Changing Faces

Welcome back to Changing Faces for the month of July. We’re trying something new this month. Rather than consigning the many Board appointments we hear about each month to a long bulleted list at the bottom of each round-up, we’re moving them to their own article so they can shine.

Big pharma vets make a splash at immunotherapy firms. Biotechs working on immunotherapies added some big names from top pharma companies to their Boards this month.

Dr Alise Reicin, whose extensive clinical development experience notably includes leading the initial development and filing activities for Merck's Keytruda, has joined the Board of Directors at Immatics, a biotech focused on T-cell receptors in cancer immunotherapy.
Paul Carter, a longtime pharma executive at Gilead Sciences and GSK, has been named Chair of the Board at Memo Therapeutics, a Zurich-based late-stage biotech company investigating novel immune responses to treat viral infections and cancer.
Dr Florian Reinaud, with 20 years of leadership and investment experience, has been appointed to the Board of Directors at Scancell, a clinical-stage biopharma company focused on cancer immunotherapies.
Sarah Boyce, president and CEO of Avidity Biosciences, has been appointed to the Board of Directors at Abcuro, a Massachusetts biotech developing immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer.

A busy month for the CGT space. A number of biotechs in the burgeoning cell and gene therapy spaces announced new Board members in July.

Antonin de Fougerolles, former CEO of Evox Therapeutics and CSO of Ablynx, has been appointed Chair of the Board at LifT BioSciences, a London-based pre-clinical biotech working on allogeneic cell therapy. Fougerolles will be busy, as he has also this month taken on the role of Chair of the Board at etherna, an mRNA technology platform company based in Belgium.
Luke Beshar, bringing 35 years of board and C-Suite experience, has been named Independent Chair of the Board at Quell Therapeutics, a London biotech working on engineered T-regulatory cell therapies.
Joseph S. Zakrzewski, former CEO of Amarin Pharmaceuticals and Xcellerex, has been named Chair of the Board at Atsena Therapeutics, a North Carolina clinical-stage gene therapy company.
Geoffrey Hodge, former CEO of SOTIO Biotech US, has joined the Board of Directors at Cellular Origins, an equipment supplier for cell and gene therapies.

Two notable vaccine appointments. Vaxcyte, a California-based vaccine innovation company, added John Furey, CEO of Imvac, to its Board of Directors, while Staph Leavenworth Bakali, previously CEO and president of the commercial arm of The George Institute for Global Health, has joined LimmaTech Biologics, a Swiss clinical-stage vaccine developer, as Chair of the Board.

Comms consultancy adds big pharma muscle. Oxford PharmaGenesis, a global health and science communications consultancy, has brought aboard Christopher Rains as its first Non-Executive Director. Rains’ 30 years of executive experience includes tenures at Takeda, Shire, and AstraZeneca.

New directors flood neuro companies. Another area that saw a ton of Board activity in July was neurological disease research.

Dr Purnanand Sarma, with a 30-year career including CEO and Board Member of TARIS Biomedical, has been appointed Chair of the Board at STALICLA, a Swiss neuro precision biotech company.
Adam Rosenberg, founding CEO of Aliada Therapeutics, Athenen Therapeutics, and Sionna Therapeutics, has taken on the role of Chair of the Board at VectorY, an Amsterdam-based company creating transformative vectorised antibody treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.
Jean-Guillaume Lafay, founder of Mablink Bioscience, has joined the Supervisory Board at Axoltis Pharma, a French biopharma focused on neurodegenerative and neurotraumatic diseases.
Grant C. Bogle, a seasoned biotech executive and former CEO at Epizyme, is now part of the Board of Directors at Myrobalan, a Massachusetts biotech developing oral neurorestorative therapies.
Dr Karen Smith, who has held various leadership roles at Allergan, AstraZeneca, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, joined the Board of Directors at Skye Bioscience, a California company working on novel applications of the endocannabinoid system.

AI and digital health appointments. We also saw some quite high-profile appointments among data, AI, and digital health companies.

Iskra Reic, who oversees AstraZeneca’s global vaccines and immune therapies pipeline as vice president, has been appointed to the Board of Directors at myTomorrows, an Amsterdam tech firm using AI to connect patients with treatment options.
Alex Dickinson, co-founder and CEO of Luxtera, has been appointed Chair of the Board at BC Platforms, a real-world data solutions company.
Raymond W Cohen, co-founder and CEO of Axonics, has joined the Board of Directors at Kestra, a digital healthcare company in the mobile cardiac monitoring space.
Simon Harford has resigned from the Board of Directors at drug discovery company C4XD after three years, making room for Richard Jones, most recently CFO of telemedicine company Medica Group, and Harmesh Suniara, a portfolio manager at Lombard Odier Asset Management, to join as Non-Executive Board members.

Manufacturing and research partners expand Boards. A handful of companies that support pharma research and manufacturing also named new Board members.

Mathias Karlsson, chief medical officer at Capitainer, has been appointed to the Board of Directors at Labquality, a global company offering quality assessments and regulatory consulting.
Lonnie Shoff, former president of the clinical diagnostics division at Thermo Fisher Scientific, has joined the Board of Directors at Medix Biochemica, a maker of raw materials for in vitro diagnostics.
Didier Deltort, who has held leadership roles at GE Healthcare and Boston Scientific, has joined the Supervisory Board at Vivolta, a Netherlands-based CDMO.
Dr Judith Dunn and Dr Auro Nair have both joined the Board of Directors at BioIVT, a global research partner and biospecimen solutions provider. Dunn’s 25 years of healthcare experience include leadership roles at Roche and Pfizer, while Nair brings 30 years of experience and currently serves on the Board of the Institute for Protein Innovation.

Two non-profits add to Boards. Foundazione Telethon, an Italian non-profit funding biomedical research, has appointed Ilaria Villa as managing director. Villa brings managerial experience in multinational pharmaceutical companies. And Prasanna Parthasarathy, CEO of Medvantx, has joined the Board of Directors at NeedyMeds, a US non-profit connecting people to healthcare cost assistance programmes.

That’s it for this edition of Changing Faces. Remember, if you’ve had a recent appointment and you work in or around the pharma space, we want to hear about it. Please send your press releases to editorial@pharmaphorum.com to be included in future editions of Changing Faces.