Changing Faces: Biopharma hires from Dec. 2022 and Jan. 2023

Because of the holidays and the hustle and bustle around JP Morgan, we’re wrapping up our hires roundups from December and January into three double issues – stay tuned for other roundups for agency news, digital health companies, and pharma suppliers.

AstraZeneca UK brings in new head of oncology. AstraZeneca has promoted David Brocklehurst to head of oncology in the UK. Brocklehurst previously headed up the company’s oncology business unit in the Nordics. In addition to leading the company’s UK portfolio and pipeline, Brocklehurst will lead AZ’s collaborations with the NHS.

New Commercial SVP in at Moderna. In December, COVID vaccine-maker Moderna announced a new senior vice president for commercial efforts in Europe, the Middle East, and Canada – Chantal Friebertshäuser, who previously served in a variety of roles at Merck Sharp & Dohme and, prior to that, Eli Lilly. She will report to chief commercial officer Arpa Garay.

Biopharma CEO shakeups. Among smaller biotechs and pharma companies, four companies announced new CEOs in December and January, and one announced a CEO departure.

Italy-based pharmaceutical company Chiesi, which has solutions in respiratory health, rare diseases, and specialty care, announced that Giuseppe Accogli, formerly of Baxter and Medtronic, will join the company as CEO on Monday 3rd April. Acting CEO Marco Vecchia will continue as head of legal and corporate affairs.
Aerami Therapeutics, which is focused on cardiopulmonary and cardiometabolic conditions, has promoted former chief commercial officer Lisa Yañez to CEO. Yañez has previous experience at Merck, Genentech, and GSK. Stay tuned for a JP Morgan interview with Yañez on pharmaphorum later this month.
Ribonexus, a French biotech working on novel targeted cancer therapies, has appointed Steven Powell, previous CEO of eTheRNA Immunotherapies, to its top role.
Boston-based Intergalactic Therapeutics has appointed Dr Theresa G.H. Heah as CEO, replacing Dr Michael Ehlers. Ehlers will become chair of the company’s board of directors. Intergalactic Therapeutics is developing a non-viral gene therapy.
Finally, SIGA Technologies, in the news lately for its TPOXX vaccine that is being pursued as a treatment for Monkeypox, announced the planned retirement of CEO Phil Gomez next year. He is expected to remain at the helm until his successor is found. You can check out our interview with Gomez from last year here.

Other C-Suite hires. Elsewhere in the C-Suite, it’s been an exceptionally busy couple of months, with 19 additional hires and one departure to report. Here’s the short version:

Three companies announced new CFOs – Doug Cubbin at Vaxxas, Reed Malleck at Ratio Therapeutics, and Jose Carmona at ADC Therapeutics. Another three announced new chief business officers – Phil Tinmouth at Mammoth Biosciences, Chris Meaney at Green Bioactives, and Olga Granaturava at Normunity, who will also serve as Chief Operating Officer. Additionally, Michel Janicot is in as chief development officer at Ymmunobio.
The two months also saw five chief medical officer appointments and four chief science officers. The CMO slate includes Lidia Oostvogels at MinervaX, Mohamed Zaki at ADC Therapeutics, Dr Margit Janát-Amsbury at Halia Therapeutics, Dr Michael M. Needle at Cybrexa Therapeutics, and Dr Christian Frietag at Azafaros. The CSOs hires are Johan Van Hoof at Ziphius Vaccines, Kyle Landscroner at Azafaros, Zbigniew Zaslona at Molecure, and Bruce McCreedy at ONK Therapeutics. The month also saw one CSO departure: Christian Kjellman at Hansa Biopharma. And Bree Harlin is in as chief clinical officer at TCBioPharm.
Finally, Anjarium Biosciences and Sphere Fluidics appointed new chief technical officers: Otmane Boussif and Richard Hammond, respectively.