Changing Faces: Biopharma hires from March 2023

March wasn’t the busiest month for big pharma shakeups, especially compared to the start of the year, but there was plenty of hustle and bustle at smaller pharma and biotech firms. Read on for all the pharma personnel news we heard about this month.

Janssen taps new UK leadership. Roz Bekker, who has worked at Janssen in various capacities since 2005, was appointed managing director of Janssen UK & Ireland at the start of the month. Previously, she was regional commercial strategy leader for infectious disease vaccines. In her new role, she’ll lead the UK region’s commercial business strategy.

LEO showcases two new leaders after re-org. Dermatology-focused firm LEO Pharma is splitting its R&D operations into two distinct functions with different leadership – an early-stage pipeline leveraging external innovation, and its three late-stage assets. The former will be led by EVP and chief scientific officer Dr Jacob Pontoppidan Thyssen, a new hire and renowned dermatologist, who will replace Thorsten Thormann. The latter will be led, on an interim basis, by Dr. Jörg Möller as EVP and chief development officer.

EyeBio builds out scientific leadership team. Ophthalmology biotech EyeBio announced several new appointments, including naming its co-founder Dr Anthony Adamis chief scientific officer. They also announced several other senior leaders: chief regulatory officer Loni Da Silva, global head of clinical operations Frances Betts, CMC lead Mike Davies, and Eric Ng, SVP of biology.

Sosei Heptares announces board appointment, promotion. At its annual shareholder meeting, Japan-based global pharma company Sosei Heptares elected Eiko Tomita to the Board of Directors as an independent external director, and promoted Candelle Chong to EVP and chief of staff, a newly-created role.

Hansa makes C-Suite appointment to lead US affiliate. Swedish company Hansa Biopharma has named Matthew Shaulis as both chief commercial officer and president of its US affiliate. Shaulis has worked at Teva and Johnson & Johnson, but comes to Hansa directly from Pfizer, where he held a variety of leadership roles across various therapeutic areas.

New CEOs at Inozyme, Nanovery, FogPharma. Several pharma and biotech companies announced new top leadership this month.

Inozyme, a Boston company focused on rare disease, announced that founding CEO Axel Bolte is retiring, though he will continue to advise the company and serve on its board. Board chair Douglas A. Treco will take over. The company also announced a new chief operating officer, Matthew Winton, who comes to the company via Biogen.
Nanovery, a Newcastle, England-based biotech working on DNA nanorobots, has appointed Dr Mark Chadwick, a successful serial entrepreneur, as its new CEO.
FogPharma, a Cambridge, Massachusetts precision medicine company, has tapped Dr Mathai Mammen to lead the company as chairman, president, and CEO. Mammen most recently led R&D at Johnson & Johnson and worked at Merck prior to that.

Slew of medical and scientific leadership hires. The title we saw crop up the most in this month’s personnel news was “Chief Medical Officer” and variations thereof.

Boston’s Ascidian Therapeutics, which focuses on RNA rewriting technology, appointed Dr Jay Barth to its CMO role. This is at least his third CMO stint, having held the same title at Amicus Therapeutics and Lexeo Therapeutics.
Swedish biotech Neogap Therapeutics named Dr Hanjing Xie its new CMO. She has a resume that spans industry and academia, including Bayer and the Karolinska Institute. Neogap is working on cancer immunotherapies.
Terns Pharmaceuticals, a California company working across several therapeutic areas, appointed Dr Emil Kuriakose to lead its oncology unit as CMO. He previously served as CMO of Calithera Biosciences and medical director at Novartis Oncology.
Amsterdam’s Freya Pharma Solutions, a late-stage clinical company focused on female sexual disorders, named Christa van Khan as director of clinical operations. Van Khan has more than 25 years of experience in the CRO space.
Boston’s Ratio Therapeutics named Dr Noel Monks, a 20-year drug discovery vet, to its growing team as head of biology. The company is working on targeted radiotherapeutics for cancer.
Ajax Therapeutics, a New York outfit creating novel therapies for myeloproliferative neoplasms, appointed Alan Collis as SVP and head of preclinical development. Collis has held roles at Novartis, Forma Therapeutics, and Nimbus Therapeutics.

More C-Suite appointments. We also saw a number of C-Suite appointments in commercial and business functions.

Finnish immunotherapy specialists Faron Pharmaceuticals have announced that James O’Brien will be the company’s new CFO, replacing Toni Hänninen, who is leaving for another opportunity. O’Brien most recently served as CFO of Cognition Therapeutics, which IPO’d in October 2021 for $52 million.
Avacta Group, a London firm working in both targeted oncology drugs and diagnostics, has named Karen Harrison as chief operating officer of its Therapeutics Division. Harrison’s former posts include VP of talent at Astellas Pharma.
Cambridge, MA biotech Seismic Therapeutics, which uses machine learning for drug development in immunology, has named Melanie Manning to the role of chief people officer. Manning brings 20 years of HR experience, including at Novartis and Biogen.
Portuguese neuro-focused pharma BIAL appointed Max Bricchi, a 25-year pharma vet who most recently headed up neurosciences at Novartis, as its new chief commercial officer.
Cytovation, a Norwegian company focused on immuno-oncology, has hired Dr Iman Barilero as chief development officer. A long-time pharma exec, Barliero has worked at Lundbeck, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Sanofi, and Bristol Myers Squibb.
MitoRx Therapeutics, an Oxford biotech working to reverse mitochondrial dysfunction to address degenerative diseases, announced the hire of a chief development officer, Christine Charman, and a finance director, David Richardson. Charman brings experience from Takeda and Novartis, while Richardson had held senior finance roles at AstraZeneca and Evotec.

Board of Director appointments. Finally, we saw a bevy of board appointments – starting with “Boards of Directors”.

Artax Biopharma, a Massachusetts company working in T-cell mediated diseases, added Andre Hoekema, who recently retired from Galapagos NV after a 40+-year pharma career, to its board.
Autoimmune and autoinflammatory disease specialist Cytrill appointed a new board chair, Paul Peter Tak. Tak currently serves as CEO of Candel Therapeutics, as well as on a number of other boards.
Alaunos Therapeutics, which works in T-cell receptor (TCR) cell therapy, added Robert J Hofmeister to its board, replacing Dr Chris Bowden. Hofmeister is chief scientific officer at a stealth-mode biotech.
Austria’s Proxygen, focused on molecular glue degraders, announced its newly-formed board of directors: Nina Kjellson, a general partner at Canaan; Reinhard Kandera, CFO at Hookipa; Constanze Ulmer-Eilfort, a partner at Peters, Schönberger & Partner; and Proxygen co-founder Giulio Superti-Furga, scientific director and CEO of CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Advisory board appointments. Additionally, several more companies announced editions to their scientific advisory boards.

The aforementioned MitoRx also announced four appointments to its Scientific Advisory Board: University of Oxford Professors Chas Bountra, Dame Kay Davies, and Laurent Servais, as well as Dr Bernd C Schwahn, a consultant in paediatric metabolic medicine at the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Cancer therapeutics maker Ymmunobio, based in Switzerland, tapped Dr Mitsuro Kanda, assistant professor in the department of gastroenterological surgery at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, and Vishal Khairnar, senior scientist at Cytovia Therapeutics, for its advisory board.
NRG Therapeutics, a UK-based outfit focused on mitochondrial dysfunction, announced the formation of a new scientific advisory board. Chaired by Abbvie VP of neuroscience research James Summers, the board also includes ALS Investment Fund CSO Melanie Leitner, former Lilly neuropharmacologist Kalpana Merchant, and long-term Abbott/Abbvie vet Stevan Djuric.