Brent Saunders keeps rolling out the changes at Bausch + Lomb; Incyte CSO to exit next month

Asli Gevgilili

→ Bausch + Lomb CEO Brent Saunders told Andrew Dunn on Wednesday that he’d take time to “digest” the $1.75 billion deal he made for Xiidra “but will continue to look to source smaller deals.” Meanwhile, Saunders isn’t dealing in small leadership updates these days as he continues to retool the team. Asli Gevgilili, who worked with Saunders when she was in charge of human resources at Allergan, will replace Kelly Webber as Bausch + Lomb’s chief human resources officer; Jonathon Kellerman was Saunders’ chief compliance officer at Allergan and he’ll have the same position here; ex-AcuFocus president and CEO Al Waterhouse has been named chief supply chain and operations officer; TJ Crawford (chief communications officer) and Manisha Narasimhan (chief corporate development and digital officer) are taking on newly-established positions; and Dennis Asharin — Bausch + Lomb’s chief global manufacturing and supply chain officer — will shift to head of quality.

Dashyant Dhanak

→ Deciphera Pharmaceuticals founder Daniel Flynn is retiring as CSO, and his successor is already in place. Dashyant Dhanak, Incyte’s chief scientist since 2018 after Reid Huber’s departure for Third Rock Ventures, will join Deciphera on Sept. 5. Dhanak’s career at GSK spanned more than a quarter-century before heading to J&J’s Janssen, where he was global head of discovery sciences. The news of Dhanak’s departure comes two months after ex-Rubius CEO Pablo Cagnoni’s appointment as Incyte’s president and head of R&D. Elsewhere at Deciphera, former Array BioPharma chief Ron Squarer will chair the board of directors. Jim Bristol’s 16 years as chair or co-chair may be over, but he’ll still keep his seat on the board.

Anna Berkenblit

→ Anna Berkenblit helped ImmunoGen’s ovarian cancer drug Elahere cross the goal line, and after eight years as CMO, she’s ready to move on at the end of the month. She’ll be replaced by Michael Vasconcelles, ImmunoGen’s EVP, research, development, and medical affairs since January who’s been medical chief before at Flatiron Health and Unum Therapeutics. Based on her LinkedIn page, we have a sense of what Berkenblit is doing next: She’s on the board of directors at Versant oncology biotech Nested Therapeutics, which bagged a $90 million Series A last October and has raised a total of $125 million. We’ll see whether another C-suite appointment is on the horizon.

Seng Cheng

→ Seng Cheng is replacing Sharon Barr as SVP, head of research and product development at AstraZeneca’s rare disease sub Alexion. The retiring Mene Pangalos will leave AstraZeneca “early next year,” while Barr takes over as the pharma giant’s EVP of BioPharma R&D after a decade at Alexion. Cheng spent the last five years with Pfizer as CSO of the rare disease unit, and it’s a natural fit now that Alexion is the new home for Pfizer’s rare disease gene therapy candidates that have yet to reach the clinic. He has further Big Pharma experience in the space as Sanofi’s global head of research, rare diseases.

Jami Rubin

→ Jami Rubin has turned up at Boundless Bio in her latest CFO gig. Rubin gained a reputation for bringing the heat with her questions to biopharma execs as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, then leaped into the biotech world as finance chief of EQRx in April 2021. EQRx’s mission to turn drug pricing on its head went up in smoke, and on Tuesday EQRx was sold to Revolution Medicines, another company connected to Alexis Borisy. “I had accomplished what I had set out to accomplish,” Rubin said of her time at EQRx, telling Kyle LaHucik that “it was just a good time for me to move on to my next opportunity” when she resigned in March.

Dewan Zeng

→ Chinese CDMO Innoforce has appointed Dewan Zeng as CEO, succeeding Yuling Li. Zeng started at BeiGene in 2017 and was promoted to global head of search and evaluation, business development less than two years later. Li is now president of Innoforce, a Thermo Fisher partner that moved into its 550,000-square-foot GMP manufacturing facility in Hangzhou late last year.

Jeanne Marrazzo

→ The NIAID has finally found a replacement for Anthony Fauci. Jeanne Marrazzo is the director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and takes over from Hugh Auchincloss, who has been serving in the interim since Fauci stepped down last December. Marrazzo joins with a background in research on the human microbiome, specifically homing in on female reproductive tract infections and hormonal contraception. Additionally, she has been a principal investigator on NIH grants since 1997 and frequently serves as a peer reviewer and advisory committee member.

