Cyrus Mozayeni follows ADC ‘beacon’ to Pheon CEO role; BeiGene loses business chief to Teva

Cyrus Mozayeni

Cyrus Mozayeni has been around the biotech business long enough not to be fazed when things don’t go as expected.

Soon after he closed his last startup in April, Vedere Bio II — a gene therapy biotech born out of another that was sold to Novartis — he returned to his network at Atlas Venture, where he is entrepreneur-in-residence, to scout new opportunities. Earlier this month, he started a new job as CEO of Pheon Therapeutics to replace Bertrand Damour at the Atlas-backed company.

When asked about lessons from Vedere Bio II, he told Endpoints News: “I don’t think it’s a profound one, right?”

“This is a risky business we’re in, and especially when we’re trying to do extremely meaningful, highly differentiated projects, there is a risk but they’re not going to pan out,” he said.

Pheon, which launched with $68 million in September, focuses on antibody-drug conjugates, an area Mozayeni said he was particularly drawn to, in part because it’s “a shining beacon within a fairly tumultuous sea right now in terms of capitalization of private companies.”

“It’s driven by both the R&D success and the commercial success of ADCs, as well as the pretty incredible amount of — magnitude of — dealmaking that’s happening in the space right now,” he said. There’s a wide spectrum of deals taking place, from Eli Lilly’s acquisition of preclinical player Emergence to Pfizer’s $43 billion takeover of Seagen, he added.

For now, Pheon’s team of nine is split between the US and the UK. With Mozayeni on board, it will look to expand its presence stateside as it works through IND-enabling studies.

He can’t go into specifics, but Mozayeni believes both the target that Pheon is going after and its “special sauce” of a linker-payload platform will help the company stand out, with potential for some “interesting business development deals.”

That would be when much of his previous experience kicks in. Before jumping into entrepreneurship — he co-founded Coda Biotherapeutics and Oncorus, serving as president and CBO — he was global head of business development and alliance management at bluebird bio, overseeing the Celgene partnership on what became Bristol Myers Squibb’s CAR-T Abecma.

“My general approach is to be in listening mode,” he said.

— Amber Tong

Angus Grant

→ As Teva CEO Richard Francis pushes a “pivot to growth” with greater R&D aspirations, Angus Grant will come on board to lead business development at the generics giant on Aug. 1. Grant spent the past three years at BeiGene as chief business executive and finished a 12-year run at Celgene with his promotion to corporate VP of business development.

Francis also announced his intent to scale back the number of products they take on, from 80% of products that come off patent to 60%. “I think we’re just taking on too much. And we’re trying to do too much,” the CEO said in mid-May.

Linda Burkly

→ Editas Medicine completed its CSO search by hiring Linda Burkly, the gene editing biotech’s third chief scientist in many years. Charles Albright was the science leader at Editas from 2016 until 2021, then took the same job at Affinia. That summer, Mark Shearman left Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation to replace Albright, but his short tenure ended on March 31 this year. Burkly had a 37-year career at Biogen that culminated as VP and senior distinguished investigator before her move to Editas, which unwrapped some very early data on EDIT-301 for sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia last month.

William Pao

→ Spurred by the $43 billion buyout of Seagen that has yet to close, Pfizer is ramping up its oncology leadership by elevating Chris Boshoff to chief oncology research and development officer and EVP. Chief scientist Mikael Dolsten will be responsible for the non-oncology portfolio that covers therapeutic areas like vaccines, inflammation and immunology, internal medicine and infectious diseases. The odd man out is William Pao, the chief development officer who just came from Roche last year to succeed Rod MacKenzie and will now “pursue new opportunities outside the company,” the press release says.

Patrick McEnany

→ Catalyst Pharmaceuticals co-founder Patrick McEnany will retire as CEO of at the end of the year, a press release states. McEnany has held the top spot at Catalyst since its inception in January 2002 and will still chair the board after his successor is named. It’s been an eventful conclusion to McEnany’s two decades as chief executive: Catalyst shelled out $160 million for the US rights to Eisai’s seizure med Fycompa in December, and then sewed up North American rights last month for Swiss-based Santhera’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug vamorolone. That partnership is worth $90 million upfront and up to $231 million overall.

Enrique Conterno

→ FibroGen CEO Enrique Conterno’s resignation comes at a tumultuous time for the biotech, which has endured multiple late-stage trial failures in rapid succession and layoffs that affected 32% of its staff. In May, roxadustat missed the mark in patients with transfusion-dependent, lower-risk myelodysplastic syndromes; less than two weeks later, pamrevlumab flamed out in Duchenne muscular dystrophy; and in late June, pamrevlumab again performed poorly in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. FibroGen now thinks it has enough cash to stay afloat until 2026 with interim chief Thane Wettig at the controls. Wettig had led the commercial team at FibroGen and was one of Conterno’s colleagues at Lilly Diabetes.

