→ Another CEO opportunity has presented itself for
James Scibetta
, the chief executive of
Maverick Therapeutics
when
Takeda
ponied up
$525 million in March to buy its T cell collaborator and integrate the staff into the R&D unit. Scibetta
has signed on
as CEO of antibody startup
ImmuneID
, co-founded and chaired by
Longwood Fund
’s
Christoph Westphal
with tech coming from
Stephen Elledge
’s lab at Harvard. So ends a fleeting CEO tenure for
David Donabedian
, who will stay close by as an advisor. Scibetta, the CFO and later president of
Pacira Pharmaceuticals
until he joined Maverick in 2017, steps forward to lead a biotech that’s chalked up $70 million in financing,
including
$50 million in a Series A this summer.
→ Roger, over and out:
Roger Sidhu
has bolted from
Roivant
— where he was CMO and head of R&D —
to take
the CMO job at IL-2 biotech
Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics
, which is in a Phase IIb trial of its cytokine-based cell therapy
IRX-2
for head and neck cancer. Sidhu, an
Amgen
vet, had been VP of clinical development at
Kite
before flying over to Roivant, the
Vivek Ramaswamy
brainchild that
coasted
down the SPAC highway to Nasdaq with
Jim Momtazee
’s
Montes Archimedes Acquisition Corp
this spring.
→
Michael Amoroso
has cycled through an entire career in a year’s time at
Abeona
. First, he was named chief commercial officer in July 2020; then he was promoted to COO that October; then he
climbed up
to CEO in March; and now he’s chairman of the company as
Vishwas Seshadri
takes over
as president and CEO. The rise to the top spot is also a lightning-quick one for Seshadri, who just became Abeona’s head of research and clinical development in June and was a team lead for the
Breyanzi
launch with
Bristol Myers Squibb
. The two changes take effect Oct. 15 as
Steven Rouhandeh
retires from his role as chairman.
That’s not all at Abeona:
Brendan O’Malley
and
Brian Kevany
have also received promotions to SVP, general counsel and VP, chief technical officer, respectively. Head of business operations
Scott Nogi
will branch out further and become site head at the cell and gene therapy biotech’s facility in Cleveland.
Wait, we’re not done yet:
Carl Denny
joins the retooled team as VP, regulatory affairs and so does
Kate Imhoff
as senior director, regulatory affairs. Both come from
Sarepta
— Denny was executive director, regulatory strategy and Imhoff was director, regulatory strategy.
→
Sage
hopes the tide has turned after
zuranolone
bombed in Phase III of the MOUNTAIN study in December 2019, with the major depressive disorder (MDD) drug
hitting
its primary endpoint in a second Phase III this summer. CEO
Barry Greene
has added
to his crew at Sage, poaching new chief commercial officer
Chris Benecchi
from
Alexion
, where he was global head of commercial excellence. Benecchi’s eight years at
UCB
came to a close in 2019 as global launch head, commercial and medical affairs, immunology, and before that he logged another eight years in sales leadership and marketing posts at Takeda.
→ The band is truly back together with
Martin Babler
as
he becomes
CEO of
Foresite
-backed
Esker Therapeutics
,
taking
a cast of thousands with him from
Principia
, the previous biotech he helmed that
was sold
to
Paul Hudson
and
Sanofi
for $3.7 billion in August 2020. The stampede of staffers from Principia is comprised of CSO and head of CMC
David Goldstein
; CBO and general counsel
Roy Hardiman
; head of research
Kenneth Brameld
; SVP of immunology and biology
Claire Langrish
; SVP of pharmacology and project team leader
Phil Nunn
; and human resources business partner
Tori Lowell
. The only new appointee in this group who has no previous association with Principia is VP of toxicology
Mike Taylor
, the founder and ex-principal of
NonClinical Safety Assessment
.
