Up until recently,
Alban de La Sablière
was
Sanofi
’s chief dealmaker, reporting directly to CEO
Paul Hudson
without officially being a C-suite executive.
That’s now changed with de La Sablière’s
newest position
at a much smaller French biotech, Sanofi partner
Owkin
. And to top it off, it’s his first job in the C-suite.
Tuesday was his first day as the chief business officer at Owkin, a now-transatlantic biotech with offices in both France and the US. Its emphasis in AI and a concept called “federated learning” earned a $270 million investment from the Big Pharma last year, with an eye to improving its odds in clinical development. The company has now inked other AI deals with other Big Pharma companies such as
Bristol Myers Squibb
.
A little introspection went a long way toward de La Sablière getting on board with Owkin.
“Personally, I was very happy at Sanofi,” de La Sablière tells
Endpoints News. “
But I was thinking about maybe having more direct impact. And I had discussions about what I could do with the rest of my life with the CEO and founder. And he told me, ‘Well, why don’t you join us?’”
De La Sablière’s background is not in biopharma — it’s in banking. The former BD chief spent close to two decades at
Morgan Stanley
as a managing director and M&A advisor before venturing over to Sanofi in 2016. As for what he learned, it’s not just M&A or deal making skills. Part of his experience, sitting on committees in looking at pharma companies at Morgan Stanley and advising on acquisitions, is that “even when you’re not an expert, you get a very good view of what it takes to develop a drug. Or in terms of what, what can go wrong, which is at least 30% of a job — is knowing what can go wrong.”
De La Sablière continued: “When you sign a big deal, you know, that deal is just a vision and a contract, and then you have a duty to implement it. And there’s gonna be a lot of twists and turns, because you’re planning for 10 years, and you can’t put 10 years in the contract.”
And based off what he has learned, he thinks it can apply well to where Owkin is right now as a growing company. But in his first days at his new role, the new executive noted that there are some decisions that have to be made pretty quickly.
“One thing — which is really top of mind — is how do we secure, identify assets which are out there to be in-licensed? We have a very specific, differentiated point of view, or expertise — which is, you know, our AI and data set,” the executive said, adding that he plans on bringing in assets for both Owkin and with partners.
Expect a bunch of BD and M&A deals with de La Sablière at Owkin — and with the biotech pivoting from consulting to starting to build out its own IP.
—
Paul Schloesser
→ Now that
Thomas Schinecker
is all set to take charge at
Roche
next year, the Swiss pharma giant says that
his in-house successor
as CEO of
Roche Diagnostics
,
Matt Sause
, will start on Jan. 1, 2023. The 45-year-old Sause joined Roche 20 years ago as a senior molecular account manager, and he would later become president of country operations in Peru and Korea, and VP and lifecycle leader for
Tecentriq
at
Genentech
. He took a short break from Roche as SVP and head of global commercial product strategy at
Gilead
before returning to run Roche Diagnostics’ North America region in November 2019, the title he holds for just a while longer. In July, Roche announced that CEO
Severin Schwan
would step down
and that Schinecker would take the top spot on March 15, 2023.
→
Assembly Biosciences
is waving goodbye
to its CEO
John McHutchison
as he heads towards retirement after a three-year stint with the company. Seizing the reins will be current president and COO
Jason
Okazaki
. The former Gilead vet is taking over during some turbulent times as the company
threw in the towel
on its HBV drug and laid off 30% of its staffers back in July. Okazaki joined Assembly Bio as chief legal and business officer in 2020 and was promoted to COO in 2021.
