Ken SongKen Song is back in business.
He left RayzeBio in February after leading the radiopharmaceuticals startup from Series A to IPO in three years, and then a $4.1 billion exit to Bristol Myers Squibb just months after that Nasdaq debut.
Now, he’s founder, chair and CEO of a new biotech called Candid Therapeutics, according to his LinkedIn. The roles started in May, according to his profile on the job networking site. The company is working on biologics in the autoimmune field, according to a job posting.
With about two decades of leadership experience at biotech startups, a diagnostics company and a healthcare VC firm, Song is ready for his next post.
“I’ve actually been looking at quite a few things already. I love that part of just building and pursuing innovation,” Song told Endpoints News in early March. “I’m usually not one to sit idle, so I have been looking at a fair number of different potential interesting opportunities on the company side. I’m unlikely to go back to being an investor.”
It’s unclear who is funding Candid at this time. The RayzeBio deal led to a big payday for Song. The cash value of shares he and his family trust beneficially owned came out to $101 million, according to an SEC filing on Bristol Myers’ tender offer. He also had about $70 million in cash value from “in-the-money options,” according to the paperwork.
— Kyle LaHucik
Ray Deshaies→ Amgen SVP of global research Ray Deshaies wrote on LinkedIn that Angela Coxon will take over his role on an interim basis. Coxon has been with Amgen since 1999 and spent the last three years as VP of discovery oncology research. In his LinkedIn post, Deshaies touched on some of the molecules that defined his tenure: the KRAS G12C drug sotorasib (now marketed as Lumakras), the obesity candidate MariTide and the siRNA heart drug olpasiran, among others.
“Stepping down from my leadership role has led me to reflect on my time at Amgen over the past 7 years. This reflection has triggered two emotions: gratitude and pride,” he said. “It has been a tremendous privilege to have such an awesome set of colleagues as I have been blessed with at Amgen. It has been an experience — and opportunity — of a lifetime.”
Eric Cox→ As momentum builds with its Boehringer Ingelheim-partnered weight loss drugs, Zealand Pharma has selected Eric Cox as chief commercial officer. He begins on Aug. 5 and comes from Carmot Therapeutics, where he was VP, commercial strategy and business development. Roche’s $2.7 billion deal for Carmot is off to an auspicious start with early readouts for two obesity drugs, CT-388 and CT-996. Cox had a 16-year career with Merck before his appointment at AstraZeneca as US commercial franchise leader responsible for Farxiga across all indications. At Zealand, he will be working with assets such as survodutide (a glucagon receptor/GLP-1 receptor dual agonist for obesity) and petrelintide (an amylin analog for weight loss that spurred an eye-popping $1 billion raise).
Dannielle Appelhans→ COUR Pharmaceuticals will have a new leader on Sept. 1: Rubius vet Dannielle Appelhans, who took the COO job at COUR in July 2023, is replacing John Puisis as president and CEO. Before she was with Rubius, Appelhans had several roles at Novartis, becoming SVP of technical operations and chief technical officer for Novartis Gene Therapies. COUR announced a $105 million Series A in January for a pair of Phase 2a studies — one in myasthenia gravis and another in type 1 diabetes.
“Leading COUR since its inception over a decade ago has been a highlight of my career,” Puisis said in a statement. “With the support of industry-leading partners and top-tier investors, the COUR team has transformed a serendipitous discovery in the labs at Northwestern University into a clinically validated nanoparticle platform poised to deliver first-in-class, disease-modifying treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.”
Carolyn Bertozzi→ Circular RNA biotech Orna Therapeutics has named Nobel laureate and Stanford professor Carolyn Bertozzi to its scientific advisory board. She’ll co-chair the SAB with ex-Orna CEO Tom Barnes, who passed the baton to former Arena Pharmaceuticals chief Amit Munshi when Orna bought ReNAgade Therapeutics in May. Bertozzi is also advising (among others) TwoStep Therapeutics, a cancer upstart she co-founded that launched in June with a $6.5 million seed round.
→ Gary Glick’s Odyssey Therapeutics has tapped William Roush as EVP and head of small molecule research. The 72-year-old Roush is an emeritus professor of chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute’s Jupiter, FL campus and the former EVP of chemistry at IFM Therapeutics, another Glick company that was sold to Bristol Myers in 2017. Odyssey raised a $101 million Series C last December, a modest sum compared to the first two rounds.
Ajim Tamboli→ San Diego RNA player ADARx Pharmaceuticals has recruited Ajim Tamboli as CFO. Tamboli just spent less than a year as CFO of Arbor Biotechnologies after his resignation from Monte Rosa Therapeutics. ADARx has been on IPO watch following its $200 million Series C, but Ricky Sun of Bain Capital Life Sciences — which co-led the round with TCGX — said last August that there’s no rush. “Whether this is next year or the year after that, hopefully, that’s a choice we’ll have the luxury to have versus saying we’re going tomorrow,” Sun told Endpoints.
José Trevejo→ José Trevejo has been named CMO and head of clinical pipeline strategy at Enveda Biosciences, the Boulder, CO-based biotech named as an Endpoints 11 honoree last year. Trevejo is the former CEO of SmartPharm, the non-viral gene therapy developer that Sorrento Therapeutics purchased in 2020. Since that time, he’s handled the roles of chief development officer for Rocket Pharmaceuticals and CMO for Tarsus Pharmaceuticals.
