Covis Group SARL

→ The top leadership at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals is still undergoing a major makeover as president and COO Jeff Wade heads for the exit on Sept. 30 after 25 years with the Texas-based biotech. Wade won’t be around for the outcome of Lexicon’s latest attempt at an FDA nod in type 1 diabetes for sotagliflozin , which has a Dec. 20 decision date. The drug has already been approved for heart failure and is marketed as Inpefa . Lexicon laid off about 75 people in its sales and commercial teams in August “to right-size our promotional efforts around Inpefa for heart failure and reallocate resources to prepare for our potential launch” in type 1 diabetes and chronic kidney disease, CEO Mike Exton said in a statement. Exton succeeded Lonnel Coats as CEO a month earlier. → Sarepta Therapeutics has appointed Genmab chair Deirdre Connelly to the board of directors. Connelly had a 26-year career with Eli Lilly before pivoting to GSK in 2009 as president, North America pharmaceuticals until her retirement in 2015. She’s also a board member at Macy’s and Lincoln Financial Group . Like Janet Woodcock before him, CBER Director Peter Marks helped Sarepta cross the goal line with a label expansion in June for its Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment Elevidys — overruling his own staff and befuddling experts. → Mitchell Chan has replaced Vit Vasista as CFO of Regenxbio at a time when the company plans to start a pivotal study for its own Duchenne gene therapy. It’s another big change for Regenxbio after Ken Mills became executive chairman and Curran Simpson succeeded Mills as CEO on July 1. Chan spent a year with Catalio Capital Management as operating partner after he was elevated to the CFO post at Viela Bio. Vasista had been finance chief since 2009 and will be an advisor until Jan. 3. → Here’s a look at some CEO news that we covered earlier this week: Former Kite Pharma commercial chief Warner Biddle has succeeded Peter Maag as CEO of Kyverna Therapeutics , which also added ex-Kite CEO Christi Shaw to the board. Shares $KYTX of Kyverna have taken a precipitous fall since its $319 million IPO in February. Ochre Bio co-founder Jack O’Meara is calling it quits after five years as CEO, but he tells Lei Lei Wu that he has an Alzheimer’s startup in the works. In a LinkedIn post announcing his departure, O’Meara also said that former F-star CEO and current Levicept chief Eliot Forster will be interim executive chair. And Shilpa Sambashivan has been promoted to CEO of Nura Bio , which stapled an additional $68 million to its Series A — bringing its total to $141 million. Sambashivan was a project team lead at Amgen before becoming a founding member at Nura Bio. → Matt Kane is taking the top spot at Celyad Oncology , a Belgian biotech that has seen considerable turnover at the top. Celyad co-founder Michel Lussier filled in as interim CEO for a second time after Georges Rawadi ’s sudden exit last December; he also took over when Filippo Petti stepped down in 2022. Kane co-founded Precision BioSciences with Derek Jantz and Jeff Smith , leading the company until he joined epigenome editing startup Tune Therapeutics as CEO in 2021. Kane’s LinkedIn page indicates that he left Tune in April, a year after he hired Jantz as CSO. → Ex- Prometheus Biosciences chief Mark McKenna has found a CFO at his new I&I bet, Mirador Therapeutics . Gregg Gilbert had been a managing director in the healthcare investment banking group for Bank of America Securities since 2021 and worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for 15 years. After selling Prometheus and its inflammatory bowel disease drug to Merck for $10.8 billion , McKenna wasted little time getting Mirador off the ground with a $400 million Series A in March, one of the largest private financing rounds of 2024. → GLP-1 competitor Structure Therapeutics has promoted Blai Coll to CMO and welcomed Ashley Hall as chief development officer. Coll, who replaces Mark Boch , had led clinical development for Raymond Stevens ’ crew since May 2022 and was cardiovascular and metabolic platform lead, medical affairs at the end of a six-year stint with Amgen. Hall is an Amgen vet in her own right who held the role of development chief at Reneo Pharmaceuticals . Structure’s stock price soared in June $GPCR when it produced efficacy data with its oral GLP-1 GSBR-1290 that was on par with Eli Lilly’s obesity drug orforglipron . → Novartis and Gilead veteran Matthias Will has succeeded Edgar Braendle as chief development officer at Autolus Therapeutics . Will had led clinical development at CRISPR Therapeutics and CytomX before his most recent gig as CMO of Dren Bio . The FDA is expected to make a decision by Nov. 16 on Autolus’ CD19-directed CAR-T obecabtagene autoleucel , or