→ Last week we
told you
about the CMO revolving door at
ADC Therapeutics
, as
Joseph Camardo
replaced
the departing
Jay Feingold
. The next opportunity for Feingold in the CMO slot
has opened up
at antibody-drug conjugate and mAb developer
Pyxis Oncology
, which has added several new execs and scientific advisory board members in recent months, including ex-
Immunovant
CFO
Pamela Yanchik Connealy
. Before his tenure at ADC, Feingold was
Daiichi Sankyo
’s VP of US medical affairs and chairman of the Global Medical Affairs Oversight Committee. Within weeks in March, Pyxis struck a licensing deal with
Pfizer
for two of its ADCs and
raked in
$152 million from a Series B round.
→ Meanwhile, Immunovant has found Connealy’s replacement,
selecting
Renee Barnett
as finance chief a month after
Roivant
decided
to pump $200 million into a member of
Vivek Ramaswamy
’s Vant family that has wrestled with trial suspensions and freefalling stocks. Until now the chief integration officer at telemental health provider
AbleTo
, Barnett has spent a large portion of her career at
Eli Lilly
, rising to CFO of Austria & Switzerland and later director of financial planning & analysis. LDL levels (the bad cholesterol) shot up considerably in patients on the high and low doses of Immunovant’s antibody
IMVT-1401
for thyroid eye disease
in February
, and new data in June
did little
to quell concerns even as Immunovant also forges ahead with IMVT-1401 in myasthenia gravis and warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia (WAIHA).
→
Robert Hariri
has a new president
working alongside him at New Jersey-based
Celularity
, another biotech that chose the SPAC route to gallop into Nasdaq — doing so here with
GX Acquisition Corp
. A hematologist and oncologist,
Andrew Pecora
was president of the Physician Enterprise and chief innovation officer at Hackensack Meridian Health, and he co-founded, chaired and helmed
Progenitor Cell Therapy
. When the merger closed in July, Hariri
told
our Amber Tong that Celularity had waved the white flag on its Covid-19 efforts with its NK cell therapy approach: “The change in management of patients at the hospital setting made it very very difficult to find patients who met the inclusion criteria,” he said.
→ One month separates big hires at San Francisco’s
AltruBio
, with
Jesse Hall
joining
Judy Chou
’s squad as CMO following the introduction of CFO
Jeroen Grasman
in early August. Since 2018, Hall was CMO for
Sublimity Therapeutics
before taking on the same role at AltruBio, which
brought in
a $63 million Series A haul in the spring and has a Phase Ib study underway for graft-versus-host disease with its lead drug
neihulizumab
. From 2009-13, Hall was a medical director at
Amgen
before becoming an executive medical director at
Ardea Biosciences
.
→ San Diego precision oncology biotech
Lengo Therapeutics
— where
Dave Johnson
and
Enoch Kariuki
have reunited as chairman
and CEO
respectively after their
VelosBio
days — has three new execs on the roster,
including
another familiar face.
Ingrid Simms
(SVP and principal accounting officer) held the same title at VelosBio and from 2013-20 was the VP of finance for
Alder BioPharmaceuticals
.
Paul Pearson
(chief of development) was executive director of preclinical drug metabolism during his years at
Merck Research Laboratories
, and later became Amgen’s global head of pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism. And the 11 years at Pfizer’s La Jolla Laboratories for
Eric Gruff
(SVP of CMC) culminated in his role as research team leader in development of diabetes and frailty (muscle wasting) therapies.
→ By raising a substantial chunk of change for its
Series B
in August,
Jeffrey Bluestone
’s
Sonoma Biotherapeutics
has 265 million reasons to grab everyone’s attention, and this week Sonoma
has pulled in
Doug Sheehy
as chief legal officer and secretary. The ex-general counsel and secretary at
Aimmune
, Sheehy also devoted nine years to
Codexis
, where he was EVP, chief administrative officer, general counsel and secretary.