→ With an unclear future at the helm of
FerGene
after its
recent implosion
, CEO
David Meek
has made a rebound
and stepped into the head honcho role at
Mirati Therapeutics
, taking over for founding CEO
Charles Baum
. Prior to his stint at FerGene, Meek was CEO at
Ipsen
and previously was an executive VP and president of oncology at
Baxalta
, which was acquired by
Shire
in 2016. Meek also held roles at
Endocyte
,
Novartis
and
J&J
over the course of his 30-year career.
→ Computational chemistry and drug discovery trailblazer
Nimbus
has another
$105 million at its disposal and
has tapped
Ian Sanderson
as CFO. Since 2016, Sanderson served in the same capacity at
Boston Pharmaceuticals
and was also CFO at
Catabasis Pharmaceuticals
, which operates under the
new name
Astria Therapeutics
. Nimbus will use the latest round of cash on pushing its tyrosine kinase 2 (TYK2) inhibitor into Phase II trials.
→ Big changes are underway at
Aerie Pharmaceuticals
: After eight years at the helm,
Vicente Anido
will
no longer serve
as chairman and CEO.
Benjamin McGraw
will take over
as interim executive chairman of the board while the company searches for a new CEO. Aerie also announced that
Erik Pacyniak
will be
director of toxicology and drug disposition. Aerie hopes to rebound from its failed dry eye disease trial earlier this month, especially after it defiantly
claimed
that the primary endpoints of the trial were “not required.”
→
Jessica Ballinger
has been promoted
to president and COO of
Lyndra Therapeutics
, co-founded by
Bob Langer
and riding high with a Series C injection
surpassing
$60 million as the Watertown, MA biotech strives to make daily pills obsolete. Before joining Lyndra in 2016 as VP of reimbursement and strategic alliances, Ballinger spent 10 years at
Pfizer
in numerous posts and another four with
Biogen
. Running alongside Ballinger’s promotion, ex-
AIG
chief investment officer
Doug Dachille
and AIG managing partner
Jillian Moo-Young
are now on Lyndra’s board of directors.
→ Oxford biotech
MiroBio
, developing antibodies for autoimmune diseases,
has named
Novartis vet
Carolin Barth
CEO. When she embarked upon her Novartis journey 17 years ago, Barth was a global brand leader for
Lucentis
; when she left for MiroBio, she was global head of commercial and pipeline strategy, cell and gene. MiroBio
launched
almost exactly two years ago with executive chairman and
SR One
venture partner
Eliot Charles
handling CEO duties on an interim basis.
→ Belgium-based biotech
Rewind Therapeutics
is bringing on
Anja Harmeier
as CEO. Most recently, Harmeier served as partner at
Pureos Bioventures
. Prior to that, she held several positions at
Roche
, working her way up to franchise and senior project leader in the rare diseases division. Harmeier has also served on the board of directors at
Vivet Therapeutics
,
Entrada
and
NMD Pharma
.
→
Kathy Yi
is out
at
Cerevel
after two years as CFO “to pursue other personal and professional interests,” and in the meantime VP, finance and chief accounting officer
Mark Bodenrader
will take over as interim CFO. The
Tony Coles
-led Pfizer spinout
announced
an underwritten public offering in July totaling $350 million following the
release
of positive schizophrenia data just days earlier. Although this change goes into effect immediately, Yi will help with the transition until Nov. 15.
→ Shy and reserved
Alex Zhavoronkov
is not,
pulling in
a hefty $255 million round a few months ago and asserting that
Insilico
is in position to be the
Amazon
and
Google
of AI drug discovery. This week, Insilico
has brought on
Nirav Jhaveri
as CFO. Jhaveri recently took care of CFO responsibilities at
Fortress Biotech
sub
Journey Medical Corporation
, and from 2014-20 he was Fortress’ VP of business development.
