Chemomab changes CEOs, suspends mid-stage trial; Ex-FDA vaccine official lends more help to Mesoblast

Adi Mor

→ There’s a shakeup at the top of Chemomab Therapeutics as the Israeli biotech halts the start of a Phase II study to save cash. In moves that took effect on June 1, co-founder and CSO Adi Mor is running it back as CEO, replacing Dale Pfost, and VP of finance Sigal Fattal has been promoted to CFO. Both Pfost and ex-finance chief Don Marvin were colleagues at Orchid Biosciences and Lodo Therapeutics. To round out these changes, Eliraz Ventures general partner and former OrbiMed Israel venture partner Nissim Darvish has succeeded Pfost as chairman.

Mor, who was Chemomab’s CEO from 2012-21, said in a statement that suspending the trial of CM-101 in systemic sclerosis will stretch its cash runway “from mid-year 2024 to the end of 2024” as the Peter Thiel-backed company awaits topline Phase II data from a separate study of the drug in primary sclerosing cholangitis. Chemomab also unveiled positive NASH data with CM-101 at the start of the year.

“There may be some selective reductions in headcount,” a Chemomab spokesperson told Peer Review, “but we currently don’t anticipate anything major.”

Phil Krause

→ Philip Krause, one of two dissenting voices on Covid-19 boosters who resigned from FDA in November 2021, will be a strategic advisor for Mesoblast. Krause is already a member of Mesoblast’s board of directors and he won’t have to give up his seat. Krause was the deputy director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review who packed his bags along with his boss, Marion Gruber, as their frustrations mounted over decision-making on boosters for younger healthy adults. Mesoblast has had a checkered past with its drug for pediatric acute graft-versus-host disease, remestemcel-L, receiving a CRL in October 2020 but getting a chance at redemption with the resubmission of its BLA. The decision date for remestemcel-L is Aug. 2.

Asha Hope

→ Bayer has found a company veteran to fill its US CFO post, asking Guru Ramamurthy — who’s been with Bayer for 22 years and is currently serving as CFO at gene therapy subsidiary AskBio — to work a dual role before fully switching over next year. His appointment coincides with the promotion of Dave Tomasi, chief commercial officer of Bayer’s consumer health North America group, to president of that division; and the recruitment of Asha Hope as VP and head, North America diversity, equity & inclusion.

Michael Gray

→ Lagging behind in the GLP-1/GIP space as Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro exceeds sales expectations, Berkeley, CA-based Carmot Therapeutics has recruited Michael Gray as CFO and COO. Gray had this same post at Imara, the biotech that reverse merged with Enliven Therapeutics last fall after a Phase IIb fail decimated its stock and its workforce. A couple weeks ago, Carmot raised $150 million in a Series E to bankroll multiple studies of its obesity drugs, including lead asset CT-388.

Konstantin Konstantinov

→ Bayer and Genzyme alum Konstantin Konstantinov has landed at Ring Therapeutics as chief technology officer, the same position he held at Codiak BioSciences until it filed for bankruptcy in March. Codiak CEO Doug Williams has since moved on to Sana Biotechnology as president of R&D, and finance chief Linda Bain was named CFO and COO of Mariana Oncology last month. This is the second major hire at Ring since its $86.5 million Series C in March; the gene therapy player from Flagship appointed Christopher McNulty as CFO and head of corporate strategy in May.

→ Eye disease gene therapy developer Visgenx has tapped William Pedranti as CEO. Pedranti co-founded Scilex Pharmaceuticals, dry eye and ocular pain biotech Iacta Pharmaceuticals and PENG Life Science Ventures, where he was a partner. Originally an attorney, Pedranti occupied the role of general counsel in his six years at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals. Although CSO Marty Emanuele and Santosh Vetticaden co-founded Visgenx in 2018, the company just started pumping out press releases a month ago, so we’ll see if it raises any cash in the coming months.