Gabriela Gruia

→ The end of the partial clinical hold on multiple myeloma drug MT-0169 did little to stem the tide of layoffs at Molecular Templates, where a leadership reorg is taking shape. President and COO Jason Kim will switch back to the role of CFO and Kristen Quigley will handle operations. Kim had served as finance chief at Molecular Templates from 2010-17, while Quigley was in charge of clinical operations before moving up to COO. Elsewhere, board member Gabriela Gruia has been called up as interim CMO. Gruia takes over for Roger Waltzman and spent 16 years at Novartis before she signed on as chief development officer of Ichnos Sciences. And Grace Kim, the Austin, TX biotech’s head of investor relations for the last year, has added chief strategy officer to her business card. Two weeks after the FDA lifted the hold, Molecular Templates laid off 44% of its staff as the company travels down the well-worn path of strategic alternatives.

→ Jennifer Doudna spinout Catena Biosciences has named Saurabh Johri as CBO and Rick Kendall as CSO, a pair of appointments that’s packed with Big Pharma experience. Johri, the former US head for the PARP inhibitor Lynparza at AstraZeneca, wrapped up a three-year stay at Bayer in January. In February 2021, the German pharma giant promoted Johri to VP & global head, oncology strategy and early commercialization. Kendall moved to the CSO slot at ImmPACT Bio when Sumant Ramachandra replaced him as president and CEO, and during his 17 years at Amgen, Kendall was executive director and head of oncology research.

Jonathan Rosin

→ Karuna Therapeutics, the neuro biotech that has raised more than $1.3 billion after positive readouts for its schizophrenia drug KarXT, has promoted Jason Brown to CFO and tapped Jonathan Rosin as chief human resources officer. Troy Ignelzi has been finance chief since March 2019 and will stick around “through the end of the third quarter of 2023,” the release states. Brown arrived at Karuna five years ago and was elevated to SVP, finance in January 2022, while Rosin has held the same title at Ironwood and Wave Life Sciences.

Kimberly Freeman

→ Kimberly Freeman has left AstraZeneca to become chief strategy officer at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals, where multiple trials are ongoing with its WEE1 inhibitor azenosertib. Freeman led the DNA damage response (DDR) franchise at AstraZeneca for two years after she served as VP, global commercial at Adaptimmune. She’s a 15-year GSK vet who’s also been the head of oncology national accounts for Boehringer Ingelheim. In June, Zentalis’ positive data for azenosertib provided the spark for a $250 million public offering.

Jeanette Evans

→ Jeanette Evans is succeeding Sharon Brownlow as CBO of the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Like Freeman, Evans has ties to Adaptimmune and AstraZeneca: Since July 2021, she had been Adaptimmune’s VP of business development. Evans was promoted to executive director, regional and corporate business development at AstraZeneca in 2010 and finished up her 16-year run at the pharma giant in 2014.

Alan Musso

→ On Aug. 7, Alan Musso will jump on board as CFO of Fulcrum Therapeutics, which is still grappling with a clinical hold on its sickle cell candidate FTX-6058. Musso previously held this post at ReViral, a company that Pfizer acquired for $525 million last year to beef up its RSV portfolio. He’s also been CFO for Targacept, Bellicum and Peloton Therapeutics. Fulcrum’s ex-finance chief Esther Rajavelu turned in her resignation on April 21.

Parisa Zamiri

→ German retinal gene therapy upstart Complement Therapeutics has lined up Parisa Zamiri as CMO. Zamiri had the same gig at Greybug Vision and worked for Novartis as global head of clinical development and therapeutic area head for ophthalmology. Complement secured a €72 million Series A in April and is part of a new wave of biotechs that’s developing gene therapies for eye diseases, including Ray Therapeutics and Beacon Therapeutics. But ATP’s Intergalactic Therapeutics is no longer in that group after laying off its entire crew.

→ Syncona’s Purespring Therapeutics, which is developing AAV gene therapies for kidney diseases, has brought in Sachin Kelkar as CFO. Kelkar held this position at collagen manufacturer Geltor and guided the company to a $91.3 million Series B in July 2020. Julian Hanak, a former Nightstar exec who joined Purespring two years ago as development chief, succeeded current Teva boss Richard Francis as CEO in January.

Renu Vaish

→ Renu Vaish has been named chief regulatory officer at a leaner Ambrx Biopharma. Vaish oversaw regulatory affairs at SpringWorks Therapeutics and is the ex-VP of regulatory affairs in worldwide cell therapy for Kite. Layoffs at Ambrx impacted 15% of its staff last October, but since CEO Daniel O’Connor started calling the shots in November, the company has hired a clinical development leader, a COO, a general counsel, and named ZyVersa Therapeutics chief Stephen Glover as chairman.

→ San Francisco-based Neurona Therapeutics has installed James Stutz as CFO and CBO. Stutz comes to Neurona from his CBO post at Actym Therapeutics and is the ex-VP of business development at Instil Bio. Kyle LaHucik reported in February that Neurona had paused preclinical efforts and shaved off more than a quarter of its staff as it investigates NRTX-1001 in focal epilepsy.