→
Frank Neumann
pulled a fast one when he left
Verastem Oncology
two weeks into the job as CMO
to lead
clinical development at Kite in February. Verastem now hopes Pfizer alum
Louis Denis
can stay
a little longer as its medical chief. After nine years in oncology clinical development and medical affairs at Pfizer, Denis then set off for
Boehringer Ingelheim
in 2010, taking charge of clinical development for
afatinib
, a lung cancer drug at the center of a collaboration with
CureVac
that will dissolve
in November
. Since 2015, Denis had been CMO with
Asana BioSciences
.
→ In a press release that rivals Michael Jordan’s 1995
declaration
of “I’m Back” for its brevity,
Helix BioPharma
announced that chairman
Sławomir Majewski
will become
interim CEO. The former chief executive of the Canadian immuno-oncology biotech
Heman Chao,
Majewski has chaired the scientific advisory board since he stepped down Sept. 1. The one-sentence release does indicate the search for a permanent CEO is ongoing.
→ If it seems like just the other day that
Brendan Delaney
changed jobs, then you’re an observant Peer Review reader. Delaney — an oncology marketing vet with Bristol Myers,
Genentech
and Novartis —
took on
the chief commercial officer job at
Constellation Pharmaceuticals
in January, but he’s on the move again,
becoming
COO at Los Angeles-based
Aadi Bioscience
. He reunites with chairman
Behzad Aghazadeh
, who was CEO at
Immunomedics
when Delaney was his CCO before the
Gilead
acquisition
. In May, Aadi Bioscience reverse merged with
Aerpio Therapeutics
,
raising
$155 million in the process.
→ South San Francisco-based
GenEdit
is ready for prime time with a $26 million round to solve the “delivery problem” in gene therapy,
appointing
Romuald Corbau
as CSO and
Aaron Mishel
as CFO. Corbau, a
Spark
vet who spoke to our Nicole DeFeudis for
Thursday’s story
on the Series A financing, was recently in Peer Review when he
left
Freeline
in late June after getting
promoted
to CSO in September 2020, clearing the path for co-founder
Amit Nathwani
as his interim replacement. Mishel comes to GenEdit from the same position at
Magnetic Insight
and is the ex-director of business & corporate development at
BioMarin
.
→ Early this week immune modulation company
Ventyx Biosciences
topped off its initial
$114 million raise
with a $51 million
Series B
, and
Sheila Gujrathi
leads the list
of leadership moves here as the new chair of Ventyx’s board. Gujrathi was CEO of
Gossamer Bio
until trial failures prompted her to cede her position to old
Receptos
colleague
Faheem Hasnain
.
Akero Therapeutics
CFO
William White
nabs a seat on the board, while ex-Gossamer CSO and current
Pioneering Medicines
CSO
Luisa Salter-Cid
will also be on Ventyx’s scientific advisory board.
In the C-suite, Ventyx is bringing on
Jörn Drappa
as CMO. An alum of Amgen, Genentech and
MedImmune
, Drappa was most recently EVP of R&D at
Horizon Therapeutics
, and until the $3 billion
buyout
, he led R&D and was CMO of
Viela Bio
.
→ Speaking of Viela Bio, CFO
Mitchell Chan
made his own exit,
taking the same position
on
Joanne Smith-Farrell
’s team at
Be Bio
. Chan, who will also be head of corporate strategy, has plenty of Big Pharma experience as
AstraZeneca
’s director of investor relations along with gigs at Roche and Genentech. His appointment fills the C-suite further after Be Bio greeted president and COO
Krishnan Viswanadhan
and chief people officer
Brad Hartman
last month.
→ Meanwhile at Gossamer,
Bryan Giraudo
has tacked on
the COO title along with the CFO post he’s held since May 2018. Before he jumped to biotech, Giraudo was senior managing director at
SVB Leerink
for nine years.