→ In June,
David de Graaf
stepped aside as CEO of
Abcuro
, which has its lead asset — an anti-KLRG1 antibody named
ABC008
— in early-stage trials for inclusion body myositis. Now a strategic advisor,
de Graaf’s successor is
Alex Martin
, the former chief executive at
Realm Therapeutics
who had been running the show at
Centessa
sub
Palladio Biosciences
. Centessa hit a huge pothole after Memorial Day,
scrapping its lead drug
lixivaptan
in an abrupt about-face when elevated liver enzymes in one patient forced the biotech’s hand,
a problem that befell
KalVista
earlier this week. The hospitalization occurred in the open-label ALERT study after Centessa had just started dosing in the Phase III ACTION study of the Palladio drug in February. A
$42 million “Series A-1”
in January 2021 gave Abcuro enough cash runway to last for two years, so we’ll see if another raise is upcoming under Martin’s leadership.
→
Grace Colón
, the CEO of
InCarda Therapeutics
since 2013, “intends to pursue other leadership opportunities within the life science space”
and has handed the keys
to
Robert Lisicki
. Everyone from
Doug Manion
to
Fabio Cataldi
has found their next landing spot after
Arena Pharmaceuticals
was sold to
Pfizer
, and you can add Lisicki to the list after serving as Arena’s chief commercial officer from March 2018
until the deal closed in March
. The former CCO of
Daiichi Sankyo
’s US cardiovascular and oncology areas, Lisicki has also been a general manager at
Amgen
and
Regeneron
.
→
Zosano Pharma
went belly-up
several months ago
, and its CEO
Steven Lo
has moved on to another gig with wet age-related macular degeneration biotech
Valitor
. Lo replaces
Wesley Jackson
, who’s now president and CSO, and Kyle LaHucik got a chance to speak with both when the UC Berkeley spinout
unveiled a $28 million Series B round
this week.
→
Fortress Biotech
’s gout and chronic kidney disease subsidiary
Urica Therapeutics
has poached
Jay Kranzler
from Pfizer as chairman and CEO. Kranzler was the pharma giant’s VP and global head of external R&D innovation and worldwide R&D strategic investments; he’s also founded and helmed
Cypress Bioscience
, which was sold to
Ramius
and
Royalty Pharma
back in 2010. One other Urica tidbit: Stanford’s
Vibeke Strand
now has a seat on the board of directors.
→ Former
J&J
exec
Seema Kumar
is donning the CEO cap
at
Deerfield Management
affiliate
Cure
, a healthcare innovation campus in NYC. Kumar’s nearly two-decade tenure at J&J culminated in her role as global head of the office of innovation, global health and scientific engagement. Prior to her gig at J&J, Kumar was the chief of staff and chief communications officer at MIT’s Whitehead Institute, having a hand in the Human Genome Project and the creation and launch of the Broad Institute.
→
Luke Walker
has split from
Seagen
, taking the CMO job at
Harpoon Therapeutics
after the June 1
resignation of his predecessor
,
Natalie Sacks
. Walker was the global development lead for
Tukysa
, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor approved for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer with chemo, and had been VP of clinical development since February. As Harpoon comes to grips
with the recent discontinuation
of
HPN424
, the will-they-won’t-they between
Merck
and Seagen on an M&A deal
has cooled substantially
, with
Bloomberg
reporting that the two companies are at an impasse on a price.
→ Ripping a page from
GSK
’s book
by pushing ahead
with the “New
Biohaven
” now that
Pfizer has taken control of the migraine franchise
,
Vlad Coric
has $248 million to work with and a pair of newcomers on staff. Ex-
Agios
CSO
Bruce Car
, a 19-year Bristol Myers veteran, has signed on as chief scientist, and
Tanya Fischer
takes the dual roles of chief development officer and head of translational medicine. A Bristol Myers alum in her own right, Fischer was VP, CNS and complement clinical development for
Alnylam
since January 2020. And as they pivot to neuroscience and rare disease, Coric promoted SVP of neurology
Irfan Qureshi
— a Biohaven exec since 2017 — to CMO.
