Comet Therapeutics, Inc.

→ What’s next for Stephen Hahn , you ask? It’s an interim CMO post at Flagship ’s YourBio Health , the maker of kits that sidestep the conventional methods of blood collection in favor of push-button devices. Hahn joined Flagship in June as CMO of its Preemptive Medicine and Health Security initiative after a topsy-turvy run as FDA commissioner in the Trump administration. Hahn received his share of flak when he extolled the virtues of convalescent pharma before the emergency use authorizations of the Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines, eventually walking back his comments. Conversely, Hahn received kudos for staying resolute on safety followup from clinical trials. A month after his FDA tenure, Hahn joined the board of directors at Blackfynn . → Tom Stocky ’s post- Google and Facebook journey takes him to Daphne Koller ’s crew at insitro as VP of product, putting him in charge of enhancing the user experience for its machine-learning apparatus. Besides his years as Google’s director of project management (helping build the Google App Engine) and as Facebook’s VP of search & profile, he’s familiar with the biotech landscape as a technology fellow and a member of the scientific advisory board at Denali , which released less-than-satisfying Hunter syndrome data in July. Additionally, Stocky ran the learning platform at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. → There’s a CMO shift that has taken place at Swiss biotech ADC Therapeutics , with Jay Feingold handing over the keys to VP of medical affairs Joseph Camardo . Before making his way to ADC in early 2020, Camardo spent 10 years as an exec at Celgene , where he was SVP of global medical affairs and corporate medical operations, then SVP of Celgene Global Health before the Bristol Myers Squibb deal closed. The Chris Martin -led ADC has expanded its reach into China with its joint venture Overland ADCT BioPharma , which named Eric Koo as its CEO in April. → Marc Blaustein has been named COO at microbiome player Finch Therapeutics , which nabbed an upsized $128 million IPO in March — nearly six months after its Series C that totaled $90 million for CEO Mark Smith’s bunch. The director of business development at Alkermes from 1999-2004, Blaustein co-founded and helmed Akashi Therapeutics and later became CEO of NED Biosystems . In his latest gig, Blaustein led business development at Guide Therapeutics , a Georgia Tech spinout that Beam bought for $120 million upfront in February. → With a modest $10 million Series B in the hopper and ex- Genzyme CFO Jim Sherblom as executive chairman, ReForm Biologics has tapped Jeff Hackman as president and CEO. His predecessor, John Sorvillo , will chair the advisory board. Once in charge of the US internal medicine and oncology franchises at Shire , Hackman leaves his post as president of US operations with EUSA Pharma . Based in Woburn, MA, ReForm Biologics focuses on what they describe as “gentler medicines” for children and the elderly. → Accompanying the news that Acorda is undergoing another revamp and trimming its staff by 15% , Lauren Sabella is getting promoted to COO and Kerry Clem is stepping into the CCO job that Sabella previously held. Sabella’s tenure at Acorda began in 2010 as EVP of commercial development, while Clem has spent a decade himself at Acorda, moving out of his role as EVP of sales, market access, and operations. → Bobby Gaspar ’s gene therapy biotech Orchard Therapeutics has refashioned its C-suite considerably, promoting Leslie Meltzer to CMO while adding two fresh pickings to the leadership basket: CSO Fulvio Mavilio and chief technical officer Nicoletta Loggia . After stints at Actelion and Biogen , Meltzer joined Orchard in 2018 as VP of US medical affairs, climbing to SVP of medical affairs, clinical operations and diagnostics. Mavilio, the current CSO at Smart Immune , is the ex-SVP of translational science for Audentes and will consult at Orchard until he officially begins as chief scientist in January 2022. Loggia spent the last 17 years at Novartis in a number of capacities and since last April had been global head of cell and gene therapies. → Padding the C-suite further after the arrivals of CSO John Leonard and CMO Edward Conner , CRISPR upstart Locanabio — nine months removed from its Series B megaround — has selected Kat Lange as CFO. Lange takes the plunge into the biotech world after 