Steve Davis→ Steve Davis is out as CEO of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, passing the baton to Catherine Owen Adams. Davis was named CEO in 2015, and a year into his tenure, he led Acadia to the FDA approval of Nuplazid for Parkinson’s disease psychosis. However, subsequent attempts to expand the label haven’t been successful. Last year, Acadia achieved a regulatory milestone when Daybue earned the first-ever FDA nod for Rett syndrome.
Catherine Owen AdamsAdams comes to Acadia after five years with Bristol Myers Squibb, where she was SVP, head of major markets (Europe, Canada and Japan) and then became general manager, US. She held numerous positions in a 25-year career with J&J, including US president of Janssen Immunology.
“Given Acadia’s strong foundation and where the business is today, the board of directors decided that the company would benefit from new leadership with substantial experience successfully commercializing drugs to continue the progress the company has made and advance Acadia’s next stage of growth,” an Acadia spokesperson said in an email, adding that the decision to hire Adams was made “with input from Steve Davis.”
Ruxandra Draghia-Akli→ Ruxandra Draghia-Akli will succeed Filip Dubovsky as head of R&D for Novavax in November. Draghia-Akli spent four years with J&J as global head of global public health R&D until her departure in February. Earlier, she was deputy director general for research at the European Commission, but stepped down nine months into the job to join Merck as VP, medical and scientific affairs on the global vaccines team. Novavax overcame several delays to secure emergency use authorization for its protein-based Covid-19 vaccine Nuvaxovid, although its late entry to the market has contributed to the company’s struggles, going through waves of workforce reductions and cost cuts. Dubovsky retired from this post in July and is still an executive advisor for the vaccine maker.
Mike Quigley→ Endpoints News was the first to tell you about Sanofi’s appointment of Mike Quigley as CSO and head of research. Quigley starts on Sept. 30 and takes over from Frank Nestle, who’s now the CEO of therapeutic discovery and development for Deerfield Management. Quigley ran Therini Bio from 2021-23 and has been a venture partner at SV Health Investors, which co-led Therini Bio’s $36 million Series A in April 2023. Sanofi R&D chief Houman Ashrafian spent seven years with SV.
Giovanni Abbadessa→ We have news on someone else who’s held the role of CSO at Sanofi: Gary Nabel’s ModeX Therapeutics has tapped Giovanni Abbadessa as CMO. Abbadessa left Sanofi in June after leading oncology early development at the French pharma giant. ModeX is working on a multispecific antibody for Covid-19 that is included in the US government’s Project NextGen, and the OPKO Health company also has preclinical I/O candidates in its pipeline. In 2020, Nestle replaced Nabel in that CSO slot.
Maria-Chiara Magnone→ Maria-Chiara Magnone enters the Flagship ecosystem as CSO of Abiologics, which debuted in July and is developing synthetic proteins called Synteins from “building blocks” like D-amino acids. Magnone breaks away from the world of large pharma companies after a year as head of discovery for the cardiovascular, metabolic, retina and pulmonary hypertension therapeutic area at J&J, and six years overall. She spent another six years with Roche and was head of translational sciences, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases for AstraZeneca.
Morgan Conn→ Philadelphia cell therapy developer Century Therapeutics has named Morgan Conn as CFO and Chad Cowan as CSO. Century also said that Hy Levitsky’s second stint as president of R&D has come to an end. Conn had a 16-year career at PTC Therapeutics before taking the CBO job at Pharvaris in 2017. Cowan founded and was CEO of Clade Therapeutics, an off-the-shelf cell therapy startup that Century bought for $35 million upfront earlier this year. He’s also one of the scientific founders of CRISPR Therapeutics and co-founded Sana Biotechnology, where he served as CSO. Levitsky quickly returned to Century in April 2023 after resigning three months earlier, and he’ll stay with the company in an advisory role.
Natarajan Sethuraman→ After holding the CSO post since 2017, Natarajan Sethuraman has been promoted to R&D chief at Entrada Therapeutics. “Natarajan has been with Entrada since our inception and his leadership has been invaluable in the research and clinical development of the company’s diverse pipeline of proprietary intracellular therapeutics,” CEO Dipal Doshi said in a statement. Although Entrada’s Duchenne muscular dystrophy candidate ENTR-601-44 is still on clinical hold in the US, a Phase 1 study in the UK has been completed.
Hardean Achneck→ Aligos Therapeutics has selected Hardean Achneck as CMO after releasing Phase 2 data for its MASH drug ALG-055009 last week. Achneck has been SVP and head of clinical development for Pliant Therapeutics, a biotech that used to partner with Novartis on a candidate for the liver condition before the Swiss company backed out in February 2023. In what was ostensibly a mid-stage win for Aligos, a 7% increase in liver fat in the placebo arm proved to be a stumbling block for investors: Shares $ALGS have hit a one-year low in the aftermath.