→ CNS disease-focused
Autobahn Therapeutics
out of San Diego, lifting the lid in June 2020 with a $76 million
round
headlined by
ARCH
and
Cowen
,
has tapped
Gudarz Davar
as CMO and promoted
Chan Beals
to SVP, chief of translational medicine. Davar — who can sing his own verses of Johnny Cash’s “I’ve Been Everywhere” with stints at Amgen,
Allergan
and
Biogen
under his belt — just led R&D for a year at
Acadia Pharmaceuticals
after he was in charge of global neurology clinical development at Eli Lilly. Beals sped into Autobahn in January 2020 as SVP of translational medicine, and earlier he was CMO at
Abide Therapeutics
, which
Lundbeck
bought
to boost a scuffling pipeline in the spring of 2019.
→
Novo Seeds
led
a modest financing round in October 2020 for Finnish cancer startup
Rappta Therapeutics
, focused on protein phosphatase 2 (PP2A) inhibitors. Founding CEO
Mikko Mannerkoski
is sliding into the CFO role at Rappta as
Sunjeet Sawhney
steps into
the spotlight in his place, effective immediately. Sawhney hails from
Ipsen
, where the new chief executive was global head of the oncology franchise, and his Big Pharma experience started early at
Roche
and
Sanofi
before rising to oncology head of marketing & commercial excellence, emerging growth markets to conclude his nine years at
Novartis Oncology
.
→ Starting Monday,
Erik Skullerud
will be
CEO at Oslo, Norway-based
Nordic Nanovector
, which takes aim at hematological cancers with its radioimmunoconjugate (RIC)
Betalutin
. Skullerud succeeds
Malene Brondberg
after she had held the top spot on an interim basis since July. From 2000-16, Skullerud scaled the sales and marketing peaks at Amgen, leaving as the Big Pharma’s marketing director, Europe, oncology/hematology.
→ Staying in Europe, Dutch biotech
AM-Pharma
has brought on
Lars Boesgaard
to be its CFO. The first AM-Pharma executive to be based in the US, the
Novo Nordisk
and
Alexion
vet joins the company from
Columbia Care
just a week
after
Kyowa Kirin
paid the biotech more than $23 million upfront for development and commercialization rights in Japan on kidney drug
ilofotase alfa
.
→ Proof-of-concept data from a single patient
were released
in June from
ViaCyte
’s stem cell treatment for type 1 diabetes, and CEO
Michael Yang
has found
a new CSO with the requisite stem cell background in this indication.
Timothy Kieffer
was in charge of the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Medicine at the University of British Columbia, where he was also part of the Diabetes Research Group at the school’s Life Sciences Institute. The
enGene
co-founder replaces
Kevin D’Amour
, now the chief scientist at
Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics
.
→
Kyverna Therapeutics
has recruited
two new faces with the appointments of former
Genentech
CEO
Ian Clark
as chair of its board of directors and
Karen Walker
as chief technology officer. Prior to his seven-year tenure at the helm of Genentech, Clark was serving as the company’s EVP of commercial operations and SVP and general manager of bio-oncology. Earlier in his career, Clark served in a variety of roles at Novartis, Sanofi,
Ivax
and
Searle
. This is far from Clark’s first board seat; he currently sits on the boards of
Takeda
,
Agios Pharmaceuticals
,
Guardant
Health
,
Olema
Pharmaceuticals
,
Corvus
Pharmaceuticals
and
Avrobio
.
Meanwhile, Walker comes to Kyverna after stints at Roche/Genentech,
Seagen
, Novartis, Amgen,
Bayer
and
Bristol Myers Squibb
. Walker most recently served as senior advisor, cell and gene therapy manufacturing at Roche/Genentech.
→
Founded
by
Bob Langer
and heading into Phase III with its lead drug for chronic rhinosinusitis,
Lyra Therapeutics
has locked in
Jason Cavalier
as CFO. After stops at
Bear Stearns
,
Barclays
and
RBC Capital Markets
, Cavalier was
Cantor Fitzgerald
’s managing director, head of life sciences mergers & acquisitions.
