Exclusive: After CureVac, Igor Splawski moves to RTW stealth startup; Lyndra’s Jessica Ballinger adds CEO title amid commercial prep

Igor Splawski

A chunky chain necklace, matching earrings, and a floral shirt with a dozen colors — that’s Igor Splawski.

The former chief scientist at CureVac has taken his RNA expertise — and fashion — to RTW Investments’ stealth startup Yarrow Biotechnology, becoming its new CSO. Yarrow, just like RTW, is based in New York City. The early-stage biotech is developing antisense oligonucleotide treatments for monogenic CNS diseases, though it won’t disclose exactly what indications it’s looking at.

Splawski is a seasoned veteran in the burgeoning RNA therapeutics field, but Yarrow is the first opportunity he’s had to really focus on working with CNS diseases. “Nobody can really say that they’ve made a great breakthrough in delivering things to the brain,” he said, though he added that there are therapies that can be delivered directly to the spine. “This was one of the opportunities to do something in a space where there’s plenty to do.”

Splawski first worked with mRNA a decade ago at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) when he was director of cardiovascular and metabolic disease biologics. He later became the head of NIBR’s biologics center in Cambridge. In 2020, he left that role to join CureVac and the race to make mRNA vaccines for Covid-19.

However, CureVac’s bid in the vaccine rush never really panned out as its candidate floundered in a Phase III study. It made plans for a new vaccine, but it was already behind its competitors. Then, earlier this year, CureVac CEO Franz-Werner Haas stepped down and former Sanofi exec Alexander Zehnder took his place. Haas made his return as a chief executive this week at LimmaTech Biologics.

Last Friday, CureVac announced that Splawski was moving on to a new role in the US. Just weeks ago, he and his family moved to New York City for Yarrow. Splawski, who loves art, says he’s been enjoying New York’s museum scene.

“Igor’s been a great addition to Yarrow, not just because of his deep scientific expertise, but he has a very unique and positive and influential leadership style that I really like,” said Yarrow CEO Peter Fong, who is also a partner at RTW. But Yarrow won’t be in the clinic for another few years, Splawski and Fong said.

Both also noted their aspirations to push New York City as a biotech hub.

“I don’t think anybody can say that things get more exciting than New York. Maybe we can be the start here with a few other companies. I don’t know whether we could rival the 495, I-95 area around Boston,” Splawski said, referring to the highway that circles around greater Boston.

“But Boston started third,” Splawski continued. “When I went to Boston in 2000, Boston was the third hub out there [after] San Francisco and San Diego, and now it’s first by far.”

— Lei Lei Wu

Jessica Ballinger

Jessica Ballinger has “been in the thick of building” Lyndra Therapeutics since the early days of the Bob Langer-founded biotech, joining in late 2016 and helping the startup progress to Phase III.

With a large Series D on the horizon, a late-stage trial of a long-acting version of a schizophrenia drug and manufacturing scale-up to get ready for a 2025 NDA, the Lyndra president and COO is moving up to CEO as Patricia Hurter transitions to chair of the science and technology committee. Chief medical officer Richard Scranton also tacked on the post of president of global product development and SVP Lindsay Beaupre moved up to chief people and workplace operations officer.

“It was just a natural progression,” Ballinger told Endpoints News on Monday, fresh into her first time as a CEO.

Working closely with Langer, co-founding CEO and board chair Amy Schulman and others, Ballinger is focused on getting the startup’s long-acting version of the antipsychotic drug risperidone to market.

The first priority is gathering critical interim data from a Phase III trial of the oral capsule, named LYN-005, which is founded on the work out of Langer’s lab.

She’s also focused on partnering with more companies, collaborating with another biopharma to market the potential treatment and, in the coming quarters, hiring a general counsel to round out the executive team as it eyes the transition to being a commercial company. Prior to Lyndra, she was in senior director roles at Biogen and Pfizer.

“Having a product that stays in the stomach for a week and works has got to be the No. 1 highlight” of her time thus far, Ballinger said. There’s a chance they can get the drug to last two weeks or longer: “People get chills. Hair on their arms stand up when they look at the data.”

She might one day be presenting data on other pipeline programs — in cardiometabolic indications, infectious diseases, women’s health and other therapeutic areas — as a public company CEO.

“You’ll see us be, in some form, public facing by the end of 18 to 24 months, in that window,” if the markets open up, Ballinger said.

