Alan Bash
is joining
Legend Biotech
as its president of
Carvykti
, an unconventional,
newly-created role
to oversee the commercial future of the biotech’s sole marketed cell therapy, among other aspects.
Legend is developing Carvykti in partnership with
Johnson & Johnson
, which reported $286 million in sales in the third quarter. The BCMA-targeted cell therapy is expected to grow into a blockbuster multiple myeloma treatment — in large part as a result of a
label expansion
to earlier-line patients in April.
Legend said in its press release that Bash’s new role will be to oversee Carvykti’s “commercial, technical operations, and quality functions.” Despite impressive results reported from the drug’s clinical studies, Legend and J&J have
struggled
to meet the commercial demand for the cell therapy.
Carvykti has pulled ahead in a field that includes
Bristol Myers Squibb
’s
Abecma
. But it faces an up-and-coming challenger in
Gilead
and
Arcellx
: The two companies announced on Tuesday that they had dosed the first patient in a Phase 3 trial of their experimental cell therapy
anito-cel
, which they say does not come with certain neurotoxicities reported with Carvykti.
Bash had joined targeted therapeutics biotech
ZielBio
as CEO in early 2023. Before that, he was briefly head of
Checkmate Pharmaceuticals
as the immuno-oncology biotech
sold
to
Regeneron
for $250 million in cash.
—
Lei Lei Wu
→
Novo Nordisk
said in its Q3 report
that North America head
Doug Langa
will step aside at the end of the year “in order to focus on personal priorities and take up a role as senior advisor to Novo Nordisk’s executive management.” Novo has installed corporate development chief
Dave Moore
as the head of US commercial operations, while CFO
Karsten Munk Knudsen
will orchestrate the Danish pharma’s corporate strategy. Two days after the FDA declared that
Ozempic
and
Wegovy
were available
in all doses, Novo’s
semaglutide
was on the march again,
generating
positive results in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and setting up a possible showdown with
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals
in an indication also referred to as NASH.
→
Moderna
CEO
Stéphane Bancel
had been in charge of commercial operations since last December, when the company
parted ways
with chief commercial officer
Arpa Garay
. Bancel is now handing over those duties to president
Stephen Hoge
at Moderna, which made
several other changes
to its leadership team.
Rose Loughlin
, the SVP of research and early development, has been elevated to EVP of research. She came to Moderna from
Biogen
in 2016 as director of business development. Elsewhere, longtime
GSK
vet
Jacqueline Miller
has been promoted to CMO at the Covid vaccine titan after she had been SVP and therapeutic area head for infectious diseases. Finally, HR chief
Tracey Franklin
has expanded the scope of her responsibilities, becoming chief people and digital technology officer. She was chief HR talent and strategy officer at the end of her 14-year career at
Merck
.
Moderna’s late entry into the RSV race produced only
$10 million
in third-quarter sales for the vaccine, miles behind the market leaders GSK and
Pfizer
, who haven’t exactly been scorching the nets themselves. But Moderna did turn in a profit as its shares
$MRNA
received a momentary boost before falling 3% on Thursday.
→
Axel Sven Malkomes
will be the next CFO
of German mRNA vaccine maker
CureVac
on Nov. 11. He succeeds
Pierre Kemula
, who just started his new CFO gig at
Agomab
. Malkomes is the ex-finance chief at two other German companies:
Cardior Pharmaceuticals
, the heart disease biotech that Novo Nordisk
bought
in March for $1.1 billion; and
BioNTech
’s TCR partner
Medigene
. He’s also a board member at
Cellectis
. In July, CureVac said it would lay off 30% of its employees as GSK shelled out $429 million upfront for full control of the pair’s flu and Covid vaccine candidates. “It’s never nice to have this kind of news, but I do believe we need to do it now out of a position of financial strength,” CureVac CEO
Alexander Zehnder
told
Endpoints News
when the job cuts were announced.
→ Another notable CFO hire
comes from
Seaport Therapeutics
, the
Endpoints 11 winner
that followed up its
$100 million launch round
with a $225 million Series B haul a few weeks ago.