→
Han Lee
will depart from his CFO position at
Arcellx
to perform
the same role at
Neogene Therapeutics
. Prior to Arcellx, Lee served as senior director in the corporate development and ventures group at
AstraZeneca
. Over the summer, the Southern California TCR biotech also added
Brent Pfeiffenberger
as COO.
→
David Liebowitz
is stepping over to
Houston-based
DNAtrix
as CMO. Liebowitz most recently served as VP of clinical oncology at
Xencor.
Prior to that stint, Liebowitz was the CMO for
Vaxart
and CSO and CMO of
Vivaldi
Biosciences
. Earlier in his career, Liebowitz was with
Galileo Pharmaceuticals
, Amgen and
Immunex
.
→ The sun shone brightly over South San Francisco pediatric cancer player
Day One Biopharmaceuticals
when it started trading on Nasdaq with the ticker
$DAWN
after an upsized IPO
hit
$160 million in May. CEO
Jeremy Bender
continues to piece together the C-suite with
Jaa Roberson
climbing on board
as chief people officer, pivoting from her role as a human resources exec at
Bellicum
. After six years at Genentech as an HR business partner, Roberson spent a year leading HR at
Achaogen
.
→ Thomas Jefferson University spinout
Imvax
, led by ex-
Spark
COO
John Furey
,
has locked in
John Limongelli
as chief legal officer. Limongelli was general counsel at
Neos Therapeutics
and then at
Travena
, where he tacked on the chief administrative officer title. Imvax revealed positive Phase Ib data on its glioblastoma multiforme drug
IGV-001
in January and has brought COO
Sean Hemingway
and CFO
Josh Muntner
into the fold this year.
→ Pittsburgh’s
Krystal Biotech
has added
Laurent Goux
as their general manager for Europe. Goux comes from Swiss dermatological pharma
Galderma
, where he was in charge of global strategic marketing and market access. Krystal Biotech is
in the middle
of a Phase III trial for epidermolysis bullosa.
→
NeuBase Therapeutics
resurfaces in Peer Review yet again, as the Pittsburgh genetic medicine biotech
waves in
Anthony Rossomando
as chief technology officer. A staff scientist at Bayer in the 1990s, Rossomando has roamed the landscape extensively, from his nine years at Biogen to his three years at
Alnylam
as senior director of siRNA bioprocessing. The
Anokion
and Alexion vet heads to NeuBase after a brief stay as chief process development officer at
Pinetree Therapeutics
. Within a year’s time, NeuBase has also bolstered its C-suite with a new COO, CSO, CMO and chief business and strategy officer.
→ Just a week after tapping
Jeff Hackman
as president and CEO,
ReForm Biologics
is bringing in
Neal Muni
as EVP and COO. Prior to joining ReForm, Muni most recently served as the CEO of
Azurity
, which
issued a national recall
of one lot of
Firvanq
last week.
→ Viva LaFrance: Partnering with
RadioMedix
on the production of its radiopharmaceuticals,
Plus Therapeutics
out of Austin, TX
has appointed
Norman LaFrance
as CMO effective “on or around” Dec. 8. Before joining the radiotherapeutic developer, LaFrance was SVP and CMO of
Jubilant Pharma
, and in the mid 2000s the former member of the Johns Hopkins medical faculty was
Bausch + Lomb
’s VP, global pharmaceutical development.
→
Sema4
, the
J&J
and Sanofi-partnered patient data, testing and genomics platform that merged with
Eli Casdin’s
$450 million SPAC
,
has pulled in
Gustavo Stolovitzky
as CSO. Stolovitzky has spent the last two decades at
IBM
Research
, where he was appointed IBM fellow. Prior to his appointment as fellow, Stolovitzky was the director of the translational systems biology and nanobiotechnology program.
