Changing Faces

We’re back on track this month with Changing Faces as we look back at the month in pharma and biotech hires and – especially this month – departures. Yes, a number of high-profile departures this month poked above the noise to be featured in the regular news section on pharmaphorum, as a handful of big pharmas seek to fill big shoes at top R&D roles.

Three big pharmas saying goodbye to R&D leaders. Within just over a week, news broke that Pfizer, Gilead, and AbbVie were all facing high-profile R&D departures, though there’s no reason to believe the confluence is anything other than coincidence. Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer and president of R&D, was the first to announce a departure, followed shortly by AbbVie CSO Thomas Hudson who is retiring after four years in the role. A week later, Gilead chief medical officer Merdad Parsey made clear his plan to depart some time next year.

AbbVie highlights two promotions. Out of the three high-profile R&D departures, only one company announced a succession plan: AbbVie is promoting chief medical officer Roopal Thakkar to the open CSO spot. Thakkar joined Abbvie in 2003 as part of its physician development programme. AbbVie also announced that Steve Hopkinson, who has held various senior UK, European, and global commercial roles across his 10-year career at AbbVie, is stepping into the role of VP and general manager for the UK – replacing Todd Manning, who is retiring.

Three biotechs welcome new leadership. Two UK and one US biotech announced new leadership this month:

At Oxford’s Sitryx Therapeutics, which focuses on autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, Iain Kilty stepped up from the chief science officer position to become the CEO. Kilty replaces Neil Weir, who transitions into the role of president while maintaining his presence on the Board.
San Francisco drug discovery company Terremoto Biosciences announced that Dr Charles Baum, who led Mirati Therapeutics through its acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb for $5.8 billion, will take over as CEO.
UK-based Nucleome Therapeutics welcomed Mark Bodmer as their new CEO on 16th July. With an impressive background including positions at Evelo Biosciences, UCB, and GSK, Bodmer brings valuable expertise to this biotech, which is using 3D genomics for precision medicine.

SFA Therapeutics and HAYA Therapeutics announce new COOs. Mid-month, James Kirwin joined SFA Therapeutics as chief operating officer. Kirwin’s 20-year career includes stints at Pfizer and AstraZeneca, and most recently he was executive director and global head of clinical operations at Arvinas. SFA Therapeutics is a Pennsylvania pharma company working on oral small-molecule compounds to treat inflammatory disease. Around the same time Eric Adam was appointed COO at HAYA Therapeutics. Adam, a former Roche global head of operations and former Otsuka director of strategic alliances, joins the precision medicines company developing programmable therapeutics targeting regulatory RNAs.

New CFOs abound in bio-world. July saw so many business and finance appointments that we’ve got to put them in multiple bulleted lists. Here’s who’s newly managing the books.

Nouscom, a Basel, Switzerland biotech working on off-the-shelf and personalised cancer vaccines, announced that Tiffany Muller who joined Nouscom in 2019 and has served as VP then SVP of finance, would step into the CFO role. Incidentally, Nouscomm also promoted Loredana Siani, who joined Nouscom as technical director in 2020 from Reithera, a CDMO, as SVP of technical and CMC development.
New York’s Y-mAbs brought on board Peter Pfreundschuh, who has previously served in financial leadership roles at Voyager Therapeutics among others. Y-mAbs is developing radiotherapies and antibody-based products for cancer treatment.
Fernando Ballester joined Clinigen as CFO, bringing his extensive experience from various CFO roles, most recently at Italy’s ICE Pharma. Clinigen is a London-based global specialty pharma company focused on access to care.
London’s CNX Therapeutics announced on 4th July that Claire Masterson would take over as CFO, replacing Olga Lund, who is stepping down for personal reasons. Masterson brings extensive financial management experience to the company, which focuses on improving access to essential medicines.
Simon Jones joins Curve Therapeutics, a UK biopharma focused on a novel intracellular screening platform, as CFO and COO. Jones brings C-Suite experience from SpyBiotech and Karus Therapeutics.

Getting down to business. A number of other biotechs made C-Suite appointments around business, development, and business development.

