→ You know
how we told you
last week that we’d keep our eyes peeled for where ex-
Roche Pharmaceuticals
CEO
Bill Anderson
turns up next? Well, he gave us an answer in a big way.
Anderson
will be the CEO
at
Bayer
starting April 1, the German pharma said Wednesday. Unlike
Roche
,
Merck
,
J&J
and the CEO transition that follows, Bayer chose not to go in-house for
Werner Baumann
’s replacement. Investors have been grumbling about the company’s stock performance, so much so that activist investor
Jeff Ubben
rallied the troops
to find someone outside the company
to take control. In the end, the investors won.
Shares
$BAYRY
jumped 6% when news circulated about Anderson’s hiring.
Baumann’s retirement after 35 years at Bayer, seven of those as CEO, marks another major change in its leadership.
Marianne De Backer
, Bayer’s wheeler-dealer who engineered the acquisitions of
AskBio
and
Vividion
,
will replace
George Scangos
as CEO of
Vir Biotechnology
on April 3.
→
Astellas
will do some shifting of its own, starting at the top
with the April 1 departure
of
Kenji Yasukawa
, the president and CEO since 2018. Chief strategy officer
Naoki Okamura
will take the helm while EVP of corporate strategy
Adam Pearson
will be elevated to Okamura’s old post.
It doesn’t stop there: Chief commercial officer
Yukio Matsui
will also retire at the same time as Yasukawa, and
Claus Zieler
— Astellas’ president, established markets commercial — is set to take Matsui’s place.
The extensive C-suite shakeup comes as Astellas says a patent cliff and declining revenue are behind it, and the company is ready to go for “aggressive” growth.
It also follows the retirement of CMO
Bernhardt Zeiher
,
who spoke with Amber Tong in August 2022
about the gene therapy
AT132
for X-linked myotubular myopathy that Astellas picked up from
Audentes
— and is linked to multiple patient deaths that shook the entire gene therapy landscape. Since
Tadaaki Taniguchi
succeeded Zeiher on Oct. 1, Astellas
scooped up
two gene therapy programs from struggling
Taysha
and saw a clinical hold
get lifted
for its Pompe disease gene therapy candidate
AT845
.
→ Previously known as
miRagen
,
Viridian Therapeutics
drew in some serious coin once it trotted out
Phase I/II data for its thyroid eye disease drug
VRDN-001
in August 2022. But after that $270 million offering, Viridian
will have a different conductor
leading the way, with
Jonathan Violin
handing the orchestra to new president and CEO
Scott Myers
. You may remember Myers from his days as CEO of
AMAG Pharmaceuticals
, the
Makena
maker
that was sold
to
Covis Pharma
back in 2020. He’s also been chief executive at
Rainier Therapeutics
and
Cascadian Therapeutics
.
→ Everything’s coming up
Alnylam
at super-stealthy
Feng Zhang
upstart
Aera Therapeutics
, which has tapped
Akin Akinc
as CEO and
John Maraganore
as chairman,
Business Insider
reports
. Akinc takes the helm at the gene editing biotech after ending his 19 years at the RNAi titan in September 2022 as head of oncology. Maraganore has populated Peer Review with an endless array of board appointments and advisory roles ever
since he stepped down
from the top spot at Alnylam.
→ A spokesperson for Merck tells
Endpoints News
that
Iya Khalil
will join
the pharma giant on Feb. 13 as VP and head of data, AI & genome sciences. In a LinkedIn post, Khalil bid farewell to
Novartis
, where she was global head of the AI innovation laboratory since May 2020. “I want to thank Novartis and all of my colleagues for the unique opportunity to launch the AI lab and
NIBR
’s commitment to the continued efforts of the AI team under the exceptional leadership of
Fiona Marshall
,” she wrote. Turnabout is fair play here: Novartis
plucked Marshall from Merck
to replace
Jay Bradner
as president of NIBR last fall.
Merck has been diving deeper into AI through recent partnerships with
Absci
,
BigHat Biosciences
and
Saama
.