→
Doug Fambrough
has added
to his lineup of execs at RNAi-focused
Dicerna
while shifting
Rob Ciappenelli
to chief strategy officer and promoting
Marc Abrams
. The CCO at Dicerna since 2019, Ciappenelli was previously head of commercial at
Momenta
and head of commercial effectiveness with Shire. Abrams, elevated to SVP of discovery research, originally hopped on board at Dicerna in 2014 as senior director, preclinical development after 16 years at
Merck
. Finally,
Kristen Sheppard
has been named SVP of investor relations and corporate communications. She had fulfilled the same responsibilities at
Akebia Therapeutics
.
→
Avinash Desai
has been promoted
to CMO at radiotherapy player
Actinium
while two other execs dive in as well. Desai, initially named EVP, clinical development, operations and medical affairs in late 2020, had been involved in medical affairs with a batch of big names:
Janssen
,
Eisai
, Takeda,
Eli Lilly
, and before he joined Actinium,
GlaxoSmithKline
. Also, Actinium has tapped
Arun Swaminathan
as chief business and commercial officer and
Paul Diamond
as VP, patent and legal counsel. Swaminathan was in commercial and business development at Bristol Myers for 12 years, with a stop at
Covance
in between, and comes to the New York biotech after his tenure as CBO at
Alteogen
. (
Mark Kubik
left his CBO post at Actinium to take the same position at
Genor BioPharma
.) At
Enzo Biochem
, Diamond was senior counsel, patents and business development before moving on to Actinium.
→ Now helmed by former
Codiak
exec
Benny Sorensen
, Copenhagen bleeding disorder biotech
Hemab
has $55 million in
Series A funding
to work with — thanks to headliners
Novo Seeds
and
RA Capital
— and
has recruited
Mads Behrndt
as CFO. Behrndt has held a number of posts at
PwC
the last 14 years, and since 2017 has been a partner for the corporate finance team.
→
Maria Fuentes
has been named
CSO at San Francisco exosome outfit
Mantra Bio
, which shed its stealth-mode skin with a $25 million
Series A
last July. Fuentes, a Big Pharma alum with Roche (research director and head of the respiratory drug discovery group) and Bristol Myers (group director, fibrosis discovery biology), has recently been EVP of research at
Blade Therapeutics
.
→ In its first big Peer Review development since
Jude Samulski
was named gene therapy special advisor,
Selecta Biosciences
has picked up
Kevin Tan
as CFO. Before this opportunity at
Carsten Brunn
-led Selecta, Tan was on
Doug Ingram
’s team at Sarepta as treasurer, and earlier he held the role of senior portfolio manager at
CPP Investments
.
→ German CDMO
Rentschler Biopharma
, which will have a presence at the
Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult
in the UK
by next year
,
has appointed
Christian Schetter
as CSO. Schetter was managing director at
Arix Bioscience
and has also helmed
Rigontec
, the retinoic acid-inducible gene I (RIG-I) biotech that
Roger Perlmutter
purchased
at Merck in 2017 for $150 million upfront and $603 million overall.
→
Lauren Gordon
will lead
all things HR as first chief people officer of Boston AI life sciences company
ConcertAI
. Gordon comes to ConcertAI after also being a chief people officer at
Tmunity
, the CAR-T biotech co-founded by
Carl June
which had to
scrap
its lead program after two patients died due to neurotoxicity in June.
→
Endeavor BioMedicines
has plucked up
Srikanth Pendyala
as its first CMO. Pendyala joins the company from
BridgeBio
, where he served as VP of clinical development. Prior to that role, Pendyala held roles at Genentech/Roche, Merck and
Theravance
.
→ Gene therapy-focused
Renovacor
, which
picked up
Marc Semigran
as CMO back in June among many others,
has named
Jordan Shin
as SVP of clinical development and translational science. Shin comes to the Philadelphia-based company from
Lung Biotechnology
, where he served as VP of medical development. Prior to that, Shin was with
Acceleron
and
Reify
.
