Sebastian Guth sharpens his focus at Bayer; As CD47 struggles persist, I-Mab appoints CEO

Sebastian Guth

→ Bayer is refining Sebastian Guth’s role on June 30, naming him senior Bayer representative and president of Bayer US. Guth had led pharmaceuticals operations in the Americas since December 2018, but he’ll only be in charge of the US and Canada, as EMEA commercial operations leader Heike Prinz handles the Latin America pharmaceuticals business. Guth is a 17-year veteran with Bayer who has also been president and CEO of the German multinational’s healthcare group in Japan. The moves come as former Roche Pharmaceuticals chief Bill Anderson is about to complete his first month as CEO. In Werner Baumann’s final days, Bayer trimmed its pipeline and also struck a radiotherapy deal with Bicycle Therapeutics worth $45 million upfront.

Raj Kannan

→ Raj Kannan has lined up his next CEO gig at I-Mab, replacing acting chief Andrew Zhu. Kannan was CEO of Aerie Pharmaceuticals for less than a year before Alcon shelled out $770 million to buy the biotech, a deal that was made official in November. Kannan’s earlier CEO stop at Chiasma also featured a buyout in 2021, when it was consumed by Amryt Pharma. CD47 has hit a rough patch, with I-Mab and Big Pharma partner AbbVie giving up on a pair of studies last year that involved lemzoparlimab. AbbVie paid I-Mab $200 million upfront in the original deal, with almost $1.8 billion in milestones on the line. I-Mab had been operating with acting chief executives since Joan Shen’s exit at the end of 2021.

Jonathan Mow

→ Ex-PhaseBio chief Jonathan Mow gets a fresh start as CEO of Veralox, an immuno-inflammatory disease biotech that raised $24 million this week. PhaseBio ended a legal battle with SFJ Pharmaceuticals in January over the rights to PhaseBio’s lead drug bentracimab after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a countermeasure. Mow was CBO at PhaseBio before his promotion to the top spot in 2015, and he also co-founded Corus Pharma, holding the role of VP, commercial and business development when it was sold to Gilead for $365 million in 2006.

Sanofi Ventures, Hatteras Venture Partners and Pappas Capital are among the investors at Veralox, which is using the money to bankroll a Phase IIb proof-of-concept for its heparin-induced thrombocytopenia asset VLX-1005. Pappas Capital’s senior venture partner Peter Young is now on the board of directors.

Ilise Lombardo

→ Noema Pharma, a Swiss CNS player with a suite of ex-Roche candidates and a Series B megaround in the bank, has selected board member Ilise Lombardo to replace Luigi Costa as CEO. Lombardo is a Pfizer vet who just wrapped up a two-year stint at Shankar Ramaswamy’s Kriya Therapeutics, first as CMO and then as president of the therapeutics division. She co-founded another Swiss-based CNS biotech, Arvelle Therapeutics, which merged with Angelini Pharma at the start of 2021. Forbion and Jeito Capital headlined Noema’s $112 million Series B in early March.

Leonard Reyno

→ Watertown, MA-based protein degradation trailblazer C4 Therapeutics has tapped Leonard Reyno as CMO. Reyno spent the last five years with Pionyr Immunotherapeutics, and in January he became president of R&D in addition to his CMO duties. He’s also been medical chief for ORIC Pharmaceuticals and Agensys, the Astellas sub that closed up shop in 2017. C4 teamed up with China’s Betta Pharmaceuticals several weeks ago on a non-small cell lung cancer pact worth $35 million.

→ Hoping to navigate choppy waters, Catalent has brought on Matti Masanovich as CFO. Masanovich formerly served as CFO of auto equipment manufacturer Tenneco Automotive and at Superior Industries International and General Cable. Masanovich takes things over from Thomas Castellano, who left in April amid a turbulent period for Catalent, which reported weak financial oversight across some of its operations, overspending across its business, and productivity issues at some of its biggest sites. Masanovich’s hiring also comes as Catalent has made other changes among top executives as it promised to get its business and expenses under control.

Lone Ottesen

→ Danish antibody-drug conjugate maker Adcendo has installed Big Pharma alum Lone Ottesen as CMO. Ottesen held oncology posts at GSK and Eisai, then worked on cancer drugs such as capivasertib, adavosertib and Imfinzi as AstraZeneca’s global clinical head in late-stage clinical development. Ottesen was recently the medical chief of Norwegian biotech Circio, once known as Targovax. Adcendo, a company in Gilde Healthcare’s portfolio, put a little extra into its Series A total in April, gathering up $33.8 million to push the total to $89.6 million.

→ Another biotech that caught Gilde Healthcare’s eye, Spanish gene therapy developer SpliceBio, has introduced David Favre as chief development officer. Before his yearlong stay as CSO of Innoskel, Favre — the ex-director of HIV biology at GSK — was AskBio’s VP of translational medicine from 2019-21. Gilde, UCB Ventures, Novartis Venture Fund and others contributed to SpliceBio’s Series A from February 2022.