— Kyle LaHucik

John McHutchison

→ Ex-Gilead CSO and R&D leader John McHutchison is back in the CEO slot, this time at little-known Velia Therapeutics, whose mission is “to mine the dark matter of the human proteome.” The two-year-old Velia is bankrolled by The Column Group and Foresite Capital, but it has yet to raise Series A round. We’ll have to keep a sharp eye though on when that could happen under the direction of McHutchison, who spent more than three years as chief executive at Assembly Biosciences. In July 2022, Assembly pulled the plug on its hepatitis B drug vebicorvir and dismissed 30% of its staff. The CFO and CMO weren’t spared either after the reorg, and McHutchison would announce his retirement in October.

Ann Lee-Karlon

→ Altos Labs boss Hal Barron has lost his operations chief Ann Lee-Karlon to protein degradation shop EpiBiologics. She’ll be president and CEO at a company that just returned to the venture well for a $23 million Series A extension — initially receiving $50 million from GV, Mubadala Capital, Polaris Partners and Vivo Capital when it launched in March. Lee-Karlon came to Altos in 2021 after her 18-year career at Genentech, where she was a portfolio strategy and operations leader for its research & early development group (gRED). EpiBiologics also said in the release that new investors Digitalis Ventures and Taiho Ventures will be represented on the board of directors by partner Samuel Bjork and senior investment director Seiji Miyahara, respectively.

Bryan Stuart

→ Ex-Fulcrum Therapeutics chief Bryan Stuart has lined up his next gig, taking the CEO job at cancer and metabolic disease startup Atavistik Bio. Stuart ran operations at Fulcrum before his ascent to chief executive in March 2021, and he made his exit from the biotech at the beginning of this year. The FDA then placed a full clinical hold on its sickle cell program FTX-6058 after his departure. While the hold is still in effect under new CEO Alex Sapir, Fulcrum teamed up with Camp4 Therapeutics last week on a Diamond-Blackfan anemia treatment.

Atavistik’s interim chief Jeff Goater, a venture partner with The Column Group, will keep his seat on the board of directors. The Column Group played a starring role in Atavistik’s $60 million Series A round in August 2021.

Patrick Holt

→ Vascepa maker Amarin has lassoed Patrick Holt as president and CEO, taking over for interim chief Aaron Berg, who will still be executive vice president and president US. Holt is an Allergan and Merck vet who is the ex-president of Cordis, the devices business at Cardinal Health that was sold in 2021. Former chief executive Karim Mikhail was none too pleased on his way out the door at Amarin, filing suit against the company over “intimidation tactics” he claimed Sarissa Capital Management used during its activist attack. With every board member not associated with Sarissa out of the picture and Alex Denner’s crew taking control, Mikhail resigned on March 27, according to an SEC filing.

Filippo Petti

→ London CAR-T developer Leucid Bio has recruited Filippo Petti as CEO. In January 2022, Petti resigned as CEO of Celyad Oncology, a CAR-T biotech that has since delisted from the Nasdaq and is hanging on by its fingernails after scrapping its colorectal cancer drug CYAD-101 and its multiple myeloma candidate CYAD–211. Sofinnova and Epidarex participated with several other investors on Leucid Bio’s modest Series A round in October 2021.

Henry Gosebruch

→ Bob Nelsen’s “Really Big Neuroscience Company” is kicking three Phase III trials into gear with its depression drug navacaprant, and Henry Gosebruch is leading the charge as CEO. Gosebruch left JP Morgan for AbbVie in 2015 and was the Big Pharma’s chief strategy officer until February. ARCH’s Paul Berns previously ran the show and he’ll settle into the role of executive chairman at Neumora, which followed up its really big Series A with a kinda-big $112 million Series B in October. Kyle LaHucik has more on Neumora’s Phase III plans.

→ Big Pharma vet George Vratsanos has left J&J’s Janssen to become CMO and R&D chief for Jnana Therapeutics, the Boston biotech that set up its second alliance with Roche last November. During his seven years with Janssen, Vratsanos was SVP, translational science and medicine in immunology. Earlier, he led the global immunology and dermatology franchise at Novartis when Cosentyx was first approved in 2015 for plaque psoriasis. He’s also worked for Roche, which paid Jnana $50 million upfront in its latest drug discovery pact that will revolve around targets in oncology, immunology and neurology.

Chris Tovey

→ Destiny Pharma has handed the CEO baton to Chris Tovey, who takes over from interim chief exec Debra Barker on Sept. 1. Tovey most recently served as COO, EVP and managing director of Europe and international at Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he was COO, EVP and board member at GW Pharmaceuticals before its acquisition by Jazz. Tovey also had roles at UCB and an 18-year stint with GSK. Meanwhile, company chairman Nick Rodgers is leaving his post and resigning to pursue other interests.