→
Resolve Biosciences
has named
Erik Wiberg
as CFO. Wiberg comes aboard from
REVA
Medical
, where he also served as CFO. Prior to his stint at REVA, Wiberg served at
Gyros Protein
Technologies
,
Thermo Fisher Scientific,
AlliedSignal
and the
Chamberlain Group
.
→
Saniona
has brought on
Wendy Dwyer
as CBO. Dwyer joins the company from
Surface
Oncology
, where she served in the same role as CBO. Dwyer brings with her experience from her time at
Portal Instruments
,
Ipsen Bioscience
, AstraZeneca,
Antigenics
(now
Agenus
),
Endo Pharmaceuticals
and
Indevus
Pharmaceuticals
.
In addition, the Saniona
has given a seat
to
Robert Hoffman
on its board of directors. This isn’t Hoffman’s first board appointment, he currently sits on the boards of
ASLAN Pharmaceuticals
,
Kintara
Therapeutics
and
Antibe Therapeutics
. Most recently, Hoffman served as CFO of
Heron Pharmaceuticals
. Hoffman jumpstarted his career at
Arena Pharmaceuticals
.
→
Xenter
has welcomed
Mark Turco
aboard as president of its Xenter Medical Technologies business unit. Turco hails from
Sirtex Medical
, where he served as EVP of research & development and global CMO. In addition, Turco previously served as CMO of
Covidien
and later VP and CMO of
Medtronic’s
aortic, peripheral and vascular divisions.
→
Norbert Bischofberger
at
Kronos Bio
has looked to his old stomping grounds at
Gilead
to welcome
Marni Kottle
as SVP of corporate communications and investor relations. Kottle joined Gilead in 2013, overlapping with Bischofberger’s 28-year run with the California pharma, and was VP of corporate communications after a career in media where she was a reporter for the
San Francisco Chronicle
,
Bloomberg
and the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
. Kronos
got in on
the 2020 IPO craze last fall, topping $250 million in an upsized offering.
→ It’s been a steady stream of new hires and promotions at South San Francisco-based
Sutro Biopharma
, and this week is no different with the
introductions
of
Nicole Chieffo
(VP of clinical operations) and
Werner Rubas
(VP of preclinical development). Sutro poaches Chieffo from
Janssen
, holding such posts as senior director, oncology global operations head and lead oncology clinical scientist. Rubas spent the last nine years at
Nektar
and was executive director in non-clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Along with
Trevor Hallam
’s promotion to president of research and CSO, Sutro’s other leadership moves in 2021 include appointing CCO
Jane Chung
, promoting
David Pauling
to general counsel and elevating
Robert Kiss
to SVP of process and analytical development.
→
jCyte
just keeps on growing too —
its latest
newcomer is
Victor Chao
as the California biotech’s first VP of CMC operations, appointed late last week. Chao arrived at jCyte after leaving
Santen Pharmaceuticals
as its head of commercial operations in North and Latin America. The new jCyte staffers under first-year CEO
Shannon Blalock
run the gamut from CFO
Adam Walsh
to general counsel
John Sholar
, among several others.
→ After adding
Daniela Drago
from Biogen as chief regulatory officer last month,
Aurion Biotech
appoints
Tim Largen
as VP of manufacturing. Largen oversaw manufacturing at
Lykan Bioscience
after spending nearly a decade climbing the ranks at
Dendreon
. Aurion, which has headquarters in the US and Japan, is focused on pushing forward its first candidate, a cell therapy to treat corneal endothelial dysfunction.
→
Aetion
, the New York health tech startup that has former FDA commissioner
Scott Gottlieb
sitting on its board of directors,
has named
Marla
Kessler
its first chief customer officer. Kessler comes to the company from
IQVIA
, where she served as SVP, strategy, marketing and communication. In addition to her role at IQVIA, Kessler has served at Pfizer and
McKinsey
. Kessler currently sits on the board of
Ironwood
Pharmaceuticals
.
