→
Kristen Mulholland
will take over for the retiring
Peter Fasolo
as chief human resources officer at
J&J
on Oct. 1. “Peter has led J&J’s talent strategy for the past 16 years including remarkable leadership through the global pandemic and the separation of our consumer health business,” CEO
Joaquin Duato
said in a statement
. “He leaves a legacy of strong leaders, deep bench strength and an inclusive, caring and patient-focused culture.”
Fasolo is a
Bristol Myers Squibb
HR vet who left J&J to become chief talent officer for
KKR
, only to return in 2010. Mulholland started at J&J in 2005 and has spent nearly five years as head of human resources, global total rewards & enterprise HR functions.
→ Just do it:
Amgen
technology chief
David Reese
said in a LinkedIn post
that the pharma giant has appointed
Sean Bruich
as SVP of artificial intelligence and data. Bruich moves into the pharma world after an 11-year run with
Nike
, where he vaulted to global VP, insights, data science & analytics. This is the second high-level AI hire by a major pharma in as many weeks —
Pfizer
just welcomed
Berta Rodriguez-Hervas
as its new chief AI and analytics officer.
→ In its biggest personnel news since
Doug Williams
’
resignation
,
Sana Biotechnology
has poached
Dhaval Patel
from
UCB
as the Seattle biotech awaits data readouts for its CD19-targeted allogeneic CAR-T therapy in a host of indications. Patel had a 10-year career with
Novartis
before he held the CSO post at UCB for nearly seven years, and he’ll have the same responsibilities at Sana under CEO
Steve Harr
. Sana said in its second-quarter update that the goal is to reveal data for
SC291
in B cell malignancies — and such autoimmune diseases as lupus nephritis, extrarenal lupus and ANCA-associated vasculitis — sometime this year. “His expertise in immunology and autoimmune diseases make[s] him ideally suited to help advance our clinical pipeline,” Harr
said in a statement
.
→
Brian Di Donato
, the CFO and head of strategy at
Immunocore
since May 2020
,
is stepping down
“at the end of the year” to take the CEO job at an unnamed San Diego biotech. Di Donato was the finance leader for
Achillion
when
Alexion
scooped it up
for $930 million, and he’s also a board member at
Jim Wilson
joint
iECURE
, where ex-Achillion chief
Joseph Truitt
is CEO.
→
Telix Pharmaceuticals
has separated its business into four separate entities:
Telix Therapeutics
,
Telix Precision Medicine
(diagnostics),
Telix Lightpoint
(medtech, from its acquisition of
Lightpoint Medical
) and
Telix Manufacturing Solutions
. With these changes in place, Telix
has tapped
Richard Valeix
as CEO of Telix Therapeutics,
Kevin Richardson
as Telix Precision Medicine’s chief executive, and
Raphael Ortiz
as CEO of
Telix International
.
Christian Behrenbruch
’s title has been slightly modified to group CEO. Telix had hoped
to join
the Nasdaq in June with an IPO around the $200 million mark, but the Melbourne biotech made a gametime decision
to pull those plans
.
→ Cambridge, MA-based neuro player
Cognito Therapeutics
has promoted
Christian Howell
to CEO.
Brent Vaughan
had been running Cognito since 2020 after co-founding and leading the autism diagnostic specialist
Cognoa
, and he hired Howell as his chief commercial officer last October. Howell had a long career with
Medtronic
and then joined
Aetion
, where he was elevated to SVP and general manager of the emerging channels group (medical device, diagnostics, digital health, and government) in April 2023.
→ Elsewhere,
Endo
is also losing
its president and CEO
Blaise Coleman
. Board member
Scott Hirsch
will serve in the interim as the company searches for a permanent successor. Hirsch joined Endo’s board in April, around the same time that the company
sued the FDA
over its approval of a generic version of Endo’s drug
Adrenalin
. Hirsch is the former CEO of
Solta Medical
and also held the roles of president of
Ortho Dermatologics
and CBO of
Bausch Health
/
Bausch + Lomb
.
