Bayer enlists Jürgen Eckhardt to leap into an additional role; Mirati tops list of multiple CFO exits

Jürgen Eckhardt

→ Jürgen Eckhardt’s responsibilities at Bayer will expand on Sept. 1, as he becomes the head of business development & licensing/open innovation for the German conglomerate’s pharmaceuticals division. Eckhardt will be pulling double duty as he continues to run Leaps by Bayer, the venture arm that has backed such biotechs as Affini-T Therapeutics, Boundless Bio and Tim Lu’s Senti Bio. Friedemann Janus stepped up to the plate in an interim capacity and had expressed his interest in being the permanent successor to Marianne De Backer, who’s in her first year as CEO of Vir Biotechnology. “One of the things that the management board is really focused on is how do we radically accelerate everything at Bayer,” new CEO Bill Anderson said in his maiden earnings call. “Our benchmark isn’t other large companies — our benchmark is a sole proprietor, a startup.”

Laurie Stelzer

→ Mirati CFO Laurie Stelzer is wrapping up her short tenure on Sept. 8, temporarily handing the keys to Aaron Ondrey. Stelzer and Ondrey both came from Arena Pharmaceuticals, where she held the same title and he served as VP of finance. Stelzer joined Mirati in May 2022 and Ondrey — a Regeneron and Alexion vet — arrived a couple months later as SVP, financial planning and analysis. It’s another significant change in Mirati’s leadership after CEO David Meek resigned from the San Diego biotech on Aug. 7. Charles Baum has returned to the top spot while the search continues for a new chief executive.

Scott Burrows

→ Arcutis Biotherapeutics CFO Scott Burrows is stepping down on Aug. 31 “to pursue an external opportunity,” and the Zoryve maker is bringing back John Smither as interim finance chief. Smither was the original CFO at Arcutis and retired on April 1, 2021, when Burrows was promoted from within to replace him. Smither’s previous CFO posts include stops at Kite (interim), Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Sienna Biopharmaceuticals (twice), and Unity Biotechnology.

Daphne Quimi

→ Daphne Quimi will retire after 16 years in multiple positions at Amicus Therapeutics, which notched a UK approval last week for its Pompe disease combo Pombiliti + Opfolda. Although Quimi is staying with the company until the end of this year, Simon Harford has succeeded her as CFO with immediate effect. He’s a GSK vet who had been the CFO of another rare disease player, Albireo Pharma, until it was sold to Ipsen for $952 million. Amicus promoted Quimi to finance chief in January 2019 after almost three years as SVP, finance and administration.

Amy Peterson

→ Vicki Goodman is out after 19 months at Exelixis, and Amy Peterson is replacing the Big Pharma alum as EVP, product development & medical affairs and CMO. We told you about Peterson’s departure as president and COO of CytomX along with CFO Carlos Campoy and CMO Alison Hannah in July 2022; CytomX also eliminated 40% of its workforce as part of the restructuring. Peterson’s appointment comes as Exelixis and Roche just revealed positive results for its Tecentriq/Cabometyx combo in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Shawn Leland

→ Fore Biotherapeutics will try to hit it close to the pin with its next CEO, and it could be ex-Elevation Oncology chief Shawn Leland, who’s taking the job on an interim basis. When Elevation announced a pipeline reorg, putting anti-Claudin18.2 ADC EO-3021 at the top of the queue, Leland resigned and CFO Joseph Ferra took his place. Ferra’s interim tag was removed a few weeks ago. Fore’s current CEO Matthew Ros is leaving Sept. 1 “to redirect his energy toward other professional pursuits,” according to the press release. Last year he succeeded Usama Malik, the one-time Immunomedics CFO who pleaded guilty to insider trading in May.

Concurrent with the change at the top, Fore also secured a $75 million Series D from SR One, Medicxi, OrbiMed and a number of other investors. Medicxi partner Giovanni Mariggi has been added to the board of directors.