12 years at JP Morgan ; since 2019 she had been executive director in JPM’s healthcare investment banking group. You may recall that another Locanabio exec, VP of R&D Ranjan Batra , was featured as one of Endpoints News ’ 20 under 40 leaders this year. → After Patrick Soon-Shiong ’s much-ballyhooed “cancer moon shot” fizzled on the launch pad at NantKwest , he reverse-merged the company with his cell therapy outfit ImmunityBio in December and handed the controls to Rich Adcock . The team continues to take shape with Helen Luu as ImmunityBio’s first chief commercial officer and Sigrid Schreiner , who starts Monday as SVP of global market access. Luu’s clipped reign as CEO of Cell BT began in May after stepping in as COO in September 2020, and earlier she led business development within her 10-year stint at cancer vaccine maker Dendreon . Schreiner, also a Dendreon vet, had been promoted to SVP, global market access & distribution at Stemline Therapeutics in the spring of 2020. → Last month, Fulcrum ’s stock rose by 125% after some initial success in their Phase I study to treat inherited blood disorders — a huge upswing considering the issues they encountered on the market last summer after a Phase II dud. This week, Fulcrum brings on Mel Hayes as chief commercial officer. Hayes has made stops along the way at Bristol Myers, Bayer and Baxalta , and he was recently Sanofi Genzyme ’s global head commercial, VP, rare blood disorders. → Bedford, MA-based Verseau Therapeutics , developing cancer drugs with a line of attack it calls macrophage repolarization, has ushered in Karen Tubridy as chief development officer. Tubridy, the ex-chief development officer at Eleven Biotherapeutics , moves on from her double duty as SVP, global programs and chief development officer at Akebia . Verseau, co-founded by Bob Langer with a first-year CEO in John Edwards , debuted in October 2019. → As Tubridy gets started at Verseau, Tim Smith walks away — writing a new chapter as SVP, head of corporate development at New Jersey p53-focused biotech PMV Pharmaceuticals , chaired by Rich Heyman . Smith, the CBO at Verseau since 2019, is a seven-year Celgene alum who has been a CBO before at Cleave Biosciences and led corporate development at Ideaya . PMV added $53 million to its coffers in a Series D from August 2020 to continue its focus on mutant p53 proteins, an especially tough nut to crack against cancer. → Longwood -backed immunotherapy startup Immunitas Therapeutics , flush with $58 million in Series B cash, has picked up Thomas Tan as CSO after he held the same title at Bicara Therapeutics . Tan, a Roche vet, has also been head of immunology at Forma Therapeutics and Elstar Therapeutics . Co-founded by Dana-Farber ’s Kai Wucherpfennig and Genentech R&D chief Aviv Regev , Immunitas is trying to push its CD161-blocking antibody IMT-009 into the clinic and also promoted Amanda Wagner to CBO in August. → Neoleukin has been allowed to pass go on the FDA monopoly board with its IL-2/IL-15 agonist after a three-month hold , and the Seattle biotech has just tapped Bill Arthur as VP and head of research. All Arthur has to do is drive down Interstate 5 from his previous stop, Seagen , where he was senior director & head of cancer biology during his 10 years there. While with Merck from 2006-11, Arthur was team lead in biomarker discovery for investigational oncology drugs. → Mary DiBiase has been promoted to COO at mavorixafor developer X4 Pharmaceuticals after serving as SVP, technical operations and quality. The 16-year Biogen alum initially jumped on board at X4 in 2017 in the role of VP, program and alliance management. Back in November, Art Tavares left Biogen to become X4’s CSO, and a month later the company poached CMO Diego Cavavid from Fulcrum. Trials are underway for mavorixafor to treat such diseases as WHIM syndrome (Phase III), Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia (Phase Ib with ibrutinib ) and severe congenital neutropenia (also Phase Ib). → Biophytis — evaluating its sarcopenia drug Sarconeos ( BIO101 ) in Covid-19 patients with severe respiratory failure — has given Rob van Maanen the nod as CMO after Jean Mariani held the fort for a couple months. Mariani had temporarily replaced Sam Agus and remains on the scientific advisory board. As for van Maanen, he exits the CMO post at mitochondrial disease-focused Khondrion to join the Paris-based biotech. Elsewhere, he was