Henk Streefkerk

→ Henk Streefkerk has replaced Steen Klysner as CEO of Netherlands-based gene therapy outfit Amarna Therapeutics. Streefkerk was with Novartis from 2009-17 and has been Amarna’s medical director for the past year. The spotlight is on hemophilia B at the moment with its lead program, but there’s a veritable grab-bag of diseases Amarna wants to target like type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, dry age-related macular degeneration and ALS.

Rochelle Chaiken

→ Running in tandem with Monday’s release of early-stage data for its needle-free Covid-19 vaccine candidate, Vaxxas also selected Rochelle Chaiken as CMO. Chaiken started at Pfizer on the diabetes team in 1999 and closed out her tenure with the pharma giant in March as CMO for emerging markets at Pfizer Biopharmaceuticals Group.

Yonghong Zhu

→ We haven’t heard much from Shanghai-based EpimAb Biotherapeutics since its $120 million Series C in 2021, but this week Yonghong Zhu has succeeded Bin Peng as the bispecific antibody developer’s CMO. Zhu had the same job title at another Chinese biotech, MaxiNovel Pharmaceuticals, and has Big Pharma experience with Roche (translational project leader, immunology, infectious diseases and ophthalmology) and Takeda (senior medical director).

→ German CAR-T cell therapy developer T-CURX has placed co-founder and scientific advisory board member Michael Hudecek in the CMO slot while picking up Novartis and Sandoz vet Karl Schumacher as chief clinical officer. Schumacher is the ex-VP of clinical development at Merck KGaA for its non-small cell lung cancer drug tepotinib, now marketed as Tepmetko after its February 2021 approval.

Josefine Roemmler-Zehrer

→ UK oncology biotech Immodulon continues to assemble its team after last month’s appointments of CEO Gertjan Bartlema and CBO Peter Greaney. Immodulon’s choice for CMO, Josefine Roemmler-Zehrer, has been involved with the development of such cancer drugs as Abraxane at Celgene and the Exelixis-partnered Cabometyx as a medical director at Ipsen.

→ French chronic inflammatory disease biotech Abivax has appointed Ida Hatoum as chief people officer. Hatoum reunites with CEO Marc de Garidel after working together at CinCor Pharma, where Hatoum was SVP and head of people, talent and culture. Phase III studies are in progress for Abivax’s ulcerative colitis drug obefazimod.

David Moller

→ Seattle’s Variant Bio has filled two crucial positions: Newly minted CSO David Moller was VP of metabolic disorders during his 10 years with Merck, then shifted to another heavyweight in 2005 as Eli Lilly’s VP, endocrine & cardiovascular research and clinical investigation. He would be promoted to VP, business development – emerging technology and innovation before stepping aside from Big Pharma as CSO of Flagship’s Sigilon Therapeutics and, most recently, Poxel. And CBO Steve Bryant’s move to Variant Bio represents the end of a 22-year association with Genmab, half of those as the Danish biotech’s head of global business development.

→ Janux Therapeutics, best known for its breakthrough $1 billion T cell engager deal with Merck in 2020, has named Zachariah McIver as VP, clinical development. McIver left academia to join Amgen in 2018 and was elevated to executive medical director three years later. The Big Pharma collaboration was one of Roger Perlmutter’s final moves at Merck before re-emerging as CEO of Eikon Therapeutics.

Samantha Macro

→ The FDA’s organ-on-a-chip partner CN Bio has brought on Samantha Macro as CFO. Macro spent the last two years as VP of finance with Mestag Therapeutics and is the former global head of finance at PerkinElmer’s Horizon Discovery. CN Bio CEO Paul Brooks and VP of sales & marketing Deepak Singh also have Horizon Discovery ties.

Marc Besman

→ Kronos Bio, which teamed up with Genentech on a drug discovery deal worth $20 million upfront in January, has enlisted Marc Besman as SVP of regulatory affairs and clinical quality assurance. An Allergan and CytomX vet, Besman was promoted to SVP of regulatory affairs last February at Coherus BioSciences, which is developing the anti-PD-1 toripalimab with Junshi Biosciences.