Jamie Dananberg

→ Geographic atrophy treatments are coming in hot, with Apellis receiving the first FDA nod for the condition and Astellas’ Iveric Bio facing a decision date with Zimura next month. Meanwhile, Annexon Biosciences has a GA candidate of its own and has recruited Jamie Dananberg as CMO. Dananberg is a 16-year Eli Lilly vet who left Unity Biotechnology in April after seven years as its medical chief. He also led the cardiovascular and metabolism therapeutic area at Takeda. Annexon is pinning its hopes on secondary endpoints with ANX007 after the GA drug didn’t clear the bar with the primary endpoint a couple months ago.

David Raben

→ Claire Mazumdar’s cancer player Bicara Therapeutics has tapped David Raben as CMO. Raben’s focus was on delta-like ligand 3 (DLL3) as Amgen’s VP of global product development and product general manager, oncology. Amgen is studying the DLL3-targeting therapy tarlatamab (AMG 757), a bispecific T-cell engager, in small cell lung cancer. He’s also been with Genentech as VP and franchise leader, clinical development oncology. Bicara’s bispecific antibody BCA101 showed promise as a combo with Keytruda in data presented at this year’s ASCO.

Igor Matushansky

→ Flagship’s Senda Biosciences has selected Big Pharma alum Igor Matushansky as CMO. The one-time global head of Novartis’ gene & cell therapy unit is chairman of the scientific advisory board for Hookipa Pharma, where he was CMO and global head of R&D from 2017-22. Matushansky has also led translational development for oncology at Daiichi Sankyo. Senda has filled several leadership roles since its $123 million Series C last August, including a CSO, COO, general counsel, and an SVP of manufacturing.

→ Acadia’s stock $ACAD jumped a couple weeks ago when the Nuplazid maker gained more rights to Neuren Pharmaceuticals’ Rett syndrome drug Daybue. Days before the deal was announced, Kevin Oliver joined Steve Davis’ squad as CBO. Oliver had a career at Merck that spanned almost 24 years, and he recently held a pair of roles with Simcere: SVP, head of global business development & licensing and alliance management, and COO, US and Europe.

Nicole Sweeny

→ Hereditary angioedema biotech KalVista Pharmaceuticals has named Nicole Sweeny as chief commercial officer. Sweeny led the HAE franchise at Takeda before becoming commercial chief at Praxis Precision Medicines in 2020. KalVista’s shares $KALV plummeted in October when the company tossed a Phase II trial for KVD824 over an upsurge in liver enzyme levels, but the stock price has made a slow recovery since.

Lori Lebson

→ EMD Serono has promoted Lori Lebson to SVP, North America medical affairs, a spokesperson told Peer Review. Merck KGaA’s US and Canadian healthcare subsidiary poached Lebson in 2018 from Teva, where she filled the role of associate director, medical affairs, neurology and psychiatry. Lebson had spent almost three years as EMD Serono’s head of US medical affairs, neurology and immunology.

→ Nuno Mendonça will be the next CMO of Swiss neuro biotech AC Immune on Oct. 1, replacing Johannes Streffer. Since 2021, Mendonça has been medical chief for Bial, a Portuguese company focusing on epilepsy and Parkinson’s. AC Immune owns a spotty track record in Alzheimer’s R&D — repeatedly flopping with crenezumab — and Mendonça has experience in the space as medical director and chair of AbbVie’s clinical strategy team in neuroscience.

Karen Smith

→ An SEC filing indicates that Quince Therapeutics CMO Karen Smith is on her way out on Sept. 1 after a year in the position. Trying to reinvent itself from an Alzheimer’s biotech (as Cortexyme) to a rare disease player, Quince just acquired Sofinnova-backed EryDel and its Phase III drug EryDex for ataxia-telangiectasia. EryDel CEO Luca Benatti has taken a seat on Quince’s board.

Edward Garmey

→ South San Francisco’s Circle Pharma has welcomed Edward Garmey as consulting CMO and Michael Cox as SVP, head of early development. The stack of consulting gigs grows higher for Garmey, the ex-VP of clinical development at ArQule who has held this kind of transitional role before at Tagworks Pharmaceuticals (which just raised a $65 million Series A and hired Jay Feingold as permanent medical chief), Gary Nabel’s ModeX Therapeutics and Bicycle Therapeutics, among many others. After four years at Loxo, Cox was VP of clinical development for Day One Biopharmaceuticals from 2020-22. Earlier, he worked at Bayer (European medical affairs lead for the oncology pipeline), Merck KGaA and Amgen.