Gunnar Kaufmann

→ Gunnar Kaufmann has left Oncternal Therapeutics to join Kyowa Kirin’s North America crew as chief research officer. A longtime Scripps Research Institute professor, Kaufmann rose to SVP of immunotherapy, head of research and global partnerships to finish up a seven-year run at Sorrento Therapeutics before he took the CSO job at Oncternal in 2019.

Mike Berry

→ Mike Berry has been named chief technology officer of Shanghai’s Everest Medicines, which has more cash at its disposal after Gilead bought back the rights to Trodelvy in China and other Asian countries for $280 million in August 2022. Berry was previously the chief technical operations officer for global operations at another Chinese biotech, vaccine specialist Clover Biopharmaceuticals.

Chet Gandhi

→ Twist Bioscience has recruited Chet Gandhi as chief information officer. Gandhi held this same post for nearly two years at Wineshipping, a Napa-based DTC logistics provider geared toward wine and alcoholic beverages. California WARN notices indicate that Twist will lay off 212 staffers in early July, and all but 15 of them are based in San Francisco.

→ Swiss RNA biotech Versameb has enlisted Roger Dmochowski as CMO. Dmochowski, a professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine for the last 22 years, has been on Versameb’s scientific advisory board as the company looks to submit an IND sometime “in the second half of 2023” for VMB-100, its lead program for stress urinary incontinence.

Anne Kasmar

→ A spokesperson for Parexel has informed Peer Review that Anne Kasmar has signed on as SVP and global therapeutic area head, infectious disease and vaccines. Kasmar, whose first day at Parexel will be June 13, spent two years as a lead medical director for Genentech and was a program officer for tuberculosis vaccines at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

→ French biotech MaaT Pharma, which had a nearly two-year clinical hold lifted back in April for its microbiome therapy, has made some changes to its exec team and board of directors. The changes to the exec team include Gervais Tougais as acting CMO (former CMO and patient safety at Novartis for 20 years), Philippe Moyen as COO (former VP of technical and business operations at PTC Therapeutics) and Guilhaume Debroas as head of investor relations.

Meanwhile, on the board of directors, Karim Dabbagh (president and CEO of Second Genome) is taking over the reins from Jean-Marie Lefèvre as chairman, and Nadia Kamal (director of the technology, health and innovation divisions at Harmonie Mutuelle) has joined as independent director and chair of the ESG committee.

Adam Veness

→ Autoimmune disease startup Dianthus Therapeutics has welcomed Adam Veness as general counsel. Veness showed up in Peer Review last April when he took the same job at Cyteir Therapeutics after seven years of legal roles with Acceleron. Magenta Therapeutics — reeling from a patient death that halted its Phase I/II trial of MGTA-117, mass layoffs, and the departure of CEO Jason Gardner — reverse merged with Dianthus last month.

→ Virpax Pharmaceuticals has passed the CFO torch over to Vinay Shah as Christopher Chipman hits the exit. Shah has served in the position at Aravive and prior to that stint, he was with Pacira Pharmaceuticals for nine years.

Jean-Frédéric Paulsen

→ Jean-Frédéric Paulsen has been named chairman of the board at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, which received FDA nods for its C. diff med Rebyota and bladder cancer gene therapy Adstiladrin in quick succession in December. Ex-Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Rebien Sørensen, Ferring’s chairman for the past two years, slides into the role of vice chairman as Viviane Monges and Henrik Normann now have a seat on the board. By July 1, the board will no longer include Hélène Ploix, Jeffrey Hobbs and Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg.

Charles Baum

→ RA Capital-backed cancer biotech Acrivon Therapeutics has reserved space for ex-Mirati CEO Charles Baum on the board of directors. Acrivon hit the Nasdaq in a barren landscape last November with a $99.4 million IPO.

Robert Iannone

→ London T cell biotech Autolus Therapeutics has elected Jazz Pharmaceuticals global head of R&D Robert Iannone to the board of directors. The Merck and AstraZeneca immuno-oncology vet was CMO of Immunomedics before joining Jazz in 2019.

→ Jasper Therapeutics is making its second consecutive appearance in Peer Review, adding former AbbVie development chief Scott Brun to the board of directors after CMO Edwin Tucker’s appointment last week. Ex-CRISPR Therapeutics CBO and COO Lawrence Klein, now a partner at Versant, won’t retain his seat on Jasper’s board.

→ Former BioMarin CFO Jeffrey Cooper has hopped onto the board of directors at Nexcella after previous board appointments at Sierra Oncology and Tobira Therapeutics. Ex-Mylan CFO Edward Borkowski has also joined Nexcella’s board.

therapeutics
gene therapy
immunotherapy
microbiome
vaccines
cmo
crispr
pharmaceuticals
medical
biotech
pharma
healthcare
fda
research
fund
nasdaq
buy