→ Swiss-based CDMO Celonic Group has named its CBO Samanta Cimitan as CEO, taking over from Konstantin Matentzoglu. Cimitan previously had a 13-year stint at Lonza, where she held a variety of roles, including VP of Lonza Group operations strategy.

Chris Frankenfield

→ Massachusetts solid-tumor biotech Xilio Therapeutics has promoted Chris Frankenfield to the role of COO. Frankenfield previously served as Xilio’s chief legal and administrative officer. Prior to Xilio, Frankenfield was SVP of corporate legal affairs at Blueprint Medicines.

Mukul Agarwal

→ Shasqi has appointed Jean-Frédéric Viret as CFO and Mukul Agarwal as CBO. Viret has served as finance chief at Blade Therapeutics and Coherus Biosciences, while Agarwal joins the Shasqi team from Forty Seven and Foresight Dx. Agarwal also had stints at Anacor, Forest Labs, MedImmune and GSK. In addition to Viret and Agarwal’s appointments, Shasqi has also put together an inaugural scientific advisory board with Lisa Coussens, Elliott Levy and Patricia LoRusso.

→ ImmunityBio has recruited Enrique Diloné as chief technology officer, the same role Diloné had at Prothelia. Before that, Diloné was SVP of technical operations at Amicus Therapeutics and held roles at NovaDel Pharma, OSI Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth.

Kevin Pong

→ NeuroTrauma Sciences has enlisted Kevin Pong as CBO. Pong joins from Anima Biotech, where he also served as CBO. Prior to that, Pong was VP of business development, licensing, and alliance management at Summit Therapeutics and held roles at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals and Endo Pharmaceuticals.

Beth-Anne Lang

→ Akari Therapeutics has recruited Beth-Anne Lang as SVP, regulatory affairs. In December, Lang took on the role of SVP, regulatory affairs & pharmacovigilance at Enzyvant, where Akari CEO Rachelle Jacques held the top spot from 2019-22. Lang was also a regulatory affairs leader at Horizon and Leo Pharma following a 12-year stint with Takeda.

→ T cell engager biotech Harpoon Therapeutics has selected Haibo Wang as SVP of business development. The former business development leader for Hummingbird Bioscience had a front-row seat to the Teneobio and Five Prime buyouts as director of business development at Amgen.

Julia Sampson

→ Oxford, UK-based immunology and rare disease player OMass Therapeutics has welcomed Peter Phillips as SVP of clinical development and Julia Sampson as VP of non-clinical development. Phillips recently led clinical development at Evelo Biosciences, a Flagship company that’s clinging to life after its atopic dermatitis drug EDP1815 flopped. His résumé also includes stops at Pfizer, Novartis, Mylan, GSK and UCB. Sampson is a Shire and AstraZeneca toxicology alum, and before her pivot to OMass, she had been senior director & group head, nonclinical safety at KalVista Pharmaceuticals.

→ Jasper Therapeutics has rolled out the welcome mat for two new execs, Patricia Carlos (SVP of regulatory affairs and quality) and Annette Marcantonio (VP of clinical operations). Carlos joins from Agenus, where she served as chief regulatory, quality and safety officer. Carlos’ other stints include roles at Arcus Biosciences, Bellicum, BeiGene, Medivation-Pfizer, Gilead and Bayer. Meanwhile, Marcantonio was the former VP of clinical operations at Pacylex Pharmaceuticals and had roles with Neurogastrx and Aimmune.

→ Versant’s Tom Woiwode has resigned from the board of directors at Passage Bio as Weill Cornell Medicine’s Dolan Sondhi joins the boardroom. While Passage Bio is going through another round of job cuts, an SEC filing reveals that CFO Simona King and technical chief Alex Fotopoulos “separated” from the Jim Wilson biotech.

Steve Hall

→ Duke University spinout Ten63 Therapeutics has added former Lilly Ventures partner Steve Hall to the board of directors. Ten63 notched a $15.9 million Series A in May and has designs on developing a Myc inhibitor using generative AI, but it didn’t divulge more details with its pipeline.

→ Encinitas, CA-based eye disease biotech Kiora Pharmaceuticals has elected Pipeline Therapeutics CEO Carmine Stengone to the board of directors. A few months ago, Janssen paid $50 million upfront for Pipeline’s multiple sclerosis candidate PIPE-307, a muscarinic M1 antagonist.

→ Cara Therapeutics has made room for Helen Boudreau on its board of directors. Boudreau previously served as COO at the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Insititute, and she has seats on the boards of Premier, Shattuck Labs and Rallybio.

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