Modestus Obochi

→ Canadian biotech Sernova, which touted late last month that five diabetes patients were taken off insulin after taking its “cell pouch” therapy, has named Modestus Obochi as CBO. Obochi hails from Phlow, where he served as EVP of strategy and business development. He also brings experience from roles at Pfizer, Hospira and Baxter International.

→ Gene therapy-focused CDMO ViroCell Biologics has recruited Brian Collins as CFO. Not his first time in the CFO seat, Collins joins after a four-year stint in the role at Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Prior to that, Collins was CFO of Coveris Packaging and had leadership roles at MSX International, HB Fuller and Avery Dennison.

Peter Powchik

→ Vaxxinity, which released some safety data last month on its vaccine for Parkinson’s disease, has enlisted Peter Powchik as EVP, global scientific director. Powchik joins from Regeneron, where he served for 12 years, culminating in his role as SVP, head of clinical development. Powchik has also held roles at Chugai Pharma USA and Novartis. Additionally, the company announced that CMO Ulo Palm will transition to the role of senior advisor effective Oct. 1.

Jeremy Shepler

→ Raleigh, NC-based Bryn Pharma made several new appointments to its team, rolling out the welcome mat for Jeff Evans as head of manufacturing operations; Karen Rance as head of medical affairs; Jeremy Shepler as head of sales and marketing; and Brian Tabakin as head of market access. Evans formerly served at Johnson & Johnson vision care in supply chain, project management, and R&D; while Rance was North American head of medical affairs at ALK Abello. Shepler joins the crew from Novo Nordisk, where he served as VP, area commercial lead, cardiometabolic sales for the East area. And Tabakin hops aboard after a stint as VP, head of market access at Sunovion Pharmaceuticals.

Silvia De Carvalho

→ Healthcare communications agency Axon has recruited Silvia De Carvalho as clinical studies practice lead. De Carvalho joins the agency after a six-year stint as SVP, activation strategy at Klick Health and a former role as global marketing manager for diabetes at AstraZeneca.

→ Just yesterday, UroGen picked up $120 million in a private placement after its bladder cancer chemo gel succeeded in two Phase III trials. While the company is working towards a potential 2024 NDA filing, it brought in James Robinson to its board of directors. Robinson is the former president and CEO of Urovant Sciences. Before that role, Robinson was COO at Paragon Biosciences and president and COO of Alkermes.

Bob Oliver

→ There’s a trio of new board members at Allarity Therapeutics that will begin on Aug. 1: Ex-Otsuka America chief Bob Oliver was one of Farallon Capital Management’s recommendations in its successful bid to revamp the board at Exelixis; Eli Lilly oncology vet Laura Benjamin founded OncXerna Therapeutics in 2018 and is the biotech’s CEO; and Joseph Vazzano has been the finance chief at Abeona Therapeutics for more than a year.

→ The molecular glue crew at Monte Rosa Therapeutics has added former Momenta CSO Anthony Manning to the board of directors. Manning is on the scientific advisory board for BioHybrid Solutions —where he is acting chief scientist — and at ProFound Therapeutics. He’s also on the board of directors at Palatin Technologies.

Shawn Tomasello

→ Penn spinout Cabaletta Bio, which teed up an $87 million cash infusion to bankroll the development of its cell therapy CABA-201, has elected ex-Kite commercial chief Shawn Tomasello to the board of directors. Tomasello chairs the board at Gamida Cell and has boardroom experience at a plethora of biotechs, including her current seats at AlloVir, 4D Molecular Therapeutics and Centrexion.

Philip Gotwals

→ For the second consecutive week, Capricor Therapeutics is featured in our list of board appointments. Philip Gotwals, a longtime veteran of the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, is the latest to join the board after carving out space for Paul Auwaerter. Gotwals recently retired from his post as NIBR’s global head, VP of business development and licensing.

→ UBS portfolio manager and senior investment analyst Sara Cotter is the newest member of Invivyd’s board of directors. Cotter used to run Levo Therapeutics, a company that’s hit several potholes with its treatment for Prader-Willi syndrome, and is on her second tour of duty with UBS.

→ Cadrenal Therapeutics has appointed Robert Lisicki to its board of directors. Lisicki, the former commercial chief of Arena Pharmaceuticals, previously served as VP, general manager of inflammation & immunology and cardiovascular at Regeneron and SVP and chief customer officer at Daiichi Sankyo.

→ Boston gene therapy biotech STRM.BIO has opened up a seat on its board of directors for Minnie Mildwoff. Mildwoff has been serving as a member of the company’s scientific advisory board since May 2022. Mildwoff currently serves as global oncology regulatory lead for early development at Novartis.

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