obe-cel . → According to an SEC filing , Crinetics chief commercial officer Jim Hassard will pack his bags on Oct. 14 in what’s described as a “termination without cause.” The 17-year Amgen vet came to Crinetics from Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals in March 2022. Phase 3 successes with its acromegaly drug paltusotine have propelled Crinetics to an NDA filing “later this year” and “an expected market launch in 2025,” CEO Scott Struthers said in the San Diego biotech’s second-quarter report. CFO Mark Wilson cited personal reasons for his own upcoming departure, which was also included in Crinetics’ Q2 update. → Allosteric drug discovery shop HotSpot Therapeutics has introduced Alison O’Neill as CMO. O’Neill is the former medical chief at Surface Oncology , which was acquired by Coherus BioSciences last year for $65 million. She had a senior leadership role in the global oncology division at Sanofi and was VP of clinical development for Radius Health . → Ex- Icosavax CEO Adam Simpson has landed at Frazier Life Sciences as a venture partner on its company creation team and will work out of Frazier’s office in San Diego. Simpson sold the vaccine developer to AstraZeneca last December, and his previous company — celiac disease specialist PvP Biologics — was purchased by Takeda in 2020. → Ruben Tommasi has been named CSO of Entact Bio , a Watertown, MA-based biotech led by ex- Ribon Therapeutics CEO Victoria Richon that is developing enhancement-targeting chimeric molecules, or ENTACs. Tommasi has also held this role at Dunad Therapeutics and AstraZeneca spinout Entasis Therapeutics . Entact Bio has kept a relatively low profile since its $81 million Series A in 2022, but it did show up in Peer Review this spring when it recruited fellow Entasis vet Michael Gutch as COO. → Third Rock ’s Treg developer Abata Therapeutics has resurfaced in Peer Review for the first time in more than a year, naming Joanne Beck as chief technical officer. The Shire and Celgene alum is the ex-technical chief at Aerium Therapeutics , the Covid biotech led by Rajeev Venkayya that recently shut down because of a surge in new variants. In April 2023, Abata poached Sonoma Biotherapeutics CMO Leonard Dragone for the same role . → Led by ex- Teva R&D chief Michael Hayden , neuro biotech Prilenia has tapped Rob Lauzen as CFO and Jason Marks as chief legal officer. Lauzen was VP, investor relations and head of financial planning & analysis at Dyne Therapeutics , which made a CMO change and lost its COO and CBO earlier this month. Marks just had a short stint with Teva as a senior legal advisor to global transactions and global finance. The Bausch Health alum has also been chief legal and compliance officer at Amarin . → San Francisco eye disease biotech Ray Therapeutics has selected Christopher Whitmore as CFO. Whitmore had held the same position with Immune-Onc Therapeutics since July 2022, and he was VP, finance & administration for Harpoon Therapeutics from 2018-21. Ray Therapeutics, which hauled in a $100 million Series A last year, will test its gene therapy RTx-015 in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. → Tris Pharma has promoted VP of marketing Manesh Naidu to the role of chief commercial officer. Naidu joined the New Jersey-based company in 2023 after a stint as chief marketing officer of Althera Pharmaceutical . Naidu’s résumé also includes stints at McKinsey , Mallinckrodt , Novartis, Pfizer and Bellerophon Therapeutics . In May, Tris snagged the first liquid non-stimulant ADHD drug approval in the US. Onyda XR will be used to treat ADHD in children at least 6 years of age. → Backed by Jeff Bezos , Seattle-based Nautilus Biotechnology has named Kentaro Suzuki as chief marketing officer. Suzuki most recently served as VP and general manager of Agilent Technologies’ mass spectrometry division. Before that, he was with Takeda and Hewlett-Packard . → San Francisco-based 89bio has appointed Teresa Perney as chief regulatory and quality officer. Perney held this title at EQRx after five years with Myovant Sciences as SVP of regulatory and quality. Madrigal Pharmaceuticals finally broke through with an FDA approval for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (also referred to as NASH), and 89bio is enrolling patients for late-stage studies of pegozafermin — one for non-cirrhotic MASH and another for MASH with compensated cirrhosis. “I’m eager to leverage my experience to navigate the regulatory landscape and help bring this innovative therapy to patients worldwide,” Perney said in a statement . → There’s also a new regulatory chief at Disc Medicine : Steve Caffé spent five years with CRISPR Therapeutics as head of regulatory affairs until his departure last December. Earlier, he had numerous stops as a regulatory exec with such companies