→ Capturing our attention
as one of the Endpoints 11 this year
— and with ex-Pfizer CEO
Ian Read
in place as chairman —
Areteia Therapeutics
has installed
Eric Bradford
as CMO and
Robin Walker
as chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Bradford, an 18-year GSK vet, was VP of clinical development and then chief development officer of
Aeglea BioTherapeutics
, while Walker had held the roles of chief legal officer, chief compliance officer & corporate secretary at
Goldfinch Bio
since November 2020. Areteia came out blazing in July
with a $350 million raise
and is developing its lead drug
dexpramipexole
for eosinophilic asthma.
→
Greg Verdine
has nabbed
a 25-year Roche alum as his new chief scientist at GSK fungi partner
LifeMine Therapeutics
, which struck gold
with a $175 million Series C
in March.
Martin Stahl
may be leaving the Swiss pharma, but he’s staying in Basel at LifeMine’s European offices, breaking away from Roche after nearly four years as global head of lead discovery. LifeMine has also appointed
Louis Plamondon
as head of CMC after holding the same post at
Constellation Pharmaceuticals
. His earlier résumé is dotted with leadership positions at such companies as
Tetraphase
,
Karyopharm
and
Vertex
.
→
Samantha Truex
’s
Upstream Bio
has promoted
Jen Beachell
to COO and called upon
Mersedeh Miraliakbari
to be SVP, regulatory and quality. Originally jumping on board as chief commercial officer, Beachell had led commercial strategy for
Momenta
and was then VP of global commercial strategy, autoantibody disease area for
Janssen
when the
J&J buyout
closed. Miraliakbari’s regulatory background includes posts at
AstraZeneca
,
Teva
, J&J and, since 2018,
Nabriva Therapeutics
. Upstream
debuted with a $200 million Series A
with the one-time
Astellas
monoclonal antibody
UPB-101
in the spotlight to treat asthma and other inflammatory diseases.
Marcella Ruddy
,
Ian Pavord
and
Michael Wechsler
will also chime in as clinical advisors.
→ Endocrine disease biotech
Crinetics
has selected
Dana Pizzuti
as chief development officer. Pizzuti juggled the roles of CMO and SVP, development operations at
Ascendis Pharma
, a biotech that helped usher in an era of big raises after
positive data readouts
in March
with a $500 million offering
. She also brings regulatory experience from
J&J
,
Gilead
,
Rigel
and
Theravance Biopharma
.
→ Meanwhile, the Crinetics spinout
Radionetics Oncology
has enlisted
Umesh Gangadharmath
as SVP, technical operations. Gangadharmath had been COO of
Optimal Tracers
, ending a nine-year run overall at the radiopharma shop.
→ Going after Huntington’s and spinocerebellar ataxia types 3 and 1 with its lead program
VO659
under new chief executive
Micah Mackison
, Danish biotech
Vico Therapeutics
has picked up
Scott Schobel
as CMO. To conclude his nine years at Roche, Schobel was clinical science leader for its Huntington’s candidate
tominersen
and Alzheimer’s drug
gantenerumab
, which
has gotten its second wind
(or third, or fourth) thanks to developments like
Biogen
and
Eisai
’s
positive Phase III results
for
lecanemab
last week.
→
Evommune
has been making several key hires, and this week is no different at the inflammatory disease biotech with
Jeegar Patel
coming in
as CSO. As
Kadmon
’s SVP, research and nonclinical development, Patel’s work with the chronic graft-versus-host disease drug
Rezurock
propelled it
to an FDA approval in July 2021
, setting the stage for some M&A action with Sanofi
in a $1.9 billion deal
a couple months later. Evommune has also added CFO
Kyle Carver
and chief corporate strategy and legal office
r Greg Moss
to the squad this year.
→
Robert Hariri
’s
Celularity
, now hitching its wagon to allogeneic cell therapies,
has tapped
Adrian Kilcoyne
as CMO. Kilcoyne splits from
Humanigen
, where he held the same role for a year and a half, and he was the lymphoma program lead at
Celgene
before jumping over to AstraZeneca in 2019, eventually serving as the pharma giant’s VP of global oncology evidence generation and external alliances a year later. Celularity
also promoted
John Haines
to senior EVP, general manager and chief administrative officer, and
Brad Glover
to Haines’ old job as COO. Back when SPACs were really cooking (and hey, they’re trying
to elbow their way back into the conversation
in the case of
Estrella Biopharma
this week), Celularity linked arms with
GX Acquisition Corp.
in a $138 million merger
.
