invaluable as the industry enters the era of computational drug development. “Najat shares our outlook on how the industry needs to evolve,” Li stated, underscoring the strategic nature of the appointment.

Recursion’s platform—the Recursion OS—enables its mission through proprietary biological and chemical datasets continuously expanded through millions of weekly wet lab experiments and sophisticated machine learning. Operating one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, the company positions itself as uniquely equipped to advance AI-driven pharmaceutical innovation.

With Khan now helming both R&D and commercial strategy, Recursion signals its readiness to move beyond platform innovation into real-world drug pipeline expansion and market deployment.