May 21, 2021

Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Fraiser Kansteiner , and we will feature it here at the end of each week. Novartis loses another NIBR exec as neuro expert Shanker joins a gene therapy biotech Tevard Biosciences Gopi Shanker, Ph.D., lands at the startup as chief scientific officer. Shanker's departure marks something of a trend for Novartis. In late April, Jeff Engelman, M.D., Ph.D., left the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) to stand up the new oncology biotech Treeline Biosciences. Just a few days later, fellow Novartis cancer R&D exec Peter Hammerman, M.D., Ph.D., left to start as chief scientific officer of “molecular machines” biotech MOMA Therapeutics. Shanker, for his part, will take up the post of chief scientific officer at gene therapy startup Tevard Biosciences. After heading up neuroscience at NIBR, Shanker will now lead the preclinical scientific programs at the transfer RNA-based gene therapy startup. A few months back, Tevard forged a pact with Zogenix to seek out and work on gene therapies for Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy, and other genetic epilepsies. Fierce Biotech Blueprint adds another BMS vet to its roster with new CSO Blueprint Medicines Percy Carter, Ph.D., takes up the helm of chief scientific officer. Carter is in good company at Blueprint, where he joins former Bristol Myers Squibb compatriot Fouad Namouni, M.D., who became president of R&D last fall. Carter, who joined Bristol Myers Squibb in 2001 and eventually rose through the ranks to senior vice president and head of discovery, will spearhead research and preclinical development as the new chief scientific officer at Blueprint. More recently, Carter held posts at Johnson & Johnson, where he was global head of discovery sciences in the healthcare giant's Janssen unit, and FibroGen, where he was in the CSO seat for less than a year. He joins Blueprint a little over a year after the company's first approval. In January 2020, Ayvakit, kinase inhibitor, became the first targeted treatment for patients with a type of stomach cancer called gastrointestinal stromal tumor who carry a (PDGFRα) exon 18 mutation. Fierce Biotech Iovance CEO Fardis makes a stealthy exit following FDA setback for lead drug lifileucel Iovance Biotherapeutics  Maria Fardis, Ph.D., is hitting the exit. Fardis, who's also Iovance's president and a director, alerted the company on Tuesday that she was resigning to “pursue other opportunities," Iovance quietly revealed in a Wednesday securities filing. Her exit coincides with additional data requests on potency assays for Iovance's lead candidate lifileucel from the FDA. Iovance will continue validating the potency assays and expects to submit further data and meet with the FDA in the second half of 2021. The setback pushes Iovance’s biologics license application submission into the first half of 2022, the company said. The "optics" of Fardis departure are "challenging" and raise "questions about whether something else is behind the change or whether the Board chose to make the change,” Jefferies analysts wrote to clients this week. Long term, “we think the drug works […] and it will eventually get to market," the Jefferies team added. Iovance’s Board will appoint general counsel Frederick Vogt, Ph.D., as interim president and CEO. The company will immediately kick off the hunt for a successor. Fierce Biotech > Passage Bio has bid adieu to chief medical officer Gary Romano, M.D., Ph.D. The gene therapy startup and Romano “mutually agreed” they should part ways Tuesday, and Romano hit the exit that same day. Chief Financial Officer Richard Morris is also leaving the company on May 30, but Passage Bio described the situation differently: It said Morris' “departure was not the result of any disagreement regarding any matter relating to the Company’s operations, financial statements, internal controls, auditors, policies, or practices.” Passage didn't say whether Romano's departure was the result of a disagreement. Fierce Biotech > Merck KGaA has slotted Chris Round into the role of president at its North America healthcare unit, replacing Andrew Patterson, who'll step into the newly minted role of chief marketing officer. EMD Serono is hoping to cash in with three promising drugs––its Pfizer-partnered immuno-oncology med Bavencio, multiple sclerosis treatment Mavenclad and Tepmetko for non-small cell lung cancer. Round will be based in Rockland, Massachusetts. He served for 20 years at Merck & Co. before arriving at Merck KGaA in 2017 to spearhead commercial operations in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Fierce Pharma > Clinical Ink, a global clinical trial technology firm, has summoned Janette Morgan as EVP, general manager, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Morgan joins after a 13-year run at Medidata, where she most recently served as vice president, global partner initiatives & partner business management. In that role, she was in charge of global leadership and management of Medidata’s Partner Study-by-Study business. Release > Xenter, hot on the heels of last week's $12 million series A, has enlisted Scott Heuler as senior vice president of global sales and marketing, while Gary Baldwin signs on as chief technology officer in Xenter's hospital technologies business unit. Baldwin previously led R&D, engineering and product teams for multiple organizations. Heuler, for his part, has held senior sales and marketing leadership roles with NeuroOne Medical Technologies, Guidant Corporation and U.S. Surgical Corporation, Xenter said. Release > Clinical-stage immuno-oncology company Medicenna has tapped Mann Muhsin, M.D., as chief medical officer. With more than 20 years experience in medical practice and drug development, Muhsin signs on with "an outstanding track record of innovation in oncology and immuno-oncology trial design," Medicenna said in a release. Muhsin kicked off his clinical research career at PICR phase I unit, where he conducted more than 17 clinical trials for international sponsors like AstraZeneca, Hoffmann La Roche, Merck, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Bayer. He then went on to lead early clinical development programs at Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit. Release > CDMO and clinical supply services company Experic is putting David Wood in charge as chairman and