→
Rational Vaccines
, focused on the treatment and prevention of herpes,
has welcomed
Kerstin Westritschnig
as CMO. Westritschnig hails from
Apeiron
Biologics
, where she also served in the role of CMO. Prior to that, she was SVP and member of the executive committee of
Valneva
.
→ Running in parallel
with the news
of a third and largest venture fund — $375 million, to be exact —
Lightstone Ventures
has also named
Christina Isacson
as partner and
Young Kwon
as operating partner. The ex-
Third Rock
principal and interim head of business development and strategy at
Decibel
, Isacson had been CBO at
Magenta Therapeutics
until this March. Kwon spent a decade with
Momenta
, initially as VP of business development and then working his way up to chief financial and business officer.
→ London-based VC
Abingworth
has named
Jay Cui
and
Lucille Conroy
principals, while
Diya Malhotra
jumps ship from
LEK Consulting
to be an investment manager. Cui was most recently a director at
AbbVie Ventures
, while Conroy was a senior associate at
F-Prime Capital
after almost two years at McKinsey.
→ Churning out biotechs at its usual steady clip,
Flagship Pioneering
has brought on
Kathy Biberstein
as general counsel and will officially join the team on Monday. In 2018 Biberstein wrapped up a 15-year association with
Alkermes
in which she wore a number of executive hats — EVP, chief administrative officer, chief compliance officer, chief risk officer, and chief legal officer. She’s also left the board of
Nessan Bermingham
-chaired
Triplet Therapeutics
after only serving less than a year in that capacity.
→ No yellow cards for
Icosavax
as the Seattle-based vaccine biotech pushes forward with
Neil King
’s VLP “soccer ball” technology — and
Elizabeth Bekiroğlu
intends
to keep it that way as general counsel. Bekiroğlu stays in Seattle after being Seagen’s associate general counsel, and once upon a time she was general counsel at
Emergent BioSolutions
. Icosavax ended up raising $182 million in an
upsized IPO
this summer.
→
HexTransforma
has reeled in
Kevin Morris
as chief technology officer. Morris previously served as VP of engineering at
Medidata
Solutions
. Morris also brings with him experience from his roles at
Rovi Europe
(now
TiVo
),
Macrovision
and
Shalbourne Technology
.
→ Neurodegenerative disease-focused
Alzheon
has brought on
two new hires with the appointments of
Adem Albayrak
as head of operations and
Earvin Liang
as VP of clinical development. Albayrak comes from
Health Catalyst’s
life sciences business, where he served as SVP for technology. Earlier in his career, Albayrak worked at
Knome
and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Meanwhile, Liang brings with him experience from his time at
Elan
Pharmaceuticals
, Janssen,
Alzheimer’s Immunotherapy
and
Transition
Therapeutics
.
→
Jim Wilson
‘s new startup
iECURE
, which
came from
his work with
Tachi Yamada
,
has reeled in
Brian Di Donato
to its board of directors. Di Donato is currently CFO and head of strategy at
Immunocore
. Prior to his work with Immunocore, Di Donato was SVP and CFO at
Achillion
.
→ Ex-
Nimbus
CEO
Don Nicholson
has been elected
independent chairman of the board at Danish-Belgian neurodegenerative disease biotech
Muna Therapeutics
. Nicholson, who’s on the boards of
Kymera
and
Generation Bio
, also chairs
Disc Medicine
,
Jnana Therapeutics
and
NodThera
.
→ ROME
if you want to
: Upon the news of the Series B
financing
at
Rosana Kapeller
’s
ROME Therapeutics
,
Steven Kafka
and
Jim Trenkle
have taken
seats on the board of directors. Kafka is managing partner at
Section 32
and Trenkle leads investments at
Sanofi Ventures
, two VCs that factored heavily into the $77 million round.