a senior medical director during a six-year run at Astellas and the CNS director at Eisai from 2005-10. → Caroline Loew ’s biosensor shop Glympse , using its platform to catch indications of NASH in patients, has appointed Tram Tran as CMO. Tran says farewell to Gilead , where she was VP of medical affairs, global head, liver diseases, fibrosis and Covid-19. She made the leap to Gilead in 2018 after 16 years both at Cedars-Sinai and in academia as a professor of medicine at UCLA. → Infinity Pharmaceuticals brought on Robert Ilaria to be its new CMO. Ilaria most recently came from Bristol Myers as part of their development team, and was the executive medical director for clincal R&D for Celgene before that. At the same time, Infinity is moving their consulting chief physician Brian Schwartz , a former acting CMO at Tarus , to the board of directors. → Pamela Garzone is taking over as chief development officer at Anixa Biosciences after holding executive roles with Calibr at the Scripps Research Institute and Pfizer. The sigh of relief you hear may be coming from San Jose after the FDA granted Anixa’s IND application for its Moffitt -partnered CAR-T immunotherapy in late August; the agency had placed a clinical hold on it in April. → Pillar Biosciences has picked up Randy Pritchard as CEO — taking over for founder Gang Song , who will transition to chairman of the board. Pritchard joins the in vitro diagnostics company after holding positions at POC Diagnostics & Core Reagents (as SVP of US diagnostics marketing and SVP & lifecycle leader) and Roche Diagnostics (VP of marketing). → Swedish cell therapy biotech Anocca , raking in $47 million from a Series B round in July, has welcomed Jacob Michlewicz as CFO. Michlewicz recently logged two years as CFO of Stockholm-based medtech Bioservo Technologies , a maker of wearables to help strengthen muscles which lists the exoskeleton glove Ironhand among its products. → Cyrus Arman has signed on to Madison, WI peptide drug developer Nimble Therapeutics as CBO. After five years at Amgen where he was elevated to director of corporate strategy, Arman then pivoted to immuno-oncology biotech Neuvogen in 2019 as VP of corporate development and strategy. → Ali Hariri has been named CMO of Watertown, MA-based Eloxx Pharmaceuticals , which acquired Zikani Therapeutics this spring. Hariri, a clinical development leader at Ionis and Takeda , comes to Eloxx after his time as Sanofi ’s senior global project head in rare disease clinical development. Helmed by ex-Zikani CEO Sumit Aggarwal , Eloxx is shooting for data in Q4 with its lead candidate ELX-02 for cystic fibrosis patients with nonsense mutations. → It’s full steam ahead with more hires at Third Rock startup MOMA Therapeutics after Asit Parikh rolled in as CEO and CSO Peter Hammerman followed him three months later, with Semi Trotto joining the molecular machine biotech as chief people and experience officer. Trotto, who spent 11 years in human resources and global talent acquisition at Bristol Myers, shifted to general manager at Thrive Earlier Detection after Exact Sciences purchased it for a near steal of a $2.5 billion deal last fall. She also led HR at Editas Medicine from 2016-19. → Our Max Gelman just covered VectivBio ’s buyout of Comet Therapeutics last week, and now CEO Luca Santarelli brings in Scott Applebaum as chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Formerly senior counsel at Bristol Myers with 10 additional years at Shire under his belt, Applebaum joins VectivBio from Travena , where he was chief legal & compliance officer and SVP of regulatory affairs. → Palo Alto, CA-based Medable has plucked up MaryAnne Rizk as chief strategy officer. Rizk joins the company with experience from her time at Oracle , Medidata , Merck and IQVIA . → Isabel Carmona has joined New Jersey-based Rocket Pharmaceuticals as chief human resources officer and SVP. Carmona held a similar position at Ichnos Sciences and was involved in HR at Shire and Teva . Rocket ran into some issues back in May when the FDA stalled its Phase I trial for a gene therapy candidate to treat Danon disease, and it wasn’t until August that Rocket was able to get the trial back off the ground. → Rani Therapeutics , which is working on a robotic pill and pulled in $69 million worth of new funding in December, has tapped Eric Groen as general counsel. Groen, an Amgen vet, most recently served as the company’s