Pierre Gravier

→ Pierre Gravier has jumped into biotech for the first time as CFO of PTC Therapeutics. Gravier had a 10-year career with Perella Weinberg Partners, where he was managing director of the healthcare group in the San Francisco office. He’ll preside over the finances at a company that’s endured back-to-back duds with vatiquinone in the last couple months: one for Friedreich’s ataxia and the other a pediatric study for mitochondrial disease associated seizures. PTC doesn’t see a way forward for vatiquinone in MDAS, but they still believe there’s wiggle room in Friedreich’s ataxia.

→ IPOs are tough business, and Sagimet Biosciences recently broke through with an upsized offering in a once-dormant landscape. Sagimet CFO Dennis Horn will now pass the baton to COO Tony Rimac on Aug. 1, and board members Gordon Ringold and James Young decided to leave the day before it hit the Nasdaq as $SGMT.

Ken Lock

→ With eyes on several approvals for its immunology drug izokibep, Acelyrin has tapped Ken Lock to lead its commercial efforts. Lock just oversaw the successful launch of the plaque psoriasis drug Zoryve as chief commercial officer of Arcutis Biotherapeutics, and he’s also been executive director of sales and marketing at Gilead. Acelyrin’s $540 million IPO is illustrative of the biotech’s meteoric rise, and CEO Shao-Lee Lin said in the press release that “multiple, consecutive potential commercial launches” are the expectation “within the next few years,” starting with izokibep in hidradenitis suppurativa, psoriatic arthritis and uveitis.

Robert Williamson

→ We told you about Robert Williamson resurfacing as president and CBO of T cell biotech Triumvira in October after brief stints as CEO of Biotheryx and as CBO/CFO for OncoMyx Therapeutics. At Triumvira, he’s transitioning to COO in addition to his duties as president, and the Austin, TX-based cell therapy developer has also made a pair of VP appointments. Jeffrey Erickson, the ex-senior director of corporate development at PhaseBio, has jumped to Triumvira as VP of business development, while Bellicum and Lonza vet Chris Murray has been promoted to VP of human resources.

Wayne Chu

→ Wayne Chu has been named CMO of CytomX, a South San Francisco biotech that’s absorbed some body blows but has Regeneron and Moderna in its corner with separate deals worth a combined $65 million upfront. A 10-year Genentech vet who worked on the antibody-drug conjugate Kadcyla, Chu pivoted to Fate Therapeutics in 2019 and was promoted to medical chief in February 2022. CytomX is mulling its next steps with CX-2029 after AbbVie put the kibosh on a seven-year partnership that revolved around the cancer drug, and its stock $CTMX has taken a cavernous drop since its 2018 peak.

Robert Dolski

→ Robert Dolski will replace Lucinda Crabtree as CFO of London T cell therapy maker Autolus on Aug. 7. Dolski was the finance chief at Art Krieg’s Checkmate Pharmaceuticals when it was sold to Regeneron last year for $250 million, and in the early days of Moderna, Dolski served as its head of financial planning & analysis. Elsewhere at Autolus, 20-year Roche vet and ex-TargImmune Therapeutics CMO Veronica Hersberger climbed on board in May as SVP, medical affairs, and Miranda Neville has been promoted to SVP, project management.

Dannielle Appelhans

→ Dannielle Appelhans has landed at Chicago-based COUR Pharmaceuticals as COO after Rubius Therapeutics folded several months ago. Appelhans tackles the same role she originally had at Rubius in 2021, and she took over for Pablo Cagnoni as CEO when the Flagship biotech was scrambling to stay afloat through a sale or merger that never materialized. Toward the end of her tenure at Novartis, Appelhans was elevated to SVP, head of global supply chain, and she then moved to Novartis Gene Therapies as SVP of technical operations and chief technical officer.

→ Elektrofi, a biologics formulation startup in Boston that hauled in a $40 million Series B last summer, has welcomed Victoria Sluzky as chief technology officer. Sluzky vaulted to SVP, technical development toward the end of her 19-year career at BioMarin, then started advising Elektrofi on CMC strategy earlier this year.

Wendy DiCicco

→ Led by ex-Enzyvant chief Rachelle Jacques, Akari Therapeutics has enlisted Wendy DiCicco as interim CFO. DiCicco has been the finance chief at Renovacor, the cardiovascular gene therapy player that was acquired by Rocket Pharmaceuticals for $53 million last September, and she’s a board member at EyePoint Pharmaceuticals. Torsten Hombeck held this position at Akari for three years before joining Aspira Women’s Health in the same capacity.

Nancy Ruiz

→ Nancy Ruiz has announced her retirement after three years as CMO of Larimar Therapeutics, and Rusty Clayton has replaced her. Clayton will be filling this particular position for the first time since he was medical chief at Alcresta Therapeutics from 2015-17. Larimar is competing in the Friedreich’s ataxia space with such biotechs as PTC and Reata Pharmaceuticals, which received an FDA nod for Skyclarys in February.