→ Vistagen’s stock $VTGN jumped astronomically when it unveiled Phase III data for its social anxiety nasal spray fasedienol earlier this month, and the South San Francisco biotech has now picked up Cindy Anderson as CFO to take over for the retiring Jerrold Dotson. Anderson had been Alnylam’s chief accounting officer and was senior director, financial reporting during her eight years with Alexion.

Mark McKenna

→ Merck may have closed its $10.8 billion deal to buy Prometheus Biosciences, but Mark McKenna isn’t letting up, chairing the board at Apogee Therapeutics. McKenna’s experience in the immunology and inflammation space as Prometheus’ chairman and CEO — on the strength of TL1A inhibitor PRA023 — was a major draw for Apogee, one of the few biotechs to debut on the Nasdaq this year with a $300 million upsized IPO. “Having someone that built a company, and as Mark alluded to, had gone through ups and downs and knew how to manage the storm and build something that could go the long haul as well, and had a really solid foundation was key,” Apogee CEO Michael Henderson told Endpoints News. Click here to read more of Kyle LaHucik’s interview with McKenna and Henderson.

→ Exicure has been on a downward slide, cutting ties with Ipsen and AbbVie and then axing two-thirds of its staff in April, including its CEO Matthias Schroff and CFO Elias Papadimas. After that, Jung-Sang (Michael) Kim stepped up to the plate to fill those two roles, but we’re now learning that he hit the exit last Friday. In hopes of righting the ship, the Chicago-based company has brought aboard Paul Kang (former CEO of Alpha Capital Group) as CEO and Jiyoung Hwang as CFO. In addition, the company has welcomed Hyuk Joon (Raymond) Ko and Dongho Lee to its board of directors to fill in the spots for Kim and Changil Ahn.

Ramzi Benamar

→ Ramzi Benamar will take on the CFO post at “C’dot-drug-conjugate” developer Elucida Oncology on Sept. 1. Benamar’s previous CFO appointment was with Bellus Health, a company that represents GSK’s only M&A activity in 2023 to date, and he also had a brief run as finance chief of DBV Technologies. Geno Germano’s crew at Elucida raised about $30 million in a Series A-2, and former chief financial and business officer Ian Somaiya told Endpoints that Elucida intended to add another $10 million to $20 million haul down the line.

Christina Yi

→ Christina Yi has signed on as chief technology officer of Seattle-based Alpine Immune Sciences, whose stock $ALPN has made a substantial recovery in the months since a second patient death forced the biotech to halt enrollment of two davoceticept trials. Yi was previously the operations chief for Provention Bio, the maker of the type 1 diabetes med Tzield that Sanofi purchased for $2.9 billion. Her predecessor, Wayne Gombotz, is retiring after four years with Alpine.

Jenny Holt

→ Eye disease upstart Ray Therapeutics has promoted Jenny Holt to chief development officer. Holt became SVP, program portfolio management at the optogenetics gene therapy biotech last year after serving as VP, program management at 4D Molecular Therapeutics. Ray loaded up on cash a few months ago with a $100 million Series A that will push its lead asset RTx-015 into early-stage studies for retinitis pigmentosa, Stargardt disease and geographic atrophy.

→ Under the leadership of Kinnate Biopharma co-founder and ex-CSO Eric Murphy, cancer-focused Alterome Therapeutics has tapped Andrew Chi as CMO. From 2019-21, Chi was a key figure in the development of the KRAS drug adagrasib as executive medical director at Mirati. It would later get approved as Krazati after he moved to his most recent gig as VP of clinical development at Bright Peak Therapeutics, setting up a big showdown with Amgen in the KRAS space.

→ Redwood City, CA biotech Adverum Biotechnologies has recruited Andrew Ramelmeier as chief technology officer. Ramelmeier hops aboard from Sangamo Therapeutics, where he was EVP, head of technical operations. Before that, he had gigs at Portola Pharmaceuticals, BioMarin, J&J and Merck Research Laboratories.