→
Absci
CEO
Sean McClain
had to make deep job cuts
in an August reorg
, but he’s made a senior leadership move
by recruiting
ex-
Shire
CMO and head of R&D
Andreas Busch
as chief innovation officer. Busch is a 10-year
Bayer
vet who had been CSO, chief innovation officer and head of the Innovation Center at
Cyclerion Therapeutics
. In a statement that eschewed the usual cookie-cutter language but didn’t specify the number of layoffs at Absci, McClain said, “I always knew that creating the impossible was going to be hard — however, parting ways with talented friends and colleagues is even harder.”
→
Cerevance
is helping Merck give it another try with Alzheimer’s
and enlisting
Ottavio Vitolo
as CMO. The former head of neuromuscular clinical research at Pfizer, Vitolo was previously the medical chief and global head of R&D for
Alcyone Therapeutics,
while other stops include
Homology Medicines
(VP, clinical development) and
Relmada Therapeutics
(head of R&D and CMO). This Alzheimer’s reclamation project comes four years after Merck stuck a fork in its BACE drug
verubecestat
.
→ Now led by ex
-Sierra Oncology
chief
Stephen Dilly
, enzyme engineering outfit
Codexis
has brought in a familiar face
as COO. Genentech alum
Kevin Norrett
spent the last two years as CBO of Sierra, which GSK
purchased for $1.9 billion
in April, and he had a yearlong stint as chief commercial officer of
Angion Biomedica
. On top of that, Codexis
is bolstering
its board of directors by pulling up a chair for
Resilience
CEO
Rahul Singhvi
.
→ Targeting such neuro indications as Huntington’s disease and ALS with its lead candidate
pridopidine
,
Prilenia
has welcomed
Anne Sullivan
as CBO. Sullivan was the business chief for
Rodin Therapeutics
when
Alkermes
bought the biotech in 2019
, and she’s been a corporate development exec for
Sea Pharmaceuticals
and
Sunovion Pharmaceuticals
. Prilenia gave itself some financial wiggle room in November 2021
with a $43 million Series B raise
.
→ T cell therapy-focused
BlueSphere Bio
has promoted
Keir Loiacono
to the role of CEO. Loiacono had just joined the company last year as CBO. Prior to his role at BlueSphere, Loiacono was VP of business development and general counsel of
OncoSec
Medical
. Loiacono has also served at
Advaxis
and
Orapharma
and sits on the board of
EpiAxis
Therapeutics
.
→ A pair of execs
has been promoted
at
AviadoBio
, a London gene therapy player that
unsealed an $80 million Series A round
in December 2021. COO
Graeme Fielder
had been head of operations for two years, and he took on several corporate development roles at
Audentes
from 2015-20. Chief technical officer
Alex Bloom
was brought into the fold as SVP of technical operations just before the Series A was announced; he had previously been in charge of regulatory affairs and quality assurance at
Gyroscope
.
→ Trying to assuage the FDA’s concerns about its microbiome therapy
MaaT013
that’s still on clinical hold in the US
, French biotech
MaaT Pharma
has lined up
Nathalie Corvaïa
as CSO. Corvaïa had led immuno-oncology research at The Pierre Fabre Immunology Center and was previously the institute’s managing director and research director.
→ Competing with the aforementioned KalVista in the hereditary angioedema space, Swiss biotech
Pharvaris
has upgraded
Annick Deschoolmeester
to chief human resources officer. Deschoolmeester joined Pharvaris as head of HR last year from
Takeda
, where she was head of global learning and talent management after a gig as the Japanese pharma’s HR business leader, plasma derived therapies. She’s also been a human resources exec at
Allergan
.