Elona Kogan→ Terns Pharmaceuticals CFO Mark Vignola will step down either by January 2025 “or until a successor is found,” the Foster City, CA-based biotech said in a release. Also out is COO and general counsel Bryan Yoon, while Elona Kogan enters the picture as chief legal officer. Kogan was promoted to the same title at Seer last December and is the ex-general counsel for Ariad Pharmaceuticals and Selecta Biosciences. Both Vignola and Yoon had worked at Terns since 2020.
Cynthia Wat→ Cynthia Wat has joined German infectious disease biotech AiCuris as CMO. Chief R&D officer Holger Zimmermann, the former AiCuris CEO who was replaced by ex-La Jolla Pharmaceutical chief Larry Edwards last year, is parting ways with the company. Wat spent more than two decades with Roche in numerous capacities, including therapeutic area leader in infectious diseases, pharma R&D.
Lisa Ooi→ Antibody-drug conjugate developer Hummingbird Bioscience is taking flight in Peer Review with two promotions: Incoming medical chief Kon Yew Kwek had led clinical development for Hummingbird and was bumped up to SVP in August 2023. Earlier, the Eli Lilly vet was VP of clinical development for Akeso. New COO Lisa Ooi had served as Hummingbird’s SVP of strategy and held multiple positions in the Singaporean government.
Stephanie Fagan→ Psychedelics biotech MindMed has welcomed J&J communications vet Stephanie Fagan as chief corporate affairs officer. Fagan led the comms team at Agenus for nine months until her departure in March, and she’s the former chief communications officer at Shire and Acadia Pharmaceuticals. From 2017-21, Fagan had consecutive appointments as SVP of corporate communications for Alexion and bluebird bio.
→ Swiss biotech Santhera, which finally scored an FDA win last October for its steroidal drug vamorolone, has locked in Oliver Kronenberg as chief legal officer and corporate secretary. Kronenberg has been with Santhera since April of this year as interim general counsel. He has held gigs at both Vifor Pharma and Galencia since 2008, culminating in his role as group general counsel. Kronenberg’s predecessor, Oliver Strub, will now be Santhera’s head of compliance.
Karen Andreas→ Philly-based Context Therapeutics has rolled out the welcome mat for two Avenge Bio colleagues: Claudio Dansky Ullmann will be CMO and Karen Andreas will be VP, clinical operations. Ullmann also served in this role at Avenge and MaxCyte. Earlier in his career, Ullmann was with Takeda, Infinity Pharmaceuticals and the National Cancer Institute. Meanwhile, Andreas was also serving as VP, clinical operations at Avenge and had previously held roles at Boston Pharmaceuticals, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals and ArQule.
Campbell Murray→ VC firm Bioluminescence Ventures, which emerged from stealth last November with $477 million in assets, has brought on Campbell Murray as senior partner. Murray brings experience from a recent role as general partner of Agent Capital and more than 16 years at Novartis Venture Fund.
Alise Reicin→ T cell receptor specialist Immatics has appointed Tectonic Therapeutic CEO Alise Reicin to the board of directors. Tectonic, the GPCR biotech brought to you by Harvard’s Tim Springer, recently began trading on the Nasdaq through a reverse merger with Avrobio. “What we realized is by going the reverse merger route, it really enabled us to get a runway into mid-2027 and we felt we were ready to go public as a company, and so it just made sense and was the right thing to do for the company,” Reicin told Endpoints in a June interview.
→ Alkermes’ cancer spinout Mural Oncology has added ex-Celgene dealmaker George Golumbeski to the board of directors. Golumbeski is a partner at Droia Ventures and chairs the board at Shattuck Labs and Actio Biosciences.
Martin Mackay→ Rallybio co-founder and chairman Martin Mackay has joined the board of directors at SpringWorks Therapeutics. Mackay, who also has board seats at Novo Nordisk and Charles River, handed the CEO reins to fellow co-founder Steve Uden at Rallybio last year at this time.
→ Former Bayer CEO and chair Dieter Weinand is picking up the role of chairman at Anaveon, replacing Martin Murphy, who is stepping down. For Weinand, this newest gig follows a long line of chairman roles at Replimune, Umoja Biopharma, Fore Biotherapeutics and Confo Therapeutics.
Jennifer Jarrett→ Anne Phillips and Jennifer Jarrett are the newest board members at Sagimet Biosciences, part of the 2023 IPO class. Phillips retired from Novo Nordisk as SVP of clinical, medical, and regulatory affairs, while Jarrett is the operations chief for Arcus Biosciences. Sagimet is developing denifanstat for NASH (also known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, or MASH).
→ Avidity Biosciences CEO Sarah Boyce has picked up her second board seat in as many months, this time at Abcuro, the autoimmune disease and cancer biotech chaired by ex-Versanis Bio and Intercept boss Mark Pruzanski. Boyce was recently added to the board at Contineum Therapeutics.
→ CNS drug developer Myrobalan Therapeutics has elected ex-Epizyme chief Grant Bogle to the board of directors. Myrobalan also said it stapled another $9 million to its original $24 million Series A last month.