Flagship recruits ex-Magenta CEO to lead Ampersand; Biogen’s head of research leaves for Alltrna

Last Monday, Jason Gardner became the latest biotech veteran to join the sprawling biotech incubator Flagship Pioneering as a CEO-partner and as chief executive of Ampersand Biomedicines, one of the firm’s startups that emerged from stealth earlier this spring.

Gardner hopped over to Flagship after about half a dozen years leading Magenta Therapeutics, a biotech he founded. The journey ended somewhat abruptly in the winter after a patient death in one of its clinical trials led to a quick internal rethink and a subsequent search for strategic alternatives, which culminated in the biotech handing its Nasdaq spot to a private startup.

Jason Gardner

“The science, the platform, the strength of the team and getting those synergies — there are a number of pattern recognition experiences and learnings that I’ve had that I wish I’d had maybe seven or eight years ago building Magenta, but we’re in an exciting industry and exciting time,” Gardner told Endpoints News during week two in the new role.

He was attracted to the “Flagship model of homegrown science,” and will focus most of his time on Ampersand, a fledgling biotech operating off $50 million that aims to create more targeted medicines. While Ampersand founding CEO and Flagship general partner Avak Kahvejian previously kept the company’s pipeline under wraps, Gardner hinted at potential programs in the red hot area of immunology and inflammation, as well as oncology, genetic diseases and potentially other areas via partnerships.

Gardner follows the suit of other leaders stepping into the Flagship CEO-partner mold, including ex-Ancestry CEO Margo Georgiadis, former AbbVie president Michael Severino and previous AstraZeneca hematology head Michelle Werner, among others.

Rigorous science and the right team are the two key ingredients to running a biotech, he said.

“Are we doing the right experiments at the right time? Are we asking the killer question, the really tough questions for our platforms and programs early enough?” Gardner said. “That’s a discipline and an experience that is incredibly important for company building.”

Prior to Magenta, Gardner spent about a decade at GSK, where he eventually headed up collaborative initiatives at the UK Big Pharma’s Boston site and led its regenerative medicines unit. He’s contributed to breast cancer drug Tykerb, among other approved treatments.

— Kyle LaHucik

Chris Henderson

→ Flagship tRNA biotech Alltrna has plucked CSO Chris Henderson from Biogen and promoted Will Kiesman to chief technology officer. Biogen brought Henderson on board as VP of neurology research in 2014, and he had been the company’s head of research for the last three years. Kiesman had a 24-year career at Biogen, serving as VP and head of oligonucleotide and small molecule development before he was named SVP, CMC and medicinal chemistry at Alltrna. Last week, CEO Michelle Werner stayed mum on the specific contributors to Alltrna’s latest cash infusion — a $109 million Series B — saying only that “there are a number of top-tier investors” besides Flagship.

Amir Hefni

→ Syncona’s macrophage cell therapy developer Resolution Therapeutics has welcomed Amir Hefni as CEO, poaching him from Novartis to replace Edward Hodgkin. In September of last year, Hefni was elevated to global head of cell and gene therapy at Novartis. He came to the Swiss pharma in 2020 after a short stint as Ipsen’s global asset head in oncology. He also spent more than a decade at Bristol Myers Squibb, climbing to the role of executive director, US oncology thoracic lead. Hodgkin, a managing partner at Syncona, will keep his spot on Resolution’s board of directors.

Mardi Dier

→ Mardi Dier has resigned after nine months as CFO and CBO of Acelyrin, one of the hottest names in immunology. Longtime Nektar vet Gil Labrucherie, the CFO at Acelyrin for a brief period in 2022, has been called up to replace her on an interim basis. Dier left Ultragenyx in November to take the job at Acelyrin, which made waves with a $540 million IPO this spring as it investigates IL-17A inhibitor izokibep in hidradenitis suppurativa and psoriatic arthritis.

William “BJ” Jones

→ With late-stage trials underway for its ex-Amgen cardio drug obicetrapib, NewAmsterdam Pharma has selected William “BJ” Jones as chief commercial officer. From 2019 to 22, Jones was chief commercial officer, migraine and common diseases at Biohaven, and he brings a wealth of Big Pharma experience from Bristol Myers, AstraZeneca and Takeda. NewAmsterdam roared past its enrollment goal for the Phase III BROADWAY trial last month, signing up more than 2,500 patients.

→ Cardiometabolic disease player NeuroBo Pharmaceuticals has finally locked in a CEO and president with the appointment of Hyung Heon Kim. Kim takes over the reins from Joseph Hooker, who has been serving in the interim since January upon the retirement of former CEO Gil Price. Kim joins the Boston-based company from Dong-A ST and Dong-A Socio Group, where he served as general counsel and SVP. Previously Kim served as a director of AnaPath Services GmbH and as a legal counsel for SK Energy and SK Innovation.

→ Moderna has added a new name to its roster by recruiting Jonathan Van-Tam as a part-time senior medical consultant in May. Van-Tam served as deputy CMO of England from 2017 to 2022 and currently serves part-time as a senior strategy advisor in medicine at the University of Nottingham.

Brian Powl

→ San Diego-based Kura Oncology has tapped Brian Powl as chief commercial officer. Powl had the same title at Fate Therapeutics and was also involved with the commercialization strategy for Abecma and Breyanzi as Celgene’s global commercial CAR-T lead before he joined MEI Pharma as SVP of marketing in 2020. Kura is down to one program with its original lead drug, tipifarnib, after discarding the rest of them in February, according to an SEC filing. The biotech is studying a tipifarnib/alpelisib combo in a Phase I/II trial.