Lauren White
had held this role for nine months at
Elahere
developer
ImmunoGen
, which was purchased by
AbbVie
for $10.1 billion
. She landed her first CFO job at
C4 Therapeutics
in June 2021 after nine years at the
Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research
. Are IPO plans not far behind? Time will tell. “I’m enjoying my brief hiatus as a private CEO right now,” Seaport chief
Daphne Zohar
said in an interview
with Endpoints.
→ Swedish rare disease specialist
Sobi
has nominated
David Meek
as chairman of the board. Not long after Meek’s
departure
as CEO of
Mirati
, Bristol Myers swooped in to buy the company and its KRAS drug
Krazati
to compete with
Amgen
’s
Lumakras
in the space. Meek has also held the top spot at
Ipsen
and
FerGene
, and has board seats at
uniQure
and
Cullinan Therapeutics
.
→
Mene Pangalos
is the newest
board member at
Quotient Therapeutics
, a
Flagship
joint that debuted last year and teamed up with Pfizer in August. Since his retirement from
AstraZeneca
, Pangalos has picked up a board seat at
Absci
and
will join
the board of directors at Biogen in January. He’s also on the scientific advisory board at
Demis Hassabis
’
Isomorphic Labs.
(By the way,
check out this week’s Q&A
with Hassabis and Andrew Dunn from the
Financial Times
’ Global Pharma and Biotech Summit.)
→ After
losing its former CEO
Raj Kannan
back in July,
I-Mab
has now locked
Sean Fu
into the position. Fu has been serving in the interim since Kannan’s exit. Prior to I-Mab, Fu was operating partner of
ABio-X
and CEO of
RVAC Medicines
and
GeneLeap
. Earlier in his career, Fu was with Merck, where he helped lead the integration work of the company following its $42 billion merger with
Schering-Plough
. It’s been quite a year for I-Mab: Back in April, the company officially
spun out
its China operations into a new company,
I-Mab Biopharma (Hangzhou)
, in a bid to win over investors.
→
Verrica Pharmaceuticals
CEO
Ted White
is out after
data
for its basal cell carcinoma candidate
VP-315
failed to move the needle with investors and
job cuts affected
47 staffers. Verrica also drastically reduced its sales presence for its molluscum contagiosum drug
Ycanth
, from 80 sales territories to 35. In walks
Jayson Rieger
as president and CEO, and
John Kirby
as interim finance chief to lead a “leaner and more efficient operating structure,” as chairman
Paul Manning
put it
. Rieger has spent more than a decade with
PBM Capital
, while Kirby is the former CFO of
Aceragen
and
Idera Pharmaceuticals
.
→ London-based protein degradation biotech
Kesmalea Therapeutics
has recruited
Robert Johnson
to steer the
Syncona
-backed company as CEO. Johnson’s résumé includes stints as CEO of
Adrestia Therapeutics
(acquired by
Insmed
) and co-founder and CBO of Boston-based gene therapy company
Affinia
Therapeutics
.
→
ElevateBio
’s gene editing sub
Life Edit
has welcomed
Amy Pooler
as SVP of R&D. Pooler was VP of neuroscience and head of research in her tenure with
Sangamo Therapeutics
. While ElevateBio
has made
eye-popping
financing rounds
routine, Life Edit
formed
separate partnerships with
Moderna
and
Novo Nordisk
in quick succession last year.
→
Acumen Pharmaceuticals
’ regulatory affairs leader
Janice Hitchcock
will retire “at the end of the year,” and
Amy Schacterle
has been named
chief regulatory officer & head of quality at the Alzheimer’s biotech. Schacterle and Acumen president/chief development officer
Jim Doherty
were colleagues at
Sage Therapeutics
— Schacterle recently left Sage as part of the latest wave of job cuts after the company said
it would no longer develop
zuranolone
for major depressive disorder. Acumen is testing its monoclonal antibody
sabirnetug
in patients with early Alzheimer’s.