→ Hopping over to Denmark,
Evaxion Biotech
raised
$30 million in a modest IPO early this year for its AI platform to develop immuno-oncology drugs, and Evaxion
has promoted
Birgitte Rønø
to CSO, making the move up from senior director of I/O. Prior to her arrival at Evaxion in 2017, Rønø had a four-year run that started in immunopharmacology at
Novo Nordisk
, and in her final position there, she was a specialist in diabetes prevention research.
→ Dutch biotech
Xenikos
has named
Hassan Aly
as its new CMO. He joins the company close to two months after former CFO and CBO
Stan Musial
joined Aruvant
as their CFO. Xenikos also
secured just under $47 million
over two weeks ago in convertible debt to fund a registrational Phase III trial in the US and the EU.
→
Dotmatics
, a cloud-based scientific R&D data management platform that
was snapped up
by
Insightful Science
in March,
has passed down
the title of president to
Mike
McKee
, who will succeed founder
Stephen
Gallagher
. McKee was most recently EVP and general manager of insider threat at
Proofpoint
. McKee has also held positions at
ObserveIT
and
Rapid7
among others.
→
Adaptive Phage Therapeutics
has enlisted
Michele Wales
as chief legal officer. Wales hails from
InHouse Patent Counsel
, where she served as principal and founder. Prior to that, Wales had a 14-year stint at
Human Genome Sciences
.
→ “Wnt” some HR expertise? Wnt pathway-focused
Surrozen
, taking part in the SPAC mania through a $212 million
reverse merger
with
Consonance Capital Management
this spring,
has selected
Liz Nguyen
as VP and head of human resources. Nguyen had been
MyoKardia
’s executive director, head of HR business partnering & interim HR site head after Bristol Myers’ decision to purchase the company and she spent six years with MyoKardia overall.
→ Once known as diagnostic company
Novellus
, precision oncology outfit
Fore Biotherapeutics
keeps it in the short grass with
Kim Blackwell
teeing it up
as R&D/science chair along with
Sujit Basu
as SVP of global manufacturing and technical operations. Formerly VP of early phase oncology and immuno-oncology at Eli Lilly, Blackwell spent the last year as CMO and SVP, clinical oncology development at
Tempus Labs
. As for Basu, he comes from Takeda by way of Shire and was most recently the pharma giant’s VP, pharmaceutical sciences, R&D.
→ Merck gave away
lonafarnib
to Palo Alto, CA-based
Eiger BioPharmaceuticals
in 2018, and by last November the FDA
OK’d the drug
for the ultra-rare condition progeria (Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome). Eiger now
brings in
ex-BioMarin senior counsel
Erik Atkisson
as general counsel and chief compliance officer. Since 2019, Atkisson had taken on the roles of chief compliance officer, legal counsel, and privacy officer at
Cytokinetics
.
→
Lisa Caperelli
will take on
the newly created VP of investor relations position at
Arbutus
. Before joining the management team at Arbutus — which specializes in developing a cure for people with HBV infection — Caperelli was associate VP of investor relations at
Harmony Biosciences
. She has also held positions in investor relations at
Marinus
,
Advaxis
,
PolyMedix
and
Windtree Therapeutics
.
→ DNA player
Touchlight
— which doubled its fundraising round this year for a total of $125 million —
has added
some new faces to its leadership team with the appointments of
Robin Bodicoat
(head of marketing),
Rhona McIntyre
(head of sales for Europe), and
Julie Foster
(head of sales for North America). Bodicoat previously held roles at
Quotient Sciences
and
Source
BioScience
. Meanwhile, Foster brings with her experience from her time at
Lonza
and
Epistem
, while McIntyre hails from
Lonza Biologics
and
Parexel
.
→ Scottish gamma delta T cell biotech
TC Biopharm
appointed
Sebastian Wanless
as its new senior clinical director. Wanless joins TC BioPharm after leaving Bristol Myers, where he spent 18 years and closed out his time there as VP of intercontinental research.