chief executive officer. Over a 30-year run in the industry, Wood has lead organizations and teams at Captek Softgel International, Catalent Pharma Solutions, Cardinal Health PTS and Becton Dickinson. He's taking the reins from Jeffrey McMullen, one of Experic's founders and its former chairman and CEO. McMullen took on an interim CEO role in 2019 after the untimely passing of the executive previously managing the company. Release > NeuBase Therapeutics, looking to push its first drug candidate into the clinic next year, will welcome Sandra Rojas-Caro, M.D., as chief medical officer on May 24. At NeuBase, she'll be in charge of the preclinical and clinical development, medical, and regulatory strategy of NeuBase’s pipeline. She most recently worked at Gemini Therapeutics, where she held the same post. Before that, she was CMO at Aeglea BioTherapeutics. Release > Rain Therapeutics, working on precision oncology therapeutics, has lifted co-founder Robert Doebele, M.D., Ph.D., into the role of president and chief scientific officer. Doebele co-founded Rain with chairman and CEO Avanish Vellanki in 2017. Before he joined the company full-time in October 2020, Doebele served as associate professor of medicine in the division of medical oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, director of the Thoracic Oncology Research Initiative at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and as principal investigator for the University of Colorado Lung Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence. Release > Precision oncology firm Fore Biotherapeutics is building out its leadership team with the addition of Stacie Peacock Shepherd, M.D., Ph.D., as chief medical officer and Nora Brennan as chief financial officer. Shepherd will oversee clinical strategy and operational advancement of Fore's lead precision oncology program, FORE8394, and she will also help expand the company's clinical pipeline in the coming months. Brennan, for her part, previously served as CFO at TELA Bio, and held the same role at Xeris Pharmaceuticals before that. Release > Cybrexa Therapeutics has summoned Stephen Basso as its chief financial officer. Before joining the Cybrexa team, Basso served as senior vice president of finance at Inozyme Pharma. He also served as vice president, North America commercial finance, global G&A at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and as director, financial planning and analysis at Pfizer. Release > Celularity, developing off-the-shelf cell therapies derived from the postpartum human placenta, has signed on Bradley Glover, Ph.D., as EVP and chief technology officer. At Celularity, Glover will oversee all aspects of the company's technical operations, including process development, quality, manufacturing, supply chain, IT, facilities and engineering, and more. He joins the team from Kite Pharma, where he wore a number of executive hats in corporate development and technical operations. He rose through the ranks at Genentech and Roche before that. Release > Early-stage allogeneic cell therapy company Appia Bio has enlisted Qi Wei, Ph.D. as senior vice president and head of technical operations. Wei is bringing some serious cell and gene therapy know-how to the fold. He's had stints at Novartis, Gilead's Kite, Eli Lilly, TCR2 Therapeutics and Geneception. He had a hand in the development of several CAR-Ts, including Novartis' Kymriah and Kite and Gilead's Tecartus. Release > Aerovate Therapeutics, working on meds for patients with rare cardiopulmonary disease, has handed the CEO torch to Timothy Noyes. Noyes was also elected to the company's board of directors in April. He previously served as president and chief executive of Proteon Therapeutics. He previously served as chief operating officer of Trine Pharmaceuticals and held the position of president of Genzyme’s renal division following its acquisition of GelTex Pharmaceuticals. Noyes started his industry run at Merck & Co.  Release > Biopharma product and portfolio strategy planner Prescient has appointed John Crowley as director of the company's intelligence and insight business, while Sugandh Sharma enters the role of senior director in the same business unit. Before joining the fold at Prescient, Crowley led analyst teams at Decision Resources Group, covering rare diseases in neurology, immunology and hematology, as well as infectious diseases. Release > Cognito Therapeutics, developing a new class of disease-modifying digital therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, tapped Everett Crosland as its chief commercial officer. He recently held the same role at AppliedVR, where he was in charge of national launch sales, marketing and payer strategy on the first breakthrough designated virtual reality therapeutic. Prior to that, he was VP of market access & reimbursement at Pear Therapeutics. Release > Umoja Biopharma, developing an integrated, in vivo immunotherapy platform, has signed on Irena Melnikova, Ph.D., as chief financial officer. She comes over from SVB Leerink, where she was a managing director in investment banking. Before that, she was a managing director at Burrill & Company and, prior to that, director of strategy and external innovation at Sanofi. Release > ONI has enlisted Tyler Ralston, Ph.D., as its chief technology officer. In his role, Ralston will provide leadership, strategic vision and oversee the research and development of ONI's technology. He signs on from the 4Catalyzer incubator, where he most recently served as CTO for Tesseract. Release > Quanterix, working on digital protein biomarker technology to enable precision health, tapped Masoud Toloue as president of Quanterix and Diagnostics. He'll enter the role on June 9. He joins the team from PerkinElmer, where he most recently served as senior vice president, diagnostics. He also founded and led Bioo Scientific’s next generation sequencing business, which was acquired by PerkinElmer in 2016. Release > Gene therapy firm AavantiBio has named Jessie Hanrahan, Ph.D., as Chief Regulatory Officer. She's the fifth senior executive to joins AavantiBio's leadership team in recent months and will be in charge of global regulatory affairs for AavantiBio’s diversified pipeline of gene therapy programs targeting rare diseases with significant unmet medical need. Most recently, she was vice president of regulatory science at bluebird bio. Release Read more on