David Steensma

→ Ajax Therapeutics, the company co-founded by partner Schrödinger, has enlisted David Steensma as CMO. Steensma joins the team from the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he was global head of hematology. Prior to that stint, Steensma was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and institute physician in the adult leukemia program in the division of hematological malignancies at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Andrew Yost

→ With a trio of funding rounds at its disposal, Neuron23 has plugged in Andrew Yost as CBO. He’s held this position before at Foresite startup TenSixteen Bio and led corporate development for five of his seven years with Regenxbio. Neuron23 revealed its Series A and Series B financing simultaneously when it launched in late 2020, and the biotech returned to the venture well in March 2022 with a $100 million Series C.

→ Abivax has kept us busy the last several months at Peer Review, and this week is no different as the Paris-based company welcomes Patrick Malloy as SVP, investor relations. Malloy is a 16-year Actelion vet who was in charge of investor relations and strategic communications at VectivBio until Ironwood Pharmaceuticals forked over $1 billion in cash to acquire the Swiss biotech. Abivax has made several big appointments lately, including CEO Marc de Garidel, new board members June Lee and Troy Ignelzi, chief people officer Ida Hatoum and chief commercial officer Michael Ferguson.

Yaron Hakak

→ Chalk up another Illumina vet at Element Biosciences, which has selected Jumpcode Genomics CEO Yaron Hakak as SVP of corporate and business development. Hakak was director of corporate and business development at the DNA sequencing giant before spending three years at Jumpcode. He joins other Element leaders with Illumina ties, including CEO Molly He, chief technology officer and R&D chief Michael Previte, and SVP of finance Logan Zinser.

Suzanne Thornton-Jones

→ Austin, TX gene therapy outfit Genprex has named Suzanne Thornton-Jones as SVP, regulatory affairs. Following a string of regulatory posts at Sanofi, AbbVie and Jim Wilson’s Gene Therapy Program at the University of Pennsylvania, Thornton-Jones led regulatory affairs at Affinia Therapeutics and Tavanta Therapeutics.

→ CDMO Samsung Biologics has rolled out the welcome mat for Gail Ward as EVP and head of its quality center and Sojeong Lee as VP and head of regulatory affairs. Ward joins the company with experience from ProKidney, Celltrion and Biogen. Meanwhile, Lee previously held the role of regulatory affairs director at GSK in Korea.

→ As Aurinia Pharmaceuticals spins the wheel of strategic alternatives, Janssen and Amgen vet Daniel Billen has been named chairman of the board, while Karen Smith and Jeffrey Bailey are the newest board members. In the spring, a pair of shareholders — Iljin and MKT Capital — expressed displeasure with Aurinia CEO Peter Greenleaf, ex-chairman George Milne and others in the boardroom. Milne and Joseph Hagan resigned from the board in late June.

Dieter Weinand

→ Ex-Bayer chairman and CEO Dieter Weinand has made his way to the board of directors at Houston Treg developer Coya Therapeutics. Weinand, who called the shots at Bayer from 2014-18, chairs the boards at Replimune, Mnemo Therapeutics, Umoja Biopharma, Inspirna and Ziel Bio.

→ Synthetic lethality biotech Aprea Therapeutics has appointed Celgene alum Jean-Pierre Bizzari to the board of directors and ex-Yumanity chief Richard Peters as chairman. Christian Schade, a growth partner at Flagship and Aprea’s former CEO, is giving up his board seat.

John Orwin

→ San Mateo, CA-based CARGO Therapeutics has named Atreca Therapeutics CEO John Orwin as chairman of the board. CARGO has also elected David Lubner and Be Biopharma president and COO Krishnan Viswanadhan to the board.

→ Supernus Pharmaceuticals has added Biogen finance vet Bethany Sensenig to the board of directors. Sensenig was recently the CFO and interim CEO for 9 Meters Biopharma, a Raleigh, NC-based digestive disease biotech that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.

→ Neuro biotech Rapport Therapeutics snagged a $150 million Series B round this week and also picked up two new board directors at the same time with the enlistment of Cormorant Asset Management managing director Raymond Kelleher and Sofinnova Investments managing partner James Healy. Kelleher currently sits on the boards of Arkuda and Garuda, among others, while Healy has board seats at ArriVent Biopharma, Karuna Therapeutics, Bolt Biotherapeutics and Y-mAbs.

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