→ IO Biotech has rolled out the welcome mat for Qasim Ahmad in the role of CMO. Ahmad is taking over for Eva Ehrnrooth, who is moving into an advisory role for the company. Ahmad most recently served as SVP, US head of clinical development & medical affairs at Novartis’ oncology business unit. In addition to Ahmad’s appointment, the company has promoted SVP of CMC Eric Faulkner to chief technical officer.

Stephanie Bewick

→ Oxford-based Accession Therapeutics has enlisted Stephanie Bewick as CBO. Bewick has experience from roles at Summit Therapeutics, Mayne Pharma and Destiny Pharma. Furthermore, the company has promoted Jez Gerry to the role of COO from his previous position as head of preclinical development.

Jordi Vall-llossera

→ A spokesperson for Artbio tells Peer Review that the radiopharma startup has appointed Jordi Vall-llossera as SVP and global head of quality, leaving Moderna several months into his tenure there as global head of digital quality systems. He wrapped up a 17-year run at Novartis in January and had been head of quality assurance for its subsidiary Advanced Accelerator Applications since October 2018. Artbio made its debut a few weeks ago with a $23 million Series A from F-Prime Capital and Omega Funds.

→ Once named Catabasis Pharmaceuticals, Astria Therapeutics has pegged John Ruesch as SVP, pharmaceutical sciences and technical operations. Ruesch is a longtime Pfizer vet who just held the role of VP, pharmaceutical development at Surface Oncology, the company that Coherus BioSciences snapped up for $65 million last month. After struggling mightily with Duchenne as Catabasis, Astria has turned its attention to hereditary angioedema with its lead asset STAR-0215.

Heather Hirsch

→ Leslie Williams’ tRNA shop hC Bioscience has selected Heather Hirsch as SVP of translational science and cancer biology. After six years at Merck, Hirsch’s next move was at Jounce Therapeutics, where she would be promoted to director of translational genomics. She then joined CRISPR Therapeutics as senior director of translational pharmacology before her most recent appointment as IMV’s VP, translational research. ARCH, Takeda and 8VC came together for hC Bio’s $24 million Series A in February 2022.

→ Watertown, MA-based company Acrivon Therapeutics, which launched back in 2021 with an old Eli Lilly asset, has named Adam Levy as SVP and head, investor relations and corporate affairs. Levy joins with experience from his time as SVP of investor relations at Zentalis Pharmaceuticals and SVP of investor relations and corporate communications at Turning Point Therapeutics.

Omkar Joshi

→ Led by Steven Lo, Valitor has brought on Omkar Joshi as VP of CMC. Joshi hops aboard from Actym Therapeutics, where he served as VP of technical operations. Before that, he had a 16-year-long career at Bayer, culminating in his role as senior director, MSAT.

Merit Cudkowicz

→ Coya Therapeutics is bringing in Merit Cudkowicz as a clinical advisor for its ALS candidate COYA 302. Cudkowicz is the chief of neurology at Massachusetts General and director of its ALS center.

→ Ex-Yumanity and Merrimack CEO Richard Peters is slated to replace vTv Therapeutics chief Paul Sekhri as chairman of the board at Dutch-based Pharming. The former global head of Sanofi Genzyme’s rare disease unit is also on the boards of Kineta and Aprea Therapeutics.

Sander Slootweg

→ Forbion founder and managing partner Sander Slootweg will allow his term to expire and will not return to Replimune’s board of directors. Replimune CEO Philip Astley-Sparke is a venture partner at Forbion, and the VC has invested in the Woburn, MA biotech since its inception.

→ Michael Ryan has earned a spot on the board of directors at Coherus BioSciences. Ryan approached the 14-year mark with Amgen before joining Bristol Myers Squibb as its head for US and worldwide value, access, pricing and health economics and outcomes research.

Mark Corrigan

→ CNS-focused Trevena has reserved space for Tremeau Pharmaceuticals’ acting CEO Mark Corrigan on the board of directors. Corrigan chairs the board at Elios Therapeutics and has board seats at Nabriva Therapeutics and Wave Life Sciences.

→ Carmot Therapeutics, which bagged $150 million in May to tackle obesity, has welcomed Charles Newton to its board of directors. Newton serves as CFO at Lyell Immunopharma and has previous stints at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.

→ Dallas neonatal mesenchymal stem cell (nMSC) biotech Secretome Therapeutics has elected former RoosterBio CEO Margot Connor to its board of directors. In addition to Connor’s appointment, the team at Secretome has also formed a clinical advisory board with Javed Butler, Barry Greenberg, Steven Lipshultz, Arshed Quyyumi and Sanjiv Shah.

— Alex Hoffman and Kathy Wong

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