→ STAT
writer (and friend of Peer Review) Jason Mast
revealed
Kathy High
’s departure from AAV gene therapy developer AskBio this week. High co-founded
Spark Therapeutics
and cemented her legacy in the field with her work on the retinal disease drug
Luxturna
, the first gene therapy to receive FDA approval. Roche ponied up $4.3 billion for Spark, and High
then bolted for AskBio
in January 2021, becoming the Bayer sub’s president of therapeutics. STAT indicates that High is on sabbatical at Rockefeller University.
→ What little remains of
Flagship
’s
Rubius
is still scrambling to determine next steps, and while
its strategic review
rolls on, CEO
Dannielle Appelhans
’ tenure has been extended from Jan. 31 to “no later than March 3,”
an SEC filing states
. Meanwhile, it’s
Laurence Turka
’s turn to leave Rubius after three years as CSO and head of research and translational medicine. Finally, ex-Novartis head of oncology
Susanne Schaffert
,
Francis Cuss
and
Michael Rosenblatt
have all resigned from the board of directors.
→ TCR biotech
T-knife Therapeutics
made some noise in 2021 with
$110 million in Series B financing
and several key hires, including COO
Megan Baierlein
and CSO
Peggy Sotiropoulou
. This week T-knife is back with
Behzad Kharabi
as CMO. Kharabi left J&J for
Gilead
’s
Kite
in 2018 and rose to global program clinical lead for
Tecartus
, the CAR-T therapy
that was first approved
in the summer of 2020 for relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma. Tecartus then
scored another FDA nod
a year later for adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
→ An
SEC filing shows
that
2seventy bio
COO
Nicola Heffron
will pack her bags on March 10. No specific reason was given other than the standard line that it wasn’t “due to any disagreement with the Company on any matter.” A
Celgene
and
Shire
vet, Heffron jumped over to
bluebird bio
’s cancer spinout when
Nick Leschly
split bluebird into the two separate companies
in 2021. She started at bluebird in January 2020 as SVP, Europe.
→ With apologies to
Boz Scaggs
, the inability of
Adagio Therapeutics
’ Covid-19 antibody to put up a defense against the Omicron variant signaled a
breakdown dead ahead
for the
Tillman Gerngross
biotech. Gerngross
gave up his spot
as CEO,
the company rebranded
as
Invivyd
,
layoffs ensued
, and multiple execs walked out the door.
The latest is
CSO
Laura Walker
, who co-founded Adagio and has also worked at
Adimab
(another Gerngross joint). Interim head of discovery and preclinical
Lukas Dillinger
will handle CSO duties until Invivyd finds her replacement.
→ Only a year into his tenure as head of R&D and medical affairs and CMO at
Sobi
,
Anders Ullman
has decided to retire
on April 1.
Tony Hoos
, who will take over for the 67-year-old Ullman, has led the global rare disease business unit at
GSK
and is the former head of medical in Europe for
Amgen
. Additionally, Hoos spent a year as medical chief of Flagship’s
Valo Health
. Ullman was a board member at Sobi before he replaced
Ravi Rao
, the current CMO with
Oxford Biomedica
and
Sitryx
.
→ On April 1,
Laetitia Rouxel
will become the CFO
of German-based
Evotec
, which boasts a slew of discovery partnerships from a who’s who in the pharma world —
Eli Lilly
,
Boehringer Ingelheim
,
Novo Nordisk
and
Bristol Myers Squibb
among them. An 11-year
Pfizer
vet, Rouxel has been divisional finance chief for beauty and fragrance company
Coty
and global CFO of Dutch plastic pipe provider
Wavin
.
Enno Spillner
, Evotec’s CFO since 2016, is leaving at the end of next month when his contract runs out.
→
Scholar Rock
’s first-year CEO and ex-
Acceleron
R&D chief
Jay Backstrom
has lined up
a familiar face to take on the role of chief commercial officer.
Tracey Sacco
joined Acceleron in 2012 as senior director, corporate development and would later work on the product launch of the Bristol Myers-partnered drug
Reblozyl
. She was SVP, global strategic marketing when Merck bought the biotech for $11.5 billion in the fall of 2021. Scholar Rock hasn’t evaded the onslaught of layoffs in the industry,
trimming 25% of its staff
in May 2022.