→
Thomas Bock
has handed in his resignation as CEO of
Notable Labs
, and CSO
Joseph Wagner
will take over
the top spot on an interim basis. This isn’t uncharted territory for Wagner: He’s the former CEO of
Oncocyte
(2011-15) and Canadian I/O biotech
BriaCell Therapeutics
(2015-16). Notable Labs
merged
with
VBL Therapeutics
in February 2023 and will start enrolling patients in its Phase 2 study of the ex-
Boehringer Ingelheim
drug
volasertib
for acute myeloid leukemia “in the coming months,” the company
said
in July.
→
Delfi Diagnostics
marked the beginning of the year with a new CEO it
hired away from
Illumina
. Now, the competitor to
Grail
has brought on
Thomas Russo
as finance chief. Russo served in the same role at
Icosavax
and
Assembly Biosciences
. During his time at Icosavax, Russo helped with the company’s growth until its $838 million upfront
acquisition
by
AstraZeneca
.
→
Marea Therapeutics
, the
Third Rock
upstart led by ex-
Graphite Bio
CEO
Josh Lehrer
,
has selected
Ian Clements
as CFO. Clements resigned from the same post at
Livmarli
maker
Mirum Pharmaceuticals
in May 2023 after four years overall with the company, and he’s the ex-VP of investor relations for
Dermira
. Marea
launched in June
with $190 million in “combined Series A and B” funding, testing an ex-Novartis monoclonal antibody that targets ANGPTL4 in adults with metabolic dysfunction.
→ With ex-
Synlogic
CEO
Aoife Brennan
at the controls, a seemingly rejuvenated
Eliem Therapeutics
has named
Brett Kaplan
as COO and
Nishi Rampal
as SVP, clinical development. Kaplan had been president and chief financial & corporate development officer for epigenetic editing upstart
Chroma Medicine
, and he was also the finance chief at
Prevail
until
Eli Lilly
bought
the gene therapy biotech for $1 billion. An Alexion vet, Rampal also handled the role of global development and strategy lead for the neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) treatment
Uplizna
as an executive director with
Horizon
/Amgen. Eliem’s hunt for strategic alternatives ended with the acquisition of
Tenet Medicines
and its anti-CD19 antibody
budoprutug
, once known as
TNT119
.
→ Backed by
RA Capital
and
Forbion
,
Navigator Medicines
disclosed
its $100 million Series A this week and the recruitment of
Dana McClintock
as CMO. McClintock spent six years in the same position at
Alladapt Immunotherapeutics
and was global head of the Office of I2O Innovation for
Genentech
. Navigator also said that Forbion general partner
Wouter Joustra
and RA Capital managing director
Andrew Levin
have made their way to the board of directors.
→
Alex Bastian
has been named
VP, commercial strategy at Swiss-based
Memo Therapeutics
, reuniting with CEO
Erik van den Berg
. Toward the end of van den Berg’s tenure as CEO of
AM-Pharma
, Bastian was the Dutch biotech’s VP, commercial & patient access. He also worked for
Galapagos
as VP, head of value & market access.
→
Structure Therapeutics
, one of many biotechs developing a GLP-1 drug for obesity,
has elected
ex-
Shire
CEO
Angus Russell
to the board of directors. The 68-year-old Russell has chaired the board at
Daxxify
maker
Revance Therapeutics
since 2014 and has a board seat at
Lineage Cell Therapeutics
.
→ Ex-
Vividion
CEO
Jeff Hatfield
has joined
the board of directors at
Gate Bioscience
, a California drug developer
that launched
last November with a $60 million Series A from several blue-chip investors. Hatfield chairs the board at Vividion and
Rome Therapeutics
.
→
Opna Bio
has made room
for
Inozyme
co-founder and former CEO
Axel Bolte
on the board of directors. The South San Francisco biotech also announced that it had dosed the first patient in a Phase 1 trial of its multiple myeloma candidate
OPN-6602
and appointed
Myeloma Investment Fund
managing director
Stephanie Oestreich
as a board observer.