Jean-Paul Clozel→ Jean-Paul Clozel is ready to pass the torch at his Actelion follow-up Idorsia, but he doesn’t want to walk away from the company altogether.
Clozel will retire as CEO on June 13, and Idorsia has tapped his longtime lieutenant André Muller to replace him. The 69-year-old Clozel will now stand for election as chairman, while Mathieu Simon moves into the vice chairman post.
The changes on the board don’t stop there. Jörn Aldag, Felix Ehrat and Peter Kellogg are stepping down, and Idorsia has nominated ex-Galapagos president Bart Filius.
“It has been