→ Friedreich’s ataxia specialist
Larimar Therapeutics
has appointed
Gopi Shankar
as chief development officer. Shankar just had a 12-year run at J&J and had been
Janssen
’s VP and global head, biologics development sciences since 2018. Larimar waited out a clinical hold for its Friedreich’s ataxia candidate
CTI-1601
that lasted more than a year
until it was lifted in September 2022
. However, a partial hold on the drug is still in place.
→ Another hire has bubbled up at T cell engager biotech
Lava Therapeutics
, with
Charles Morris
taking the CMO reins
from
Benjamin Winograd
. Morris recently held the same title at
Celyad Oncology
, a biotech hanging on by its fingernails after
cutting the cord on development
of its allogeneic BCMA CAR-T,
CYAD-211
. He also spent two years as medical chief of
Radius Health
, the now-private company
acquired by
Gurnet Point Capital
and
Jim Momtazee
’s
Patient Square Capital
last summer.
→
Jeremy Levin’s
Ovid
is bringing in a new duo
with the hiring of
Manoj Malhotra
as CMO and
Toshiya Nishi
as epilepsy research head. Malhotra, who’s known Levin for some time, joins the team from
Eisai’s
neurology business group and has prior stints at
Mallinckrodt
, Novartis and
Takeda
under his belt. Meanwhile, Nishi comes to the company from Takeda, where he co-invented
soticlestat
. In his new role, Nishi will be focused on preclinical development, specifically KCC2.
→ Going after STAT3 with its lead asset
TTI-101
, Houston’s
Tvardi Therapeutics
has recruited
John Kauh
as CMO. As VP of clinical development at
Hutchmed
, Kauh worked on
surufatinib
, a drug
that got dinged with a CRL
last year as part of the FDA’s broader clampdown on China-only trial data. Tvardi, co-founded by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s
Ron DePinho
, last raised cash in June 2021
with a $74 million Series B
.
→ New York cancer biotech
Treadwell Therapeutics
has welcomed
Roger Sidhu
as CMO. Sidhu previously showed up in Peer Review when he left
Roivant
in September 2021
to become medical chief
at
Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics
, now named
Eterna Therapeutics
. Sidhu was VP of clinical development at Kite before landing the CMO and head of R&D posts at Roivant in 2020.
→
David Gaiero
has been promoted
to CFO of
Cyteir Therapeutics
, which
laid off 70% of its staff
last month and is down to 15 employees who will redouble the Lexington, MA biotech’s efforts in ovarian cancer with a combo therapy of
CYT-0851
and
capecitabine
. Gaiero was named VP of finance at Cyteir in December 2020 after three years as VP, corporate controller and interim CFO at
Wave Life Sciences
.
→ Back in September,
Palisade Bio
downsized its team
of 13 by 20% to keep pushing forward with development of its lead candidate. Now, the Carlsbad, CA-based company
is promoting
Robert McRae
to the position of COO. McRae has been with the company since December 2021, having joined as SVP, operations and strategic development. Prior to Palisade, McRae was with
Viracta Therapeutics
as VP, operations & strategic alliances. In addition to McRae’s promotion, interim CEO
JD Finley
is grabbing a seat on the company’s board of directors.
→
JP Gabriel
has been named
chief technical operations officer at RNAi player
Silence Therapeutics
after the retirement of SVP, technical operations and
Ferring
vet
Jørgen Wittendorff
. Gabriel has held positions in manufacturing and quality at Roche/
Genentech
,
Ultragenyx
and most recently,
Ocugen
, where he was SVP, technical operations. Almost a year ago,
Craig Tooman
succeeded
Mark Rothera
as Silence’s CEO
in a shakeup
that involved the promotion of
Rhonda Hellums
to Tooman’s old CFO job. Rothera now runs the show at Viracta Therapeutics.
→
Shanghai MicuRx Pharmaceutical
has pulled in
Regis Vilchez
as CMO of its American subsidiary,
MicuRx Pharmaceuticals
. Vilchez is bringing with him experience from Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck, Roche,
Abbott
/
AbbVie
and
Mallinckrodt
. During his career, Vilchez has contributed to the global development of a number of therapies, including
Victrelis
,
Ocaliva
and
StrataGraft
.