as Ra Pharmaceuticals , Sucampo Pharmaceuticals , AMAG Pharmaceuticals and MedImmune . Shares of Disc $IRON fell sharply in early April after mixed data with its drug for a rare blood disorder called erythropoietic protoporphyria, but have rebounded since. → Although AI-designed drugs haven’t exactly lived up to the hype, companies like BPGbio are trying to flip the narrative. This week, GSK alum John Beeler has joined the team as SVP of business development. Beeler comes to BPGbio from Bristol Myers Squibb , where he took on the role of business development search & evaluation lead. → Macrocycle startup Circle Pharma has brought in Marie Evangelista as SVP and head of cancer biology, and promoted Constantine Kreatsoulas to SVP and head of discovery technology sciences. Evangelista spent the last two years as VP of oncology at one of the most ambitious AI drug developers , Recursion . The longtime Genentech vet also had a brief tenure with Frontier Medicines as senior director of translation medicine. Kreatsoulas had a nine-year run at GSK and was the pharma giant’s interim head, computational toxicology before coming to Circle in 2021 as head of research and VP, research informatics and computational chemistry. Circle disclosed its $54 million Series D in an SEC filing this summer. → South San Francisco-based Ideaya Biosciences has recruited Douglas Snyder as general counsel. Snyder most recently served as chief legal officer and secretary of GW Pharmaceuticals . Earlier in his career, Snyder was general counsel and secretary at Actelion and Eisai . Back in July, Ideaya inked a $406.5 million deal with Biocytogen . → Deerfield Group has rolled out the welcome mat for two new execs: Guy Varady as EVP, integrated marketing and Bob Josefsberg as EVP, communications. Before this, Varady was SVP, management supervisor for DDB Health and held a number of roles at IPG Health and Omnicom Health Group . Meanwhile, Josefsberg was VP, corporate communications at Karuna Therapeutics and managing director at Chamberlain Healthcare Public Relations . → Tempest Therapeutics , which revealed early PFS and OS data for its liver cancer combo last October, has brought on Sheldon Mullins as VP, regulatory affairs. Mullins joins the team after gigs at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals and Ardelyx . Earlier in his career, Mullins was with Anacor Pharmaceuticals , Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Genentech. In addition to Mullins’ appointment, Darrin Bomba and Henry Johnson have been promoted to the titles of VP, development operations and VP, CMC & medicinal chemistry, respectively. → Entrada Therapeutics CEO Dipal Doshi has picked up a seat on the board of directors at āshibio , a California biotech that will push its ex-Gilead drug andecaliximab into a Phase 2/3 study for patients with an ultra-rare bone disorder called fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP). Āshibio came out of stealth mode this summer with a $40 million raise . → Akari Therapeutics , which is developing PAS-nomacopan for geographic atrophy, has elected former Epizyme CEO Rob Bazemore to the board of directors. Bazemore is also a board member at Ardelyx and Nuvation Bio .

Dr. Steve Caffé is an accomplished industry executive with over 25 years of expertise in global product development and regulatory affairsWATERTOWN, Mass., Sept. 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Disc Medicine, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRON), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel treatments for patients suffering from serious hematologic diseases, today announced the appointment of Steve Caffé, MD as the company’s Chief Regulatory Officer. Dr. Caffé is an experienced biotech executive with significant expertise in global regulatory leadership across a wide range of therapeutic areas, including hematology, oncology, and rare diseases. “We are excited to welcome an executive as accomplished as Steve to Disc, where his depth of regulatory expertise and experience in global product development will be integral to the company’s growth,” said John Quisel, J.