→
Amphista
announced
that
Joshua Brumm
will replace
Satish Jindal
as its new independent chairman. Brumm currently serves as president and CEO of
Dyne Therapeutics
, and before joining Dyne, he was COO and CFO of
Kaleido Biosciences
. Amphista, a UK-based protein degradation biotech,
debuted
last April and
hauled in
a $53 million Series B round in March.
→
Aarvik Therapeutics
has brought on
Richard Scheller,
former CSO and head of therapeutics of
23andMe,
as its board member and scientific advisory board chair. Previously, Scheller was SVP of research and EVP of research and early development at Genentech. Scheller currently sits on the boards of BridgeBio, 23andMe,
Alector
,
DiCE Therapeutics
and
Maze
Therapeutics
.
In addition to Scheller’s appointment, Aarvik has tapped
Melissa Starovasnik
to be a part of its scientific advisory board. Starovasnik spent nearly three decades at Genentech, serving in a variety of roles such as VP, protein sciences and VP, research operations and structural biology. Starovasnik also sits on the board of
Twist Bioscience
.
→ At the same time that the FDA granted humanitarian use device designation to its treatment of Dandy Walker syndrome,
Bionaut Labs
has plucked up
former president and founding CEO Kite CEO
Aya Jakobovits
to be a part of their advisory board. Until March 2018, Jakobovits served as president and CEO of
Adicet Bio
and previously held roles at
Agensys
and
Abgenix
.
→ Intranasal vaccines-focused
BlueWillow Biologics
has brought on
three new hires to lead its scientific advisory board:
Robin Isaacs
(former CMO of
Entasis
Therapeutics
);
Akiko Iwasaki
(Yale professor in the department of immunobiology and department of molecular cellular developmental biology);
Steve Projan
(former SVP of R&D in the infectious diseases & vaccines innovative medicines unit at
MedImmune
).
→ Stanford spinout
Jasper Therapeutics
, which
grabbed
its ticket to Nasdaq via SPAC reverse merger in May,
has appointed
Lawrence Klein
and
Chris Nolet
to its board of directors. Klein is the current COO of
CRISPR
Therapeutics
, while Nolet was the former West region life sciences industry leader and partner at
Ernst
& Young
.
→
Jae Park
is the
newest addition
to
Allogene
’s scientific advisory board that is chaired by
Ton Schumacher
. Park is a hematologist-oncologist on the Leukemia Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
→ Coinciding with the departures of
Frazier
managing partner
Patrick Heron
and
Rob Hopfner
of
Pivotal bioVenture Partners
,
Annie Drapeau
and
Teri Loxam
have joined
the board of directors at
Vaxcyte
. Drapeau is chief people officer at
Toast
, a payment software company geared toward restaurants, and Loxam is CFO at
SQZ Biotechnologies
.
→
IsoPlexis
, the Connecticut biotech zeroing in on personalized protein “barcodes” that
filed
for a $100 million IPO in July,
has a seat reserved
for
Jason Myers
on the board of directors. Myers is CEO of
Genapsys
and the ex-CEO of
ArcherDX
, bought by
Invitae
for $1.4 billion in 2020.
→ North Carolina biotech
BioCryst
has brought
FDA veteran and Parexel VP
Amy McKee
into its board of directors. She
joined
Parexel as VP of regulatory consulting services in 2019 after an 11-year career at the FDA, ending up as the deputy director for the Oncology Center of Excellence.
→
Optibrium
, a developer of software for drug discovery,
has named
Andy Black
as non-executive chair of its board of directors. Black is the co-founder and former CEO of
Kinapse
and currently serves as chair of
Sygnature
Discovery
.
→
ReForm Biologics
has recruited
Roopom Banerjee
(former president and CEO of
Raindance
Technologies
),
Kirsten Flowers
(CCO for
Kura Oncology
and former SVP of commercial operations at
Array
),
Stuart Randle
(former division president of
Baxter
Healthcare
) and
Edward Sullivan
(comprehensive business strategist and financial expert) to be part of its board of directors.
Paul Schloesser also contributed to this edition.