→ Dublin-based
Trinity Biotech
has reeled in
Aris Kekedjian
as CEO and chairman. Kekedjian succeeds
Ronan O’Caoimh
, who will remain on the company’s board. Most recently, Kekedjian served as president and CEO of
Icahn Enterprises
. Additionally, Kekedjian had a three decade-long stint at
General Electric
and has held roles at
Xerox
,
Finserv
and
XPO
Logistics
.
→ San Diego protein degradation outfit
Plexium
, which clinched a deal with
AbbVie
in April
for $35 million upfront
after
teaming up with Amgen
on “molecular glues” nearly three months earlier,
has named
Suzanne Zoumaras
as head of human resources. Zoumaras, the co-founder of
Human Capital Resource Partners
, was chief human capital officer at Arena Pharmaceuticals from 2019-21.
→ Staying in the protein degradation space,
Arvinas
has plucked
Paul McInulty
from Bristol Myers, naming him SVP, regulatory affairs. McInulty climbed through the regulatory ranks at Celgene, and after the buyout, he was Bristol Myers’ VP, therapeutic head, hematology and precision medicines regulatory affairs. In July 2021, Pfizer reupped its alliance with Arvinas by
plunking down $1 billion
with the potential for another $1.4 billion in milestones.
→
Frazier Life Sciences
has appointed
Jan Møller Mikkelsen
as a senior advisor. Mikkelsen has been president and CEO of Ascendis Pharma since he founded the company in 2007, and he’s chairman of the board at
Hummingbird Bioscience
.
→ With her days at Novartis behind her,
Suzanne Schaffert
has picked up another board seat, this time at
Incyte
. Schaffert and
John Tsai
were let go as part of a high-profile restructuring that
Vas Narasimhan
instituted at Novartis this spring
, but she reemerged in Peer Review
when she became a board member
at
Rubius Therapeutics
in July. Her association with the Big Pharma had dated back to 1995, when she arrived as a sales representative.
→ US-Swiss LILRB (leukocyte immunoglobulin-like) biotech
ImmunOs Therapeutics
has made room for
Joseph Leveque
on the board of directors. Leveque is the ex-medical chief at
Mirati
and
Synthorx
who’s now the CMO at
Medikine
, which is developing an IL-7 mimetic named
MDK-703
.
→
Lalo Flores
has expanded the board of directors
at
Century Therapeutics
to eight members with the additions of
Amicus
CFO
Daphne Quimi
and
Horizon
CEO
Tim Walbert
. They join a board that also includes former
Kite
COO and CFO
Cynthia Butitta
, ex-
Novartis
chief
Joe Jimenez
and
Versant
’s
Carlo Rizzuto
.
→
James Dentzer
is headed to
the board of directors at
Imunon
, the New Jersey biotech once known as
Celsion
that’s now led by ex-
Moderna
commercial chief
Corinne Le Goff
. The former Amicus and
Dicerna
CFO has been chief executive at
Curis
since September 2018.
→ Sanofi vet and ex-
Onxeo
chair
Danièle Guyot-Caparros
is replacing
Viviane Monges
on the board of directors at peanut patch developer
DBV Technologies
. Humanigen COO and CFO
Tim Morris
will chair DBV’s audit committee in Monges’ stead.
→ Dallas-based
Secretome Therapeutics
is saddling up
Angela Shen
with a seat on its board of directors. Shen currently serves as VP, strategic innovation leaders at Mass General Brigham. Shen also comes with a hefty résumé with stints as CMO of several companies, including
Walking
Fish
,
Arcellx
,
Nkarta
, Arvinas and
Tizona
. Earlier in her career, Shen had gigs at Novartis,
Exelixis
and J&J.
→
PaxMedica
is welcoming aboard
a new face on its board of directors with the appointment of
Charles
Casamento
. This is far from Casamento’s first board appointment, currently sitting on the boards of
Eton Pharmaceuticals
,
First Wave Biopharma
and
Relmada Therapeutics
.