Leone Patterson joined Zymeworks, a Vancouver clinical-stage biotech focused on difficult-to-treat diseases, as chief business and financial officer. Patterson has held leadership positions at Adverum Biotechnologies, Diadexus, Transcept, Exelixis, Novartis, Chiron, and, most recently, Tenaya Therapeutics.
Sutro Biopharma, a California biopharma focused on site-specific and novel-format antibody drug conjugates for cancer treatment, tapped Barbara Leyman as chief business development officer. Leyman most recently served as SVP of corporate development at GenEdit, a developer of genetic medicines.
Dr Bharat Reddy joined Rectify Pharma as chief business officer. Reddy is an experienced business development professional whose past companies include Kelonia Therapeutics, Catamaran Bio, and bluebird bio, and he joins a Massachusetts outfit developing small molecule disease-modifying therapeutics that restore and enhance ABC transporter function.
Finally, Hélène Sicard joined DiogenX as chief development officer. Sicard brings 25 years of experience in development across different drug classes (antibodies, small molecules, cell therapies) and therapeutic areas. DiogenX is a French company focused on regenerating insulin-producing beta cells for the treatment of diabetes.

Don’t skip the commercials. Continuing the parade of C-Suite appointments, several firms announced appointments to the chief commercial officer role.

Lori Englebert joined Compass Pathways, a biotech investigating a new psilocybin treatment for mental health, as CCO. Englebert joins after a five-year stint on the executive team at Axsome Therapeutics, following a decade at Amgen.
Innoviva Specialty Therapeutics, a Massachusetts company developing therapies for infectious diseases, brought on board Patricia Drake as CCO. Drake most recently served as SVP and chief commercial officer at Trevena and previously worked at MSD and Merck.
At the end of the month, Marcus Droege joined Muvon Therapeutics as CCO. Droege brings extensive cell and gene therapy experience earned at AveXis, bluebird bio, and Novartis. Muvon Therapeutics is a Swiss outfit developing a novel therapeutic platform for the regeneration of skeletal muscle tissue based on autologous cells.

Immunotherapy and cell therapy firms invest in R&D talent. Several biotechs this month also announced new scientific and medical leadership.

Bringing executive experience from the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and the GSK Centre of Excellence for External Drug Development, Dr Jonathan Appleby joined Mogrify as chief scientific officer. Mogrify is working on a proprietary suite of platform technologies using computational modelling to enable direct cellular reprogramming and maintenance of cell identity.
Stephan Braun signed on with ImCheck Therapeutics as chief medical officer. Braun has previously held executive and leadership roles at Basilea, Ipsen, Parexel, Symphogen, and Amgen. ImCheck Therapeutics is a Marseille-based biotech focused on the development of immunotherapeutic antibodies targeting butyrophilins.
Scancell, a clinical-stage biopharma company with a focus on cancer immunotherapies, tapped Dr Nermeen Varawalla as chief medical officer. She brings 25 years of healthcare industry experience in senior leadership positions at global large pharma, healthcare business consultancy, and clinical trial services.
Dr Amanda Mackenzie is in at Glen Clova Scientific as director of R&D operations. Mackenzie, a former R&D director at Keltic Pharma Therapeutics, has 10 years of experience in the space and now joins a UK-based biopharma company working on biologics for inflammatory and autoimmune disease.

Two more for the C-Suite. As the month came to a close, two companies announced hires to additional C-level posts. Swiss specialty pharma Santhera Pharmaceuticals named Dr Oliver P Kronenberg to the post of chief legal officer and corporate secretary, succeeding Oliver Strub, who will move into the position of head of compliance. And Stephanie Fagan joined MindMed, a New York clinical-stage biopharma working on brain health, as chief corporate affairs officer. After getting her start at J&J, Fagan has worked her way up through VP and C-Suite roles at Alexion, bluebird bio, and Agenus.

Three moves at Vedanta. Vedanta Biosciences, a PureTech spin-off focused on gastrointestinal diseases and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced three significant appointments. Christof Marré, who most recently served as VP of marketing & pipeline planning at Alpine Immune Sciences, recently acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, is in as SVP and head of commercial; Dr Steven Shiff, a gastroenterologist by training who most recently served as SVP and head of clinical development at Intercept Pharmaceuticals, will be SVP of clinical research; and Jack Kyte has been promoted from VP to SVP of human resources after four years with the company.

NMD builds up mid-level ranks. NMD Pharma, a Danish clinical-stage biotech with a focus on severe neuromuscular diseases, also made three hires this month. Peter Kasten brings 15 years of finance experience (including 10 years at Novo Nordisk) to the role of VP of finance. Cecilia Sparr Eskilsson brings 20 years of drug development experience at AstraZeneca and LEO Pharma to the role of VP of project management. And Maja B. Nielsen is in as people and culture director, joining from renewable wind energy company ENABL, where she was VP of global HR.

Looking for the Board appointments? In order to give Board appointments their due as the exciting developments they are, we’re trying something new this month: spinning Board appointments into their own round-up across all company categories. Keep an eye out for that soon.

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.