→
Didier Vingadassalom
gets his own cadenza
in this portion of Peer Review as senior director, business development at
Concerto Biosciences
. Vingadassalom is a
Sanofi
alum who comes from
SQZ Biotechnologies
, where he was senior director, business development and head of alliance management. Co-founded by CEO
Cheri Ackerman
and CSO
Jared Kehe
— both trained pianists — microbe-focused Concerto hit the stage three months ago
with $23 million in Series A funding
.
→
Blue Water Vaccines
, which back in August
ditched SPAC merger plans
,
has reeled in
Frank Jaeger
as SVP of marketing and business development. Jaeger hails from
Clarus
Therapeutics
, where he was SVP and CCO. Before that, Jaeger was with the team at AbbVie, helping launch
AndroGel
from its men’s health business unit.
→
Biren Amin
has joined
the board of directors at
ImmPACT
Bio
, a CAR-T outfit chaired by ex-
Gossamer Bio
CEO
Sheila Gujrathi
. Since leaving
Jefferies
in 2021, Amin has been finance chief at
Immuneering
and now tackles the roles of CFO and chief strategy officer for
Pyramid Biosciences
.
→ Ex-
Blueprint Medicines
chief
Jeff Albers
has been named
chairman of the board at
MOMA Therapeutics
, a
Third Rock
biotech
that raised $150 million
in a Series B round last May. Albers, who’s still chairman at Blueprint, started a gig at
Atlas Venture
last month as a venture partner.
→ In its first Peer Review appearance
since buying
Antares Pharma
for just shy of $1 billion last April,
Halozyme
has elected
Barbara Duncan
to the board of directors. Duncan was CFO of
Intercept
from 2009-16 and chairs the board at
Fusion Pharmaceuticals
.
→
Touting a Phase II win
with the ex-Amgen drug
obicetrapib
last month,
NewAmsterdam Pharma
has elected
John Smither
to the board of directors. Smither is an Amgen vet whose past CFO appointments include
Sienna Biopharmaceuticals
(two separate stints), Kite (interim) and
Arcutis
.
→
Sam Truex’
s
Upstream Bio
flowed onto our radar
with a $200 million debut
last June, and this week the inflammatory disease biotech
has reserved space
for
Tectonic Therapeutic
CMO
Marcella Ruddy
on the board of directors. To conclude her five years at
Regeneron
, Ruddy was VP, clinical development for inflammation and immunology from 2018-21.
→
Waypoint Holdings
chairman and CEO
Thomas Dietz
is headed to
the board of directors at RNA player
Nutcracker Therapeutics
. Dietz, the chairman of
Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
, owns board seats at
Paratek Pharmaceuticals
and
Leap Therapeutics
.
→
Carisma
Therapeutics
, the company that took the spotlight with its
CAR-M therapy
,
is bringing in some firepower
from one of its allies to its team.
Moderna
’s
Lin
Guey
, who oversees the partnership between the two companies, will be joining Carisma’s scientific advisory board. During her career, Guey has worked at
Tessera
,
Xilio
,
Shire
and Pfizer.
→
Repligen
has named
ex-
Millipore
CEO
Martin Madaus
to its board of directors. Madaus is a senior operating executive at
The Carlyle Group
and the former North America president and CEO of
Roche Diagnostics
.
→ The chief marketing officer of
Evolus
,
Crystal
Muilenburg
,
is hopping onto
the board of directors at
Elevai
Labs
. While at Evolus, Muilenburg has helped lead the re-launch of
Jeuveau
. Prior to Evolus, Muilenburg was with Sienna Biopharmaceuticals and had a decade-long stint at
Allergan
.
→
Acticor Biotech
, which
recently revised its pipeline
to postpone a Phase II study,
has pulled out a seat
on its board of directors for
Patricia Zilliox
— who will be replacing
Corinne
Le Goff
. Zilliox serves as president and CEO of
Eyevensys
and has held roles at
Alcon
Laboratories
and the Clinical Research Institute.
→ Boston-based
Anodyne
Nanotech
, dealing with microneedle tech,
has brought on
Jeff Mihm
to its board of directors. Mihm formerly served as CEO of
Noven Pharmaceuticals
.