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Disc. “Steve’s track record of successful drug approvals across multiple disease areas and geographies will be a significant advantage for Disc as we move into the later stages of development across our portfolio.” “I am excited to be joining Disc at this pivotal moment in the company’s transition to a late-stage hematology company,” said Dr. Caffé. “With significant trial initiations coming in the next year for all three pipeline programs, I look forward to leading global regulatory interactions to support Disc’s mission of delivering novel treatments to patients with high unmet need. I am excited to work with the talented team at Disc and build on the excellent work done to date.” Dr. Caffé has more than 25 years of experience in global product development and regulatory affairs, having held senior leadership positions at several top biotechnology companies. Most recently, he served as Head of Regulatory Affairs at CRISPR Therapeutics where he was involved in the development and approval of Casgevy® (exagamglogene autotemcel) for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. Prior to joining CRISPR, Dr Caffé was the Senior Vice President leading Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance, Quality, and Patient Advocacy at Ra Pharmaceuticals. Before this, Dr. Caffé held senior-level regulatory positions at a number of other biopharmaceutical companies, including Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, AMAG Pharmaceuticals, MedImmune (Biologics Division of AstraZeneca), Baxter, Sanofi-Aventis and Merck. Across these experiences, Dr. Caffé has contributed to over 40 new drug approvals and major new indications worldwide in a wide range of therapeutic areas. Steve received his M.D. at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France. In connection with Dr. Caffé’s appointment, on September 16, 2024, Disc granted to Dr. Caffé an inducement equity award outside of Disc’s Amended and Restated 2021 Stock Option and Incentive Plan in accordance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4), comprised of (i) an option to purchase 55,000 shares (the “Option Award”) of Disc’s common stock (“Common Stock”), at an exercise price equal to the closing price of the Common Stock on the date of grant, and (ii) a restricted stock unit award for 36,666 shares of Common Stock (the “RSU Award” and, together with the Option Award, the “Inducement Award”). The Option Award shall vest 25% on September 16, 2025, with the remainder vesting in 36 equal monthly installments thereafter. The RSU Award shall vest in equal installments on each of the first, second, third, and fourth anniversaries of the vesting date set by Disc’s company vesting policy. The Inducement Award was approved by the Compensation Committee of Disc’s Board of Directors. About Disc Medicine Disc Medicine (NASDAQ:IRON) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing, and commercializing novel treatments for patients who suffer from serious hematologic diseases. We are building a portfolio of innovative, potentially first-in-class therapeutic candidates that aim to address a wide spectrum of hematologic diseases by targeting fundamental biological pathways of red blood cell biology, specifically heme biosynthesis and iron homeostasis. For more information, please visit www.discmedicine.com. Disc Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, express or implied statements regarding Disc’s expectations with respect to the chief regulatory officer position, upcoming trial initiations in the next year, and Disc’s clinical development plans and related regulatory interactions. The use of words such as, but not limited to, “believe,” “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” “future,” “potential,” “look forward,” “continue,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “will,” “should,” “seek,” “anticipate,” or “could” or the negative of these terms and other similar words or expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based on Disc’s current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of Disc’s business, future plans and strategies, clinical results and other future conditions. New risks and uncertainties may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible to predict all risks and uncertainties. No representations or warranties (expressed or implied) are made about the accuracy of any such forward-looking statements. Disc may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in these forward-looking statements, and investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of material risks and uncertainties including but not limited to: Disc’s expectations regarding the chief regulatory officer position; Disc’s expectations regarding leadership and future growth; Disc’s expectations regarding its research and development programs; Disc’s expectations of entering late-stage development; and the other risks and uncertainties described in Disc’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the “Risk Factors” section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and in subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made. None of Disc, nor its affiliates, advisors or representatives, undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Media Contact Peg RusconiDeerfield Grouppeg.rusconi@deerfieldgroup.com Investor Relations Contact Christina TartagliaPrecision AQchristina.tartaglia@precisionaq.com