→ Kronos Bio’s CFO and head of corporate development Yasir Al-Wakeel is waving goodbye to his post to pursue other opportunities as CEO of a private biotech. Al-Wakeel will stay with Kronos until Sept. 15 and the company is hunting for a replacement. Al-Wakeel joined Kronos in August 2020 and previously was CFO of Neon Therapeutics and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals.

Yasir Al-Wakeel

→ Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine partner BioNTech, which dumped its Sanofi-allied mRNA cancer asset BNT131 last month, has promoted James Ryan to chief legal officer. Ryan has spent the last five years at BioNTech and moves up from his previous post as general counsel and SVP, legal and IP. From 2014 to 2018, Ryan was head of legal affairs for GW Pharmaceuticals.

→ Nearly a month after Kodiak Sciences has ended its attempt at an Eylea rival in the midst of two failed Phase III trials, the company’s CMO and chief development officer Jason Ehrlich handed in his resignation. Ehrlich has been with the company since September 2018. Before his stint with the California-based company, Ehrlich was with Genentech for a decade.

Earl Douglas

→ Allogene has made another key hire, bringing in Earl Douglas as general counsel. Douglas previously held this position at Applied Molecular Transport — a company that in March halted its R&D work, eliminated 35 jobs and lost its CEO. Tim Moore reunited with fellow Kite alums Arie Belldegrun and David Chang a few months ago as Allogene’s chief technical officer, and the South San Francisco biotech is still looking for a finance chief after Eric Schmidt’s departure.

→ Nicole Davarpanah has been named SVP of translational R&D at San Diego-based Cidara Therapeutics, which won an FDA nod in March with its antifungal Rezzayo. Davarpanah comes from Genentech, where she was senior medical director of genitourinary immuno-oncology and medical affairs.

Zach Jonasson

→ Competing with the likes of Flagship’s Generate:Biomedicines and Insilico in the generative AI space, Absci has recruited Zach Jonasson as CFO and CBO. Jonasson, the co-founder and ex-CEO of Comera Life Sciences, chaired the board at Absci from 2016 to 2021 and will give up his seat on the board after seven years. He co-founded two VCs, Phoenix Venture Partners and Convergent Ventures, and was managing general partner for both. Jonasson takes over for the retiring Greg Schiffman, the finance chief at Absci since April 2020 who’s also been CFO at Iovance, Dendreon and Affymetrix.

Carrie Cook

→ London immunometabolism biotech Sitryx Therapeutics has appointed ex-Cerevance CBO Carrie Cook to the same position. Before her two years at Cerevance, Cook held business development posts at EMD Serono, Takeda and CANbridge Pharmaceuticals. The previous business chief at Sitryx, Tanya Borsuk, is currently EVP, corporate and business development with Congruence Therapeutics.

Dawn Thompson

→ Empress Therapeutics, a small molecule startup that raised the curtain with $50 million from Flagship in June, has recruited Dawn Thompson as SVP, head of platform development. Thompson had a four-year stint at Greg Verdine’s LifeMine Therapeutics as head of microbiology and automation. Earlier, she was the next generation sequencing leader for Ginkgo Bioworks.

→ Philly-based VintaBio has rolled out the welcome mat for Jennifer Kingsley as its first CCO. Kingsley joins the team from Cytiva, where she served as commercial zone leader. Kingsley also boasts of previous stints at Sigma-Aldrich and Life Technologies/Invitrogen.

→ CDMO Wheeler Bio has enlisted Marc Helouin as chief quality and regulatory officer. Helouin just finished up a 12-year run with AstraZeneca and filled a number of roles at the pharma giant, including head of biobank transformation, precision medicine and biosamples.

Chris Galloway

→ Elevar Therapeutics has brought on Chris Galloway as VP of clinical development. Galloway hails from Diffusion Pharmaceuticals, where he was CMO. Prior to that, Galloway held roles at La Jolla Pharmaceutical, Rakuten Medical, Merck and DaVita Clinical Research.

→ Australian pharma giant CSL has given Jeffrey Ball the title of its first chief sustainability officer. Ball has been with the company since 2019 and has served in a variety of roles, playing a part in CSL’s sustainability strategy. Prior to joining CSL, Ball was executive officer of operations for Aspen Aerogels and had gigs at Genzyme, Amgen and Bayer.

→ Veranova has recruited Victoria Brown as SVP, chief human resources officer. Brown hails from Catalent, where she most recently headed HR for Catalent Biologics and the global sales & marketing teams.

Werner Baumann

→ Werner Baumann has picked up a new gig on AmerisourceBergen’s board of directors after his retirement as CEO of Bayer. He’ll be joined by Lauren Tyler, the global head of human resources for JP Morgan’s asset and wealth management business. Former Roche Pharmaceuticals chief Bill Anderson succeeded Baumann at Bayer on April 1.

→ Cancer vaccine developer IO Biotech has carved out space for Heidi Hunter on the board of directors. The one-time president of Cardinal Health’s specialty solutions business has also led UCB’s global immunology business unit. Hunter has other board seats at Bavarian Nordic, Sutro Biopharma and Sweden’s Vicore Pharma.

→ Savara chairman and CEO Matt Pauls has locked up a spot on the board of directors at rare disease biotech Soleno Therapeutics. Pauls is the former head of global commercial operations for Shire and he ran Strongbridge Biopharma from 2014 to 2019.

→ New York-based ImmunoBrain Checkpoint has expanded its board of directors to include James Mackay. Mackay is the former founder, president and CEO of Aristea Therapeutics. Before that, Mackay with Ardea Biosciences, owned by AstraZeneca.

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