→ Now under the direction of former OncoSec CEO Daniel O’Connor, Ambrx Biopharma has pegged Jared Kelly as general counsel. Kelly just had a two-year stay as a partner at Lowenstein Sandler and also worked as a partner at Reed Smith. Ambrx was two weeks removed from a pipeline reorg and layoffs that involved 15% of the staff when it hired O’Connor to replace interim chief Kate Hermans in November 2022.

Ashish Sagrolikar

→ Pulmocide is rolling out the welcome mat for two new hires for its leadership team, with the appointments of Matt Dallas as CFO and Ashish Sagrolikar as chief commercial officer. Not his first go as a CFO, Dallas has served in the role at Zealand Pharma, AVEO Oncology and CoLucid Pharmaceuticals. Meanwhile, Sagrolikar joins with stints from Baxter Healthcare, GSK and Zogenix (COO and CCO) under his belt.

→ CDMO Wheeler Bio has brought aboard Stewart McNaull as CBO. McNaull joins the team from Resilience, where he served as business unit head, biologics and vaccines. McNaull’s former gigs include roles at KBI Biopharma and Fujifilm Diosynth.

Franz Humer

→ Ex-Roche chairman and CEO Franz Humer will bring his perspective to the board of directors at gut-brain axis upstart Kallyope. Humer, who’s also on the board at Allogene, becomes the ninth member of a board that includes Lux Capital’s Josh Wolfe, Cyclerion CEO Peter Hecht and Kallyope’s founding CEO Nancy Thornberry.

→ Jean-François Formela is retiring from the board of directors at Intellia Therapeutics on June 15. Formela helped co-found Intellia in 2014, had been a board member since its inception, and remains a partner at Atlas Venture, which co-created the biotech with Caribou Biosciences.

Nicoletta Loggia

→ After pressing pause on enrolling pancreatic cancer patients in a Phase II trial for its lead candidate CAN-2409, Candel Therapeutics has elected Orchard Therapeutics chief technical officer Nicoletta Loggia to its board of directors. Loggia came to Orchard after a 17-year career at Novartis, where she was global head of cell & gene therapies, technical and research development.

→ Fabrice Chouraqui’s crew at Cellarity has made room for Gregory Moore on the board of directors. Moore founded Google Cloud Healthcare & Life Sciences and just had a four-year run as a corporate VP at Microsoft.

Veleka Peeples-Dyer

→ Chaired by ex-Bayer chief Dieter Weinand, oncolytic virus specialist Replimune has welcomed Veleka Peeples-Dyer to the board of directors. Peeples-Dyer, who recently finished a year as chief legal officer, corporate secretary and chief compliance officer at Opentrons, held legal roles at Acorda Therapeutics and is on the scientific advisory board of Syridex Bio.

→ Absci, which had a rough go of things last August with layoffs, now has a seat reserved on its board of directors for Frans van Houten. Van Houten is the former CEO of Royal Philips and currently sits on the board of Novartis.

Cuong Do

→ Philadelphia-based cancer biotech Seneca Therapeutics has added BioVie CEO Cuong Do to the board of directors. Do was the chief strategy officer at Merck from 2011-14 and joined Seneca’s scientific advisory board last year.

Lauren Merendino

→ Day One’s new chief commercial officer Lauren Merendino has joined the board of directors at ESSA Pharma. Merendino had a slew of leadership roles in 24 years at Roche and Genentech, rising to VP, neurological rare diseases before becoming chief commercial officer of Myovant.

→ Carina Biotech is making room on its board for two new members with the appointments of Michael Wyzga and Remus Vezan. Wyzga also has seats as chairman at X4 Pharmaceuticals, GenSight Biologics and Mereo BioPharma. Wyzga is the former president and CEO of Radius Health and ex-CFO of Genzyme. Meanwhile, Vezan is CMO at CytoImmune Therapeutics and previously had stints at CERo Therapeutics, Kite and Pharmacyclics.

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