regional general counsel for its commercial business in Canada, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. → Michael Gerard departs from his role as associate general counsel at Spark to take on the general counsel position at Cabaletta Bio . Last year, the biotech teamed with Artisan Bio on CAAR-T (chimeric auto-antibody receptor) cell therapy development. Now it hopes that Gerard’s legal and corporate experience, which also includes a stint at Sandoz , will help push more gene therapies through the pipeline. → Andrew Welchman is leaving his post at the Wellcome Trust to hop aboard ieso as the company’s first-ever EVP for impact. Welchman served as head of neuroscience and mental health at the Wellcome Trust and previously served as a professor of neural intelligence at the University of Cambridge. → Scott Plevy is making his way over to Protagonist Therapeutics as EVP and therapeutic head, gastroenterology. Plevy brings with him experience from his time as CSO at Senda Biosciences and Synlogic Therapeutics . Plevy has also served as VP, immunology research and development at Janssen . → Ramana Kuchibhatla is taking over the torch as SVP and head of research & development from retiring exec Jay Saoud at Waltham, MA-based Minerva Neurosciences . Kuchibhatla comes to the company from PRA Health Sciences , a subsidiary of Icon , where he was executive director of global drug development. Prior to his role at PRA, Kuchibhatla was with Melior Pharmaceuticals , QED Pharmaceutical Services , Targacept , and GlaxoSmithKline . → Oxford-based Enesi Pharma has named Elizabeth Eagling-Vose as SVP, operations. Eagling-Vose hails from Oxford University spinout Vaccitech , where she served as senior director and head of clinical operations. Prior to her role at Vaccitech, Eagling-Vose was project director and director of patient engagement at Covance . → Passage Bio, the Pennsylvania-based gene therapy developer co-founded by Jim Wilson, has appointed Maxine Gowen as its new chairwoman of the board of directors. The CEO of TamuroBio and former Trevena CEO has been a member of the board since February, and was brought on as chairwoman following former chairman Tachi Yamada ’s death in August . → Tom Civik has replaced Versant ’s Jerel Davis as chairman of the board at synthetic lethality startup Repare Therapeutics , although Davis will keep his seat on the board. Civik takes this role at the precision oncology player after a year as president and CEO of Five Prime , which Amgen swooped in to buy for $2 billion in April. → You think Civik is done in this edition of Peer Review? In the words of ESPN college football icon Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend!” Civik is also in a new crop of board members at Pyxis Oncology , which just named Pamela Yanchik Connealy as CFO last week. Joining Civik are ex-Pfizer CMO Freda Lewis-Hall , Darren Cline and Mark Chin . → Steve Altschuler has been elected chairman of the board at Azura Ophthalmics based in Tel Aviv. The co-founder and former chairman at Spark is now managing director of healthcare ventures at Ziff Capital Partners and also chairs the board at upstart Lexeo Therapeutics . → Another Spark co-founder, Jean Bennett , has headed to the board of directors at Rockville, MD-based AAV gene therapy biotech Regenxbio . George Migausky , a board member at Immunovant and the ex-CFO of Dyax , is also claiming a board seat at Regenxbio. → Chaired by CEO (and Alexion co-founder) Stephen Squinto , Gennao Bio has added Gary Sender to the board of directors. From 2016 until his retirement this year, Sender was CFO at Nabriva Therapeutics and is a board member at Schrödinger , Harmony Biosciences , iBio and Elucida Oncology . → Siddhartha Kadia has earned a seat on the board of directors at “digital cell biology” company Berkeley Lights , a participant in the epic IPO boom of 2020. The ex-president and CEO of EAG Laboratories , Kadia is on the boards of IsoPlexis and NuVasive , among others. → Flagship-backed Evelo Biosciences , which joined the Covid-19 hunt last May, has brought on Iain McInnes — a leader in the fields of rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis research — to its board of directors. McInnes is currently vice principal and head of college to the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, Muirhead professor of medicine, and honor consultant rheumatologist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