→
Deborah Dunsire
has been appointed
to the board of directors at
Syros
, which is presenting Phase I data for its cancer drug
SY-5609
at ESMO. Formerly a board member at Alexion and Allergan, Dunsire has helmed Lundbeck since 2018 and is on the board of directors at
Ultragenyx
.
→
Christian Itin
’s crew at CAR-T outfit
Autolus
has named
longtime biotech exec
John Johnson
chairman of the board. The Big Pharma vet chaired the board at
Strongbridge Biopharma
until he
took over
as CEO in July 2020, but Johnson has retained his board seat after
Garheng Kong
succeeded him as chairman.
→ Gaithersburg, MD-based
Adaptive Phage Therapeutics
, which
scored
a Series B that exceeded $40 million in May,
has appointed
Georgetown professor
Jesse Goodman
to the board of directors. From 2009-14, Goodman was chief scientist at the FDA, and for three years within that period he took on the role of deputy commissioner for science and public health.
→ Two days before
reaching
a licensing deal with
Vifor Pharma
, former
Martin Shkreli
company
Travere Therapeutics
added
Ruth Williams-Brinkley
to its board of directors. Williams-Brinkley oversees
Kaiser Permanente
’s operations in DC and surrounding areas, and was the CEO for multiple hospital systems in her career.
→ Ex-
Kymab
CEO
Simon Sturge
’s next endeavor
will be
as executive chairman of fibrosis biotech
Mediar Therapeutics
out of Cambridge, MA. Sturge helmed Kymab until it was
sold
for close to $1.5 billion in one of several M&A deals
Paul Hudson
has made at Sanofi this year.
→ ADC Therapeutics SVP and chief commercial officer
Jennifer Herron
has joined
the board of directors at
Chip Clark
-led cancer biotech
Genocea Biosciences
. The 10-year Bristol Myers vet has also been CCO at
ImmunoGen
and
Ariad Pharmaceuticals
.
→ Gilead and Pfizer vet
Roger Mills
has made his way
to the board of directors at Philadelphia-based
Enterin
. Mills was EVP of development and then CMO at Acadia Pharmaceuticals after his tenure as Pfizer’s VP of global R&D.
→
Jigar Raythatha
becomes
a member of the board of directors at
Jounce Therapeutics
as Third Rock partner
Cary Pfeffer
resigns from the board on Dec. 31. Raythatha helmed
Constellation Pharmaceuticals
from 2017 until its $1.7 billion
sale
to
MorphoSys
, which was announced in June.
→
Owlstone Medical
has appointed
Mark Capone
to its board of directors as an independent non-executive director. Capone is the former president and CEO of
Myriad Genetics
and previously held a 17-year stint at Eli Lilly.
→
Cumulus Neuroscience’s
own founder and director,
Ruth
McKernan
,
will be adding on
the role of chair to her duties. McKernan, who is a neuroscientist, is also a venture partner at the
Dementia Discovery
Fund
. Additionally, McKernan has previously served as SVP at Pfizer and head of the Merck Neuroscience Research Centre.
→ Fungal disease-focused
F2G
has added
Camilla Soenderby
to its board of directors. Soenderby most recently served as chief patient value & product strategy officer at Takeda after its acquisition of
Shire
. Prior to that, Soenderby was SVP, head of global product strategy for Shire, and held roles at Roche,
Abbott
(now
AbbVie
) and
Schering-Plough
.
→
PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals
has brought on
William Humphries
to its board of directors. Humphries is currently the CEO of
Isosceles Pharmaceuticals
and previously served at
Ortho Dermatologics
, the North American business of
Merz
and
Stiefel Laboratories
.
In addition, another director at PhaseBio,
Justin
Klein
, is stepping down.
→
Snapdragon Chemistry
has appointed
Donna Blackmond
to its scientific advisory board. Blackmond, a chemical engineering professor, is currently the John C. Martin endowed chair in chemistry at the
Scripps Research Institute
.
Paul Schloesser also contributed to this edition.