→ The latest hires at Dublin-headquartered
SynOx Therapeutics
are based in the US: Medical chief
Elyse Seltzer
held multiple roles at GSK and is the former chief development officer at
UroGen Pharma
, while chief commercial officer
Robert Francomano
was appointed to the same position at
Stemline Therapeutics
and
Sellas Life Sciences
. “We are thrilled to welcome Elyse and Robert to the SynOx leadership team as we continue to work to strategically build out our presence within the key US market,” CEO
Ray Barlow
said in a statement
. SynOx’s $92 million
Series B
includes a
$17 million extension
from
Gilde Healthcare
.
→
MaaT Pharma
has recruited
Eric Soyer
to succeed
Siân Crouzet
as finance chief. Crouzet spent the last eight years as CFO and will now be MaaT Pharma’s chief of staff. Soyer had been CFO and COO at another French biotech,
Erytech Pharma
. His new company’s lead program
MaaT013
is in a Phase 3 study for acute graft-versus-host disease.
→
Frits van Alphen
has replaced
Gerald Parzmair
as chief development officer of
Memo Therapeutics
, a Swiss biotech that pulled together
a total of $49 million
for its Series C. After eight years at
Novartis
, van Alphen would go on to be CMO of
Vifor Pharma
from 2008-13 and Swiss-based
Inositec
, the undercard in Vifor’s M&A spree
that included
Sanifit
in late 2021. He also worked for
Roche
as global head of product development excellence in between these two CMO gigs.
→ Synthetic lethality player
Tessellate BIO
has selected
Lara Boyd
as CBO. Boyd had a six-year run with
Takeda
partner
F-star Therapeutics
and was elevated to VP, head of business development & corporate strategy in May 2023. Former F-star boss
Eliot Forster
chairs the board at Tessellate BIO, which
raised
$8 million in seed funding from
BioGeneration Ventures
and
Forbion
.
→ La Jolla, CA-based I&I biotech
CalciMedica
has tapped
Stephen Bardin
as CFO, replacing interim finance chief
Daniel Geffken
. Earlier this year, Peer Review
covered
Bardin’s departure as CFO of
atai Life Sciences
, a position now held by
Anne Johnson
. He’s also worked for
Myovant Sciences
as director of corporate development and
BridgeBio
as SVP of finance and operations.
→
Joe Truluck
has turned in
his resignation as CFO of
Adial Pharmaceuticals
, and
Vinay Shah
will replace him on Nov. 16.
We told you
about Shah’s last CFO appointment at
Virpax Pharmaceuticals
in June 2023 and he’s had the same title at
Aravive
. Truluck will stay with Adial as a consultant until March 31.
→
Claudia Lopez
has joined
Seattle-based breast cancer biotech
Atossa Therapeutics
as VP, clinical product development. Lopez led the clinical development team at another AbbVie
M&A pickup
,
Landos Biopharma
, and the 16-year Takeda vet also spent two years with
Arena Pharmaceuticals
.
→
Tony Gibney
has been named
chairman of the board at
Clearside Biomedical
, which
unspooled
positive Phase 2b data last month for its suprachoroidal injection of
axitinib
called
CLS-AX
in patients with wet AMD. Gibney tackled the role of chief business & strategy officer at
Iveric Bio
until
it was sold
to
Astellas
last year for $5.9 billion.
→ Radiotherapy specialist
Actinium Pharmaceuticals
has elected
June Almenoff
to the board of directors. Almenoff, a GSK alum and the ex-president/CMO at
Furiex Pharmaceuticals
, is also on the boards of
Avalo Therapeutics
and
Tenax Therapeutics
.
→
Heron Therapeutics
has reserved a seat
on its board of directors for
Liquidia
CFO and COO
Michael Kaseta
. Before his gig with Liquidia, Kaseta was CFO at
Aerami Therapeutics
and
Aralez
Pharmaceuticals
, as well as North American CFO, global services over a decade with
Sanofi
.