Industry veteran Doug Williams is back with a new approach to CAR-T cell therapies that he expects to take into the clinic in the US by year’s end. After a brief stint at Sana Biotechnology , leaving his R&D chief post in the spring, Williams is returning to the role of CEO at a little-known biotech. In recent weeks, he took the top spot at China-born and now California-headquartered biotech TriArm Therapeutics . It’s a position he held at Codiak BioSciences , a startup that tried turning exosomes into medicines, but the relatively nascent idea couldn’t survive on the public markets in 2023. Now, he’s driving TriArm’s mission to “democratize” CAR-T cell therapies using what it calls a “fast-in-time” (FIT) and non-viral manufacturing process, Williams told Endpoints News . He said TriArm’s technology platform has led to a two-day manufacturing process. “There’s also some potential advantages to cell fitness, the actual fitness of the CAR, the composition of cells that we’re reinfusing back into the patient,” Williams said. “We’re preserving a population of cells using this FIT process that may end up being more fit from a biologic perspective because they’re enriched in STEM and naïve T cells,” he added. TriArm has been relatively quiet since launching in 2019. Its financial backers include Panacea Venture , MSD Capital and Lombard Odier , and it employs about 100 people across Shanghai, Taipei and San Mateo, CA. The company aims to speed up the testing of CAR-T therapies and make faster go/no-go R&D decisions by employing an investigator-initiated model in China and then moving into clinical studies in the US, Williams said. “As somebody that is a drug developer by choice and by training, to be able to get a glimpse of what is arguably real data in a population of patients as sort of a preamble to filing an IND and really moving ahead in larger, much more expensive trials, it’s a fantastic setup to have available,” Williams said. Its first US-based trial, testing a CD19-directed autologous therapy, is slated to start later this year, Williams said. A gene therapy could soon enter a similar patient setting with the emergence this week of a new biotech called Vironexis . — Kyle LaHucik → Biogen ’s board continues to evolve under chair Caroline Dorsa , who replaced Stelios Papadopoulos last year. On Jan. 1, ex- AstraZeneca BioPharmaceuticals R&D chief Mene Pangalos will take a seat on the board, and Lloyd Minor — the dean of Stanford University’s School of Medicine — will become a board member much earlier on Oct. 1. After the hubbub surrounding the departure of board member Alex Denner and the appointment of his romantic partner Susan Langer in June 2023, Biogen then elected ex- 3M president and CFO Monish Patolawala to the board in November. Richard Mulligan and William Jones also left the board last year. Pangalos retired from AstraZeneca in April and was replaced by Sharon Barr . → Vir Biotechnology ’s revamp took the spotlight in early August, as CEO Marianne De Backer made the decision to prop up its hepatitis B and D development and wind down its Covid-19, flu and T cell-based viral vector programs. On Wednesday, Vir said that Jason O’Byrne will succeed Sung Lee as CFO on Oct. 2. O’Byrne had the same title at Caribou Biosciences since February 2021 and is the former SVP of finance at Audentes Therapeutics . He spent 13 years with Genentech in a number of roles, including head of commercial finance for the Asia-Pacific region. To accommodate the makeover, Vir laid off about a quarter of its staff. → BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics has selected Yong Ben as chief medical and development officer. Readers may know Ben from BeiGene , where he was CMO, solid tumors from 2019-22, and he’s been a venture partner at Eight Roads for the past two years. Ben was the global clinical leader of immuno-oncology clinical development at AstraZeneca when Imfinzi received its first approval for advanced bladder cancer in May 2017, and a week later, he became CMO of BioAtla . BridgeBio’s oncology spinout debuted in May with a $200 million infusion from Cormorant Asset Management , Omega Funds , GV and others. → As Endpoints News reported on Monday, Eli Lilly ended a three-month search by promoting Lucas Montarce to CFO. He replaces current Alphabet finance chief Anat Ashkenazi , with an interim stint by controller Gordon Brooks sandwiched in between. Montarce’s career at Lilly began in 2001 and has held enough positions to scroll through ever since. He was elevated to president and general manager for the Spain, Portugal and Greece hub in February after nearly three years as group VP, corporate controller and chief financial officer for Lilly Research Laboratories . He takes over as CFO at a time when the Indianapolis pharma’s market cap has exceeded $800 billion. → Pfizer CSO Mikael Dolsten has nabbed a spot on the board of directors at Rocket Pharmaceuticals . Dolsten announced in July that he would leave Pfizer after 15 years, but he’s sticking around until the company finds a successor. In late June, questions about manufacturing resulted in a CRL for marnetegragene autotemcel ( marne-cel ), Rocket’s gene therapy to treat an ultra-rare disease called severe leukocyte adhesion deficiency-I. → Meg Alexander has been promoted to president and COO of Ovid Therapeutics , which is on the verge of starting a Phase 2 study of its Graviton -partnered ROCK2 inhibitor in cerebral cavernous malformations. This is Alexander’s third appearance in as many years after she was named chief strategy officer last year and corporate affairs chief in 2022. “Her extensive experience, operational expertise, and business acumen position her well to lead the next phase of the company’s evolution,” Ovid CEO Jeremy Levin said in a statement . → Sana Biotechnology finance chief Nate Hardy will resign “for personal reasons” on Oct. 4, according to an SEC filing . Hardy was on the finance team at Juno Therapeutics with CEO Steve Harr before he took the CFO job at Sana in 2018. The Seattle-based biotech just hired UCB ’s Dhaval Patel as its CSO. → After five years on the job, Forge Biologics CEO Tim Miller is stepping down , making way for commercial chief John Maslowski to take over Oct. 1. Maslowski initially joined Forge as chief commercial officer in June 2021. Before that, he was president and CEO of Castle Creek Biosciences and Fibrocell Science . → Matt Shaulis is headed to BeiGene as general manager of North America on Sept. 25, while Josh Neiman — the chief commercial officer for North America and Europe — has stepped down “to pursue a new entrepreneurial opportunity at a healthcare technology startup,” according to a release . For the last year and a half, Shaulis has been chief commercial officer and US president for Swedish drug developer Hansa Biopharma , and he took on the role of president, inflammation and immunology for the international developed markets at Pfizer from 2018-21. At the end of his seven-year tenure with the pharma giant, he was elevated to SVP for global commercial and medical go-to-market model transformation. → Jeff Hartness has been named chief commercial officer at I&I biotech Apogee Therapeutics , which hit the Nasdaq with Sagimet Biosciences on July 14, 2023. Hartness spent more than 15 years with Sanofi before jumping to Bausch Health in 2016 as VP, strategic account management. Last year, he was promoted to EVP and head of Bausch Health’s market access, commercial operations, policy and government affairs teams, while serving as general manager of the neurology portfolio and generics businesses. Chaired by ex- Prometheus Biosciences chief and current Mirador Therapeutics CEO Mark McKenna , Apogee is trying to distinguish itself in the atopic dermatitis space with its monoclonal antibody APG777 . → The team at non-opioid pain biotech Latigo Biotherapeutics is quickly taking shape under new CEO Nima Farzan , who succeeded Westlake Village BioPartners ’ Desmond Padhi in late July. After bringing in medical chief Neil Singla last month, Latigo has tapped William Blair analyst Tim Lugo as CFO. Lugo joined William Blair as a senior associate in 2005 and would eventually become a partner, leading the biotechnology equity research team. Latigo also added Westlake managing director Beth Seidenberg and Foresite Capital ’s Jim Tananbaum to the board of directors. → Now that Rytelo ( imetelstat ) is being sold in the US for lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes with transfusion dependent anemia, Geron Corporation has recruited Jim Ziegler as chief commercial officer. Ziegler had been EVP, commercial for Iovance , which secured the long-awaited FDA approval of its TIL therapy Amtagvi for melanoma in February. He also spent a decade in two separate stints with Gilead , culminating in his role as VP of the cardiopulmonary and inflammation business unit. → Alan List is retiring as CMO of Precision BioSciences , and 12-year Merck vet Murray Abramson has jumped on board to lead clinical development. Abramson left Merck in 2011 to become VP of global clinical operations at Biogen, a position he held for nine years. From 2020-22, Abramson was SVP of clinical innovation for Tempus . Precision also said in a release that ex- Aligos Therapeutics EVP John Fry will be a strategic clinical advisor for its hepatitis B program. Following his resignation as president and CEO of Moffitt Cancer Center over his connections to China, List reemerged as Precision’s medical chief in 2021. → Rami Daoud has made his way to gene therapy developer Affinia Therapeutics as chief business and financial