By Tarini Parti and Anna Palmer, POLITICO
“VAN PELT TO NOVARTIS: Veteran Merck lobbyist Jason Van Pelt is leaving the pharmaceutical company after 11 years to join Novartis as executive director. Van Pelt, a former staffer to Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), most recently served as executive director and counsel at Merck. His Merck colleagues and fellow downtowners feted his move Wednesday night at Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab. Spotted: Merck’s Eli Joseph, Erin Darling, Katie Oppenheim and Victoria Adams. Also in the mix: Victoria Blatter of Amgen, Dan Casserly of Novartis, Andrew Kaplan of AbbVie, Brent DelMonte of BIO, Jennifer Romans of PhRMA, Anne Esposito of Ikaria, Matt Schumaker of Celgene, Mat Lapinski of Crossroads Strategies and Jon Groteboer of Harvard.”
