Changing Faces

February saw several changes on boards at biotechs, bringing a diverse wealth of experience to support these companies. Read on for our round-up of both Board of Director and Advisory Board hires.

Lundbeck replaces long-serving Chair. Dorothea Wenzel will be appointed Chair of the Board at Lundbeck, the Danish biopharma company focused on brain health, replacing Lars Søren Rasmussen, who chose not to seek reelection after 12 years of service. Wenzel has served on the board since 2021. Before joining Lundbeck's board, she built an extensive career at Merck KGaA in financial and commercial roles.

Three UK biotechs tap new leadership. Lundbeck wasn’t the only company making a change at the top of its board.

Dr Michael Murray took the helm as Chair at Glox Therapeutics, a UK company developing precision-engineered treatments to combat antimicrobial resistance. Murray brings 30 years of senior management experience in life sciences to the role and currently serves as principal at Murray International Partners.
Meanwhile, Cyrus Mozayeni was named Chair of the Board at LoQus23 Therapeutics, a Cambridge-based biotech developing small molecule somatic expansion inhibitors for Huntington's Disease and other triplet repeat expansion diseases. Mozayeni's background includes working at several high-profile biotechs, notably serving as president & CEO of Vedere Bio from its inception through to its acquisition by Novartis.
At TheraCryf, a UK-based clinical-stage drug development company focused on oncology and neuropsychiatry, Dr Alistair Smith assumed the position of non-executive Chair. Smith founded and formerly led Avacta Group and holds a professorship in molecular biophysics at the University of Leeds.

Altimmune strengthens board with industry veterans. Altimmune, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company from Maryland developing innovative next-generation peptide-based therapeutics, welcomed two industry veterans to its Board of Directors. Teri Lawver, who previously served as EVP and chief commercial officer at connected glucose monitoring company DexCom and held leadership roles at Johnson & Johnson, joined the board alongside Jerry Durso, a pharma executive with 30 years of experience including positions at Intercept Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi.

Legal experts join Nxera pharma board. Japanese biopharma Nxera Pharma, which focuses on assets in neurology, GI, and immunology, metabolic disorders, and rare diseases, bolstered its Board of Directors with two new appointments. Nicola Rabson, a partner at international law firm Linklaters LLP, with extensive experience in employment law, was appointed to the board. She was joined by Naoko Shimura, who brings considerable expertise in domestic and international corporate legal affairs and M&A as a partner at major Japanese law firm Nishimura & Asahi.

Two more biotech board appointments. Rounding out the Board of Directors appointments, we saw two others this month.

Martin Dewhurst joined the Board of Directors at Cytovation, a Norwegian clinical stage immuno-oncology company. Dewhurst spent much of his career at McKinsey, where he co-led the global life sciences practice.
Nuclera, a Cambridge, UK company with a platform for rapid protein expression and purification, appointed William J Kullback as non-executive director. Kullback currently serves as CFO at Telesis Bio, a company specialising in automated synthesis technology for therapeutic discovery.

LabGenius Therapeutics expands Scientific Advisory Board. LabGenius Therapeutics, a drug discovery company leveraging machine learning to discover novel therapeutic antibodies, announced three additions to its Scientific Advisory Board: Dr Vivek Subbiah, who serves as the chief of early phase drug development at Sarah Cannon Research Institute; Prof Michael Dustin, director of research and professor of molecular immunology at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology; and Dr Robert Lutz, a key figure in the history of ADCs (antibody-drug conjugates) who previously held leadership positions at Immunogen and Iksuda.

European biotechs add high-profile experts to advisory boards. Dr Aleix Prat was named Chair of the Advisory Board at Ona Therapeutics, a Barcelona-based biotech working on novel antibody-drug conjugates. Prat, a precision oncology expert with more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, also directs the Clínic Barcelona Comprehensive Cancer Center. Additionally, Glox Therapeutics bolstered its team by appointing Dr Nel Moore to its Scientific Advisory Board. Moore previously served as VP of antibiotics development at AstraZeneca, bringing big pharma expertise to the UK company's efforts to combat antimicrobial resistance.

That’s it for this hires round-up, but stay tuned for our other categories and remember, you can send your own hires to editorial@pharmaphorum.com for inclusion in this column.