officer. Daoud comes off a yearlong stint as president of GeneScience Pharmaceuticals USA and was a corporate development exec with Amarin . Rick Modi ’s crew was an Endpoints 11 winner in 2021 and had IPO aspirations that ultimately faded in late 2022. → HC Bioscience has recruited Simon Tsang to replace Christine Foster as CBO. Tsang is an Amgen corporate development alum who was VP, business development for Tesaro from 2016-19. After GSK bought Tesaro for $5.1 billion, he landed at Pivotal bioVenture Partners as an operating partner. HC Bioscience is in a small-but-emerging group of biotechs working on tRNA-based drugs, along with Flagship ’s Alltrna and Tevard Biosciences . → Rivus Pharmaceuticals , which claimed a Phase 2a win last month with its drug for obesity-related heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, has appointed Tom O’Neil as CFO and ex- ProfoundBio COO/CFO Erin Lavelle to the board of directors. As finance chief, O’Neil helped lead Satsuma Therapeutics to its IPO in 2019 and its sale to Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories last year. Lavelle orchestrated ProfoundBio ’s $112 million Series B in February, and Genmab would agree to buy the ADC biotech less than two months later. She also picked up another board seat this week at Aviceda Therapeutics. → We have an impressive lineup of CMO appointments: First, Eli Lilly’s obesity and metabolic disease partner HAYA Therapeutics has named Jordan Shin as CMO. Shin had been SVP of clinical development and translational science (cardiology) for gene therapy player Lexeo Therapeutics , which went public last November with a $100 million IPO. Earlier, he worked for Renovacor as SVP of clinical development and translational science until it was sold to Rocket Pharmaceuticals . Up to $1 billion is on the line with HAYA and Lilly’s recent drug discovery pact . → Canadian psychedelic biotech Reunion Neuroscience has brought in Mark Pollack as medical chief. Pollack briefly worked for Sage as SVP for global medical affairs and was part of a leadership shakeup that also involved the departures of CSO Al Robichaud and development chief Jim Doherty . Reunion went private last summer with the help of MPM BioImpact , and a $103 million Series A followed in May from MPM, Novo Holdings and several other investors. → A week after Reunion’s Series A financing, San Diego upstart Aardvark Therapeutics raised $85 million in a Series C to bankroll late-stage trials for its Prader-Willi syndrome asset ARD-101 . And like Reunion, Aardvark has found a new medical chief. Manasi Sinha Jaiman was promoted to the same position at stem cell therapy maker ViaCyte before it was sold to Vertex in 2022 for $320 million , and she would stay at Vertex as a VP. In the same release, Aardvark included the appointment of regulatory affairs leader Tom Bicsak , who came on board in July. → Milan-based AAVantgarde Bio is picking up Jayashree Sahni as CMO. Sahni is taking over the reins from Naveed Shams , who had served in the role since 2022. Sahni joins the team from Novartis , where she was senior global program clinical lead. Earlier in her career, Sahni was with Roche , where she worked on the Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials for Vabysmo . → Elsewhere, RA Capital -backed Tyra Biosciences has recruited Doug Warner as CMO. Warner joins the California-based crew from eFFECTOR Therapeutics , where he served in the same role. Previously, Warner had an 18-year stint at Amgen, where he led development of drugs like Vectibix , Xgeva and Prolia . Warner’s appointment comes after Tyra picked up $200 million in PIPE financing in February to progress its oral FGFR3-selective inhibitor, TYRA-300 . → Longwood ’s Solu Therapeutics , which debuted in August 2023 with a $31 million seed round, has welcomed Sergio Santillana as CMO. Peer Review told you about Santillana’s resignation from the same position at Ikena Oncology in February, and he’s also the ex-CMO at Merrimack Pharmaceuticals and Ariad Pharmaceuticals . Earlier in his career, Santillana had a string of roles at Eli Lilly, GSK and Takeda . → Maud Brandely is retiring after eight years as CMO of French cancer biotech Transgene , and Sanofi Genzyme vet Emmanuelle Dochy has replaced her . Dochy just completed a seven-year run at Bayer , where she recently served as VP of global medical affairs for the tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) oncology franchise and scientific partnerships head. Meanwhile, Transgene has also enlisted Roche oncology alum Maurizio Ceppi as CSO. → KalVista Pharmaceuticals has named Brian Piekos as CFO. Far from his first run as finance chief, Piekos served in the role at Elicio Therapeutics , Gemini Therapeutics and AMAG Pharmaceuticals . In May, KalVista announced that it was dropping its