Switzerland-based VectivBio Holding AG is acquiring privately-held Comet Therapeutics, which focuses on the development of drugs aimed at previously untreatable inherited metabolic diseases. With the acquisition, VectivBio will see a significant expansion of its rare disease pipeline. The CoMET platform gained through this acquisition is aimed at the treatment of inherited metabolic diseases that have a deficit of energy metabolism and depletion of functional Coenzyme A (CoA). The modular technology has the potential to address multiple previously untreatable IMDs by targeting the key cellular dysfunctions that underlie these conditions. This approach is expected to overcome important limitations of standard of care and has the potential to prevent the clinical progression of IMDs, VectivBio said in a statement. There are already four distinct programs currently in research, with plans to enter the clinic with the first program in the next 18 months, the company added. Under the terms of the agreement, VectivBio will acquire Comet Therapeutics in exchange for equity and cash, as well as additional milestone payments that were not disclosed. “The acquisition of the CoMET platform is in line with our core mission of developing disease-modifying treatments for rare severe diseases,” Luca Santarelli, founder and chief executive officer of VectivBio, said in a statement. “The platform’s potential to deliver a pipeline of medicines that target the fundamental molecular pathophysiology of IMDs by unlocking previously inaccessible pathways, would provide us with the opportunity to transform the lives of these patients. We are eager to begin work on our new programs and look forward to progressing our first candidate towards the clinic.” Elsewhere around the globe: AlzeCure Pharma – Sweden’s AlzeCure Pharma AB received approval from Swedish regulators to initiate a Phase I study of ACD856 focused on Alzheimer's disease. The Phase I study is AlzeCure's third clinical study with ACD856, the lead candidate drug within the company’s NeuroRestore platform. ACD856 is being developed as a symptom-relieving treatment for disease states where the cognitive ability is impaired. The primary study goal is to evaluate ACD856’s tolerability and safety after repeated dosing, as well as to examine early signals on brain activity. Meletios Therapeutics – French biotech Meletios Therapeutics announced a financial round that raised €3.8 million to accelerate its research programs aimed at identifying and developing a new generation of antiviral treatments. The financial infusion will allow Meletios to finalize a proof-of-concept study for its first product and will help the company to rapidly launch a first clinical trial, while pursuing the research and development of new innovative antiviral compounds. TISSIUM – Also based in France, TISSIUM closed a Series C financing round that brought in €50 million from new and existing international investors. The financing will allow TISSIUM to continue to execute on its development plan, funding the company up to the commercialization of its leading nerve repair, hernia repair and cardiovascular sealant products. CellCarta – Sweden-based CellCarta and Olink Proteomics AB announced a strategic collaboration that will provide Olink with Target 96 & Target 48 to pharmaceutical and biotech customers, advancing targeted protein biomarker quantification in clinical studies. With the acquisition of the first Olink Signature Q100 instruments and the collaborative support of Olink, CellCarta becomes the first global clinical CRO to offer the technology. The Olink platform offers a high-multiplex technique to quantify protein biomarkers that uses minimal clinical sample volume. AC Immune – Switzerland’s AC Immune SA announced that Roche subsidiary Genentech saw positive data with its licensed anti-tau monoclonal antibody, semorinemab, in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Semorinemab met one of its co-primary endpoints in a clinical study, although a second co-primary endpoint was not met. Safety data showed that semorinemab is well tolerated with an acceptable safety pro no unanticipated safety signals. Semorinemab demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in cognitive decline from baseline by 43.6% compared to placebo. Immutep Limited – Australia-based Immutep announced its Chinese partner EOC Pharma