Changing Faces: Pharma supplier hires from July 2023

In our second hires round-up for the month of July, we look at hires in pharma-adjacent industries like CROs, CDMOs, med device, and digital health. And, though it was a light month, it did include some high-level hires and appointments.

Nanotech company taps new leadership. German pharmatech company leon-nanodrugs, which specialises in nanotechnology for encapsulation of genetic material, has a new CEO as of 1st July. Dr Hans Frickel has previously held operational management roles at BioNTech, Evonik, Midas Pharma, Procter & Gamble, and Merck.

Two med device companies make C-Suite hires. Resyca, a joint venture between Recipharm and Medspray, which makes soft-mist inhalers, announced that its current head of development and project management Nicolas Buchmann has been promoted to chief technical officer, replacing Wilbur de Krujif, who is leaving to focus on his own start-up, Thaerapy BV.

Meanwhile, Inspiration Healthcare, maker of neonatal intensive care devices, appointed Alan Olby as CFO and to the board of directors. Olby worked at Sinclair Pharma for 16 years, which included a number of capital raises and M&A transactions.

Three CROs make C-level swaps. Here’s the skinny on July’s changes in the world of clinical research organisations.

• Specialised ion-channel CRO and drug discovery operation Metrion Biosciences, based out of Cambridge, UK, announced two C-Suite appointments: Dr Robert Kirby as chief operating officer and Dr Edward Stevens to chief scientific officer. Both come from within the company; Kirby previously served as director of operations, while Stevens has been serving as director of drug discovery.
   
• Philadelphia’s Clario appointed a new CFO - Jason Knoblauch, who comes from Curia and previously served at PPD - as well as several new VPs. Lauren Misztal, the company’s new SVP and general counsel, has held senior roles at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and McKesson Corporation, as well as spending time as a trial attorney with the justice department. Dr Joyce Suhy, EVP of medical imaging and specialty solutions, is an expert in neuroscience and neuroradiology, and Kristina Lowe, SVP of client success and customer experience, has been at Clario for 18 years, rising through the ranks.
   
• TATAA Biocenter, a global CRO with a focus on high-quality molecular analysis, named Sofia Adolfsson to head of bioinformatics and scientific officer. In her role, she’ll guide the company’s growing precision medicine offering suite. This follows several June appointments for TATAA: CEO Mathias Hallin, SVP commercial operations Kennet Mattsson, and SVP laboratory services Kristofer Hellberg.

Cell and gene CDMOs staff up. Around the world, a trio of CDMOs with specialties in cell and/or gene therapy announced some major hires.

• France’s Flash Therapeutics, a CDMO in the gene, cell, RNA, and vaccine space, announced the appointment of a new president, Jérôme Bédier. Bédier spent many years at Novasep Group before overseeing the launch of cell therapy CDMO activities at Cell-Easy.

• ViroCell, another cell and gene CDMO with offices in London and New York, has a new CFO: Brian Collins, former CFO of the UK’s CGT Catapult. Collins boasts a 30-year career in corporate finance.

• Rentschler Biopharma in Germany, a CDMO with a focus on AAV gene therapies, brought on Dr Dominik Kugelstadt as head of clinical and commercial manufacturing. Kugelstadt comes to Rentschler from Sanofi, where he headed a launch plant responsible for producing antibodies for Phase 3 trials.

Vistim hires DTx talent. Vistim labs, which is developing new biomarkers for central nervous system conditions, hired a new lead scientist, Elena Canadas. Canadas comes from a five-year stint at Akili Interactive, one of the more high-profile DTx companies.

Tech company brings in new strategy lead. Doceree, which builds tech to facilitate messaging between life sciences companies and HCPs, hired Kate Miller as its new EVP of strategy. Miller has 25 years of experience spearheading digital transformation, most recently as chief strategy officer at Evolution Road, an innovation consultancy.

That’s it for this roundup. 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.

Photo by Hunters Race on Unsplash.