preclinical program in hereditary angioedema in favor of focusing on its HAE pill sebetralstat . At the time, KalVista said it would find a partner for its dropped program. → Beverley Carr has taken the CBO post at London-based Charm Therapeutics , a startup co-founded by the University of Washington’s David Baker that uses its 3D deep learning tech DragonFold to discover new drugs. Carr is a GSK business development vet who had been chief business and operating officer for Amphista Therapeutics and then stepped into the role of interim CEO when Nicki Thompson left. → In July, Cue Biopharma announced that it was prioritizing its autoimmune pipeline and slashing 25% of its staff. Now, J&J vet Lucinda Warren has joined the Boston team as CBO. Warren’s 10-year stint at J&J culminated in her role as VP of business development for neuroscience and Japan regionally. Earlier in her career, Warren was with Janssen Cilag Australia and Centocor / Janssen Biologics . → Verily , the healthcare company spun out of Google parent Alphabet , has rolled out the welcome mat for Michael Radwin as its new head of data science and AI. Radwin joins from the CDC, where he was a founding member of the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology. Radwin’s résumé also includes roles at Intuit and Yahoo . Earlier in June, Verily announced that it was jumping into the GLP-1 business with the launch of a new virtual program to help patients manage cardiometabolic diseases with care teams and medications. → Dutch biotech VarmX , which is developing a reversal agent for blood thinners, has promoted Martijn Negen to the role of COO. Negen joined VarmX last September as SVP of global commercial strategy & business development from AM-Pharma . He also has experience from Portola Pharmaceuticals , Teva Global Specialty Medicines and Genentech. → Opthea has announced a slew of changes to its leadership team. First, the company is losing commercial chief Judy Robertson , CFO Peter Lang and SVP, global clinical operations Bruno Gagnon , effective Sept. 9. Filling in for Lang and Robertson in the interim will be Danforth Advisors managing director Daniel Geffken and Genentech and Novartis vet Mike Campbell , respectively. Meanwhile, Jen Watts will succeed Gagnon. That’s not all: Opthea is also picking up Dayong Li as SVP, biometrics and Anthony Bonifazio as VP, market access. → UK respiratory disease biotech Enterprise Therapeutics has introduced Annabella Amatulli as head of regulatory affairs. The Janssen vet was the global regulatory sciences leader for Alfasigma , the Italian company that bought Ocaliva maker Intercept Pharmaceuticals . → Tonix Pharmaceuticals has brought aboard Thomas Englese as EVP of commercial operations. Englese was formerly chief commercial officer of Tris Pharmaceuticals and Aziyo Biologics . Before that, he had an 11-year run with Mallinckrodt , culminating in his role as SVP and general manager of North America hospital therapies. → A handful of VCs have been making some moves. First up: Abingworth has turned to SFJ Pharmaceuticals founder and executive chair Robert DeBenedetto to tackle the role of managing director, clinical co-development; Sofinnova Partners has added a new partner. Karl Naegler just completed a four-year run as managing partner with Wellington Partners Life Sciences in June; and finally, Frazier Healthcare Partners has named Willis Chandler as an executive-in-residence on the growth buyout team. Chandler left Cencora (formerly AmerisourceBergen ) in June after nearly three years as president of global pharma services and six years overall. → Co-founded by Jim Wilson , Passage Bio has elected Ultragenyx CBO Tom Kassberg to the board of directors. One of Wilson’s new companies, GEMMA Biotherapeutics , licensed a trio of gene therapy candidates from Passage Bio in early August. → Enoch Kariuki has joined the board of directors at Cyrus Mozayeni ’s ADC shop Pheon Therapeutics , which is chaired by ex- Blueprint Medicines chief Jeff Albers . Kariuki became president of Endeavor BioMedicines this year and ran Lengo Therapeutics until it was purchased by Blueprint in 2021. → Yoshiharu Mizui now has a seat on the board of directors at SEED Therapeutics , the biotech near Philadelphia that struck a “molecular glue” deal with Eisai last month. Mizui is the president of Eisai’s VC arm, Eisai Innovation , and he also juggles two other roles as head of collaboration & incubation in the DHBL (Deep Human Biology Learning) office and head of academic & industry alliance. → Creyon Bio has made room for DCVC Bio operating partner Serge Messerlian and Lux Capital principal Shaq Vayda on the board of directors. Messerlian has board seats at Auron Therapeutics and Plexium , and Vayda’s numerous board credits include Atavistik Bio and Enveda Biosciences .