Jesse Smith→ Epizyme alum Jesse Smith has returned to Peer Review as CSO of Bayer partner NextRNA Therapeutics. Smith was a first-time CSO at Civetta Therapeutics, a Deerfield biotech that shut down last year, and he tackled the role of SVP, translational sciences for RNA processing specialist Remix Therapeutics from 2020-22. He left Epizyme in 2018 to become SVP of early discovery at Omega Therapeutics.
→ Radiopharmaceutical player Convergent Therapeutics has installed Richard Messmann as CMO, and according to the same release, Novo Holdings stapled an additional $40 million onto the prostate cancer biotech’s Series A. Messman worked on Pluvicto at Novartis and had a brief stop at Fusion Pharmaceuticals as SVP and clinical lead for the actinium radiotherapeutic known as FPI-2265 for prostate cancer. He led development for xaluritamig and other bispecific T cell engagers as executive medical director and global program lead at Amgen. Novo Holdings’ Jim Trenkle is the newest board member at Convergent, which has now raised $130 million in its Series A round.
Jae Kim→ South San Francisco-based GPCR biotech Septerna has recruited Jae Kim as CMO and has lined up two more execs. Kim is the ex-CMO of Design Therapeutics and Avidity Biosciences, and he also led clinical development at Alnylam from 2016-20. Septerna has also brought in Monica Gangal as VP of clinical operations, and Matthew Holdren as VP of toxicology. Gangal had the same responsibilities at AzurRx BioPharma and Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, while Holdren had a two-year stint as head of nonclinical development for Lycia Therapeutics and was senior director of toxicology at Genentech. Septerna raised $150 million in Series B financing last summer and is working on a pill for hypoparathyroidism. In August, the FDA delivered an FDA approval to Ascendis Bio’s Yorvipath for the same indication.
→ Braden Parker has been named chief commercial officer at Savara, a Pennsylvania-based biotech that is preparing a BLA for molgramostim, its lead asset for a rare lung disease called autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (aPAP). Parker was elevated to this position at Orchard Therapeutics, taking on the commercial strategy for its gene therapy to treat early-onset metachromatic leukodystrophy. Marketed as Lenmeldy in the US, its $4.25 million price tag supplanted the hemophilia A treatment Hemgenix as the most expensive drug in the world.
Shalini Sharp→ Ex-Ultragenyx and Agenus CFO Shalini Sharp has picked up a seat on the board of directors at BeiGene. Sharp is a board member at Septerna, Neurocrine Biosciences and Organon, and was on the board at Mirati until it was sold to Bristol Myers. Back in January, BeiGene appointed former Sanofi chief Olivier Brandicourt to the board.
→ Cardurion Pharmaceuticals, part of this year’s Endpoints 11 class of 2024, has added Ron Renaud to the board of directors. Renaud sold Cerevel to AbbVie for $8.7 billion and then joined Bain Capital Life Sciences, where he’s a senior advisor. He also chairs the board at Upstream Bio, a respiratory disease biotech that just filed for an IPO.
→ One of last year’s Endpoints 11 winners, Seismic Therapeutic, has welcomed former Harpoon Therapeutics chief Julie Eastland to the board of directors. Merck bought Harpoon and its T cell engagers for $680 million in January.
Ashish Jha→ Flagship AI startup Apriori Bio has elected ex-Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance CEO Seth Berkley and one-time White House Covid-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha to the board of directors. Flagship scientific advisor and academic partner Arup Chakraborty is also a new member on the board at Apriori Bio, which is chaired by CEO Lovisa Afzelius and launched in July 2022 with a $50 million commitment.
Julia Butchko→ Ankyra Therapeutics has named ex-Immunovant development chief Julia Butchko to the board of directors, along with The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s executive emeritus Tara Withington. If you haven’t already, be sure to read our founding editor John Carroll’s piece about his cancer diagnosis that features insights from Ankyra CEO Howard Kaufman.
→ Former bluebird bio sickle cell lead Sachiyo Minegishi has joined the board of directors at Alkermes’ cancer spinout Mural Oncology. Minegishi has been CFO of Rectify Pharmaceuticals since April 2023 and is the ex-finance chief at Akouos, the hearing loss biotech that Lilly purchased for $487 million.
→ Now with Arbor Biotechnologies alum Daniel Janse at the helm, AffyImmune has carved out space for Rick Rutter and Jorge Nieva on the board of directors. Rutter worked for Pfizer as EVP of biotherapeutics pharmaceutical sciences, and Nieva — who served on the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee — teaches at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.