will expand its clinical trial pipeline for eftilagimod alpha in that country. EOC is preparing to initiate a clinical trial of efti in combination with an anti-PD-1 therapy. The new trial is expected to commence in the first half of calendar year 2022. The new trial builds on the latest promising data presented by Immutep at ASCO 2021 and on EOC’s previously announced Phase II trial evaluating efti in combination with chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer patients. Relief Therapeutics – Switzerland’s RELIEF Therapeutics Holding announced additional findings in a Phase IIb/III study conducted by U.S. partner NRx Pharmaceuticals. The study assessed Zyesami (aviptadil) for the treatment of patients with acute Respiratory Failure due to Critical COVID-19. The new analysis shows that patients treated with Zyesami demonstrated improvement in blood oxygen, indicative of improved lung function, within a day of starting treatment. NRx will seek Breakthrough Therapy designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If granted, RELIEF believes this could confer Priority Review to the aviptadil New Drug Application, when submitted. FairJourney Biologics – Portugal-based FairJourney Biologics S.A. has relocated into a larger, newly purpose-built research center in Portugal. The new premises support the company’s expansion and plans for further growth. FairJourney Biologics now occupies over 200,000 square feet, with the new premises containing 140 fully equipped laboratories, meeting rooms and social areas, as well as green spaces and leisure areas to promote employee well-being. The state-of-the-art facility will house more projects and industry-leading equipment, enabling the company to support more clients and carry out world-class research into antibody-based drugs.

VectivBio AG has made some significant progress since launching in 2020. In less than two years, the company has had multiple significant financing rounds and completed an initial public offering (IPO), among other accomplishments along the way. Adding to its list of achievements, on Tuesday the Swiss biotech announced it is acquiring Comet Therapeutics. Comet works to develop drugs for previously untreatable inherited metabolic diseases (IMD). IMDs are medical conditions caused by genetic defects that interfere with the body’s metabolism. They are often times life-impairing or fatal diseases that have limited treatment options. Comet’s current investors include Sofinnova Partners, INKEF Capital, Canaan and Mission BioCapital. With the acquisition, VectivBio will gain Comet’s proprietary CoMET platform, which uses innovative chemistry to provide a stabilized CoA precursor and key metabolic intermediates to restore fundamental cellular metabolism. “The platform’s potential to deliver a pipeline of medicines that target the fundamental molecular pathophysiology of IMDs by unlocking previously inaccessible pathways, would provide us with the opportunity to transform the lives of these patients,” said Luca Santarelli, M.D., founder and chief executive officer of VectivBio. “We are eager to begin work on our new programs and look forward to progressing our first candidate towards the clinic.” The acquisition is expected to be complete by the end of September. No cash specifics were disclosed at the time of announcement. VectivBio also announced that it will be hosting an R&D Day in September 21 for investors and analysts. The company will be covering a range of topics including apraglutide’s potential in treating short bowel syndrome with intestinal failure and graft-versus-host disease and an overview of the CoMET platform. Apraglutide, VectivBio’s lead product candidate, is a next-generation GLP-2 analog that is currently being evaluated in a global Phase III trial. The drug aims to increase the intestine’s ability to absorb fluids and nutrients and minimize the burden of parenteral support. Just a few months ago, VectivBio announced the closing of its $146.6 million IPO. The company began trading on the Nasdaq on April 9 under the ticker symbol VECT. VectivBio is a spinout of Therachon Holding AG and launched in January 2020 with a $35 million Series A financing round. "Rare diseases remain an area of significant unmet medical need, where our team's proven track record and entrepreneurial mindset will enable us to have a positive impact,” Santarelli said at the time of the IPO announcement.