Moncef Slaoui→ Moncef Slaoui has reemerged this week with another board appointment, making his way to mRNA drug developer Arcturus Therapeutics. Endpoints News scooped you last September on Slaoui’s board seat with Altesa BioSciences, an antiviral startup with former HHS official Brett Giroir as CEO. Slaoui had just finished his work with Operation Warp Speed when sexual harassment allegations led to his dismissal from multiple positions in 2021, including his role as CFO of Centessa Pharmaceuticals. After Slaoui didn’t respond to calls for the Altesa story, Giroir vouched for his addition to the board, writing in an email that Slaoui “literally saved the world” during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Arcturus’ stock $ARCT soared in late May when it offered a peek of its results in four patients taking the inhaled cystic fibrosis therapy ARCT-032.
Joe Wiley→ Four Amryt Pharma vets have reunited at Gamida Cell, including CEO Joe Wiley, who sold Amryt to Chiesi in January 2023. CFO Rory Nealon (Amryt’s co-founder and former chief financial and operating officer), commercial chief Sheila Frame (the ex-president, Americas at Amryt) and CBO Stephen Joyce (the general manager of Amryt after the buyout) are also on Wiley’s senior leadership team. Gamida Cell, which makes the allogeneic cell therapy Omisirge, went private earlier this year in a restructuring process led by Highbridge Capital Management.
“With Highbridge’s support, I look forward to leading Gamida Cell into its next phase as we work with hospitals across the US to expand access to Omisirge for the patients who need it most,” Wiley said in a statement.
Andrew Cavey→ German radiopharma biotech ITM will have a new CEO on Sept. 1. Andrew Cavey will succeed Steffen Schuster, the CEO since December 2011 who will stay with the company as a member of the supervisory board. During Cavey’s brief tenure with Bristol Myers Squibb as head of global program leaders, hematology, oncology, cell therapy, the pharma giant dipped its toe into radiotherapies with the $4.1 billion acquisition of RayzeBio. But a fly in the ointment has been the shortage of a radioactive isotope that’s pivotal to the development of RYZ101, which led Bristol Myers to pause enrollment in a Phase 3 study. Cavey also helped build the radiopharma portfolio at Novartis as global program head, prostate cancer.
Lana Gladstein→ Launched by PureTech and backed by blue-chip investors like ARCH Venture Partners and Third Rock, neuro upstart Seaport Therapeutics has welcomed longtime Sunovion Pharmaceuticals exec Antony Loebel as CMO and president of clinical development, and Lana Gladstein as general counsel. Loebel was promoted to CEO at Sunovion in 2019 and ran the company until it was folded into Sumitomo Pharma America last year. Gladstein leaves Aprinoia Therapeutics during its IPO process after a year on the job, and she has previous legal experience with Recipharm and Brammer Bio. Seaport debuted in April with a $100 million Series A and is chaired by ex-Karuna Therapeutics chief Steve Paul.
PureTech also formally announced that Millennium co-founder Raju Kucherlapati is the company’s permanent chairman of the board, removing the interim tag after a year in the position.
Angela Cacace→ While it keeps looking for a CFO, Arvinas has promoted Ian Taylor to R&D chief and Angela Cacace to CSO. Taylor left Pfizer in 2016 to become VP of pharmacology and translational medicine at Arvinas in 2016, and he would be promoted to CSO three years later. Cacace has been with Arvinas since 2018, when she was named VP of neuroscience and platform biology. The company elevated her to SVP in 2022. Arvinas inked its latest protein degradation deal with Novartis in April for $150 million upfront and is already aligned with Pfizer on lead program vepdegestrant. That same month, interim finance chief Randy Teel was bumped up to CBO.
Chris Ogden→ CytomX Therapeutics has promoted Chris Ogden to CFO. The longtime Eli Lilly finance vet had served as SVP, finance and accounting since September 2022 and has worked at CytomX for nearly three years overall. CytomX has absorbed some body blows in the past two years — workforce reductions, trial failures, axed partnerships — but teaming up with Amgen, Moderna and other major players has kept the South San Francisco biotech in the ring.
Audrey Duval Derveloy→ Sanofi’s president of France Audrey Duval Derveloy has been named global head of corporate affairs, overseeing stakeholder engagement as well as the drugmaker’s corporate social responsibility strategy, not-for-profit global health efforts and philanthropic arm. In September 2022, Derveloy had been poached from Novartis, where she had been country president for the operations in Ireland. Derveloy previously served as a researcher at Pasteur Research Center of Hong Kong University and later was with Pfizer working in medical affairs.
Katherine Eade→ Trying its hand at metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (commonly referred to as NASH) with a gene therapy that expresses FGF21, Kriya Therapeutics has selected Katherine Eade as chief legal officer. Eade once served as general counsel for Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, Art Krieg’s cancer startup that was purchased by Regeneron in 2022.
→ BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics has enlisted Hartoun Hartounian as EVP and COO. Hartounian previously founded and led CDMO BioCentriq from 2022 to 2023 and initially served as the company’s general manager for seven years. Before that, he was the CEO and co-founder of Allied BioVentures and president and CEO of Vyteris. Hartounian joins the team at BrainStorm after it announced in April that it was moving forward with its Phase 3b study of its ALS cell therapy despite pulling its BLA last year.
Jasbir Seehra→ Keros Therapeutics, the TGF-ß experts who just added ex-BioMarin chief JJ Bienaimé to the board of directors, will make some changes on July 1: CEO Jasbir Seehra — who co-founded Acceleron — will replace OrbiMed’s Carl Gordon as chairman, and 11-year Acceleron vet Christopher Rovaldi will take over for Seehra as president while still handling COO duties. On that same date, Bienaimé will become Keros’ lead independent director.
→ Sweden’s Alligator Bioscience has recruited Johan Giléus as CFO. Giléus had held this position at Stockholm-based InDex Pharmaceuticals since 2017 and added the role of deputy CEO in early 2023. Alligator’s lead program, a CD40 agonist called mitazalimab, passed a Phase 2 test in patients with first-line metastatic pancreatic cancer in January.
Keith Dewedoff→ University of Oxford spinout SpyBiotech has tapped Keith Dewedoff as CFO. Dewedoff comes to the vaccine maker after CFO gigs at Carbon Biosciences, Deka Biosciences and Code Biotherapeutics, among others. He’s also been a CFO and advisor for Danforth Advisors.
Janet Hammond→ UK-based Enterprise Therapeutics has brought in Renu Gupta as CMO and Janet Hammond as non-executive director. Gupta has had stints with Novartis, Bristol Myers, Insmed, Promedior and Corbus Pharmaceuticals, among others. Meanwhile, Hammond currently serves as chief development officer at Atea Pharmaceuticals and is the former VP and head of infectious diseases and general medicine at AbbVie.
→ OnKure, which reverse merged with Reneo Pharmaceuticals last month, has introduced Rogan Nunn as general counsel and secretary. Nunn took on the same role at Array BioPharma in February 2019 before Pfizer bought the company several months later. He’s also the former general counsel, America for ADC Therapeutics.
→ Former Agilent Technologies CEO Mike McMullen will be the newest board member at Bristol Myers on July 1. Before his retirement this year, McMullen had led Agilent since 2015 and he’ll be a senior advisor to his successor Padraig McDonnell until Oct. 31. McMullen takes a seat on a board that includes GE Healthcare CEO Peter Arduini and ex-Macy’s CFO Paula Price.
Shawn Leland→ Ex-Elevation Oncology chief Shawn Leland has been named chairman of the board at Evexta Bio, the Paris-based cancer biotech once known as Diaccurate. Leland had stepped in as interim CEO of Fore Biotherapeutics; former Axcella Therapeutics CEO Bill Hinshaw took over on March 15.
→ Agenus has turned to a familiar face to take a spot on the board of directors. Jennifer Buell was the Lexington, MA-based company’s president and COO before her current role as CEO of Agenus’ natural killer cell therapy spinoff MiNK Therapeutics. “Dr. Buell’s appointment is a testament to her unparalleled leadership and her profound impact on Agenus,” CEO Garo Armen said in a statement.
Maria Koehler→ Repare Therapeutics medical chief Maria Koehler has joined the board of directors at Remix Therapeutics, the RNA processing biotech that started the year by joining forces with Roche in a deal that saw the Swiss pharma shell out $30 million upfront. She also has seats on the boards of Ikena Oncology and Abdera Therapeutics.
Brian Goff→ Here are a few other board appointments that were announced late last week: Agios CEO Brian Goff clinched a spot on the board at Intellia Therapeutics; Genentech vet and former Denali Therapeutics finance chief Steve Krognes now has a board gig with Pliant Therapeutics; ex-Sanifit president and CMO Alex Gold has landed at Mineralys Therapeutics; and TScan Therapeutics has brought in ex-Pfizer Oncology president Garry Nicholson as Tim Barberich retires — Baker Bros. Advisors partner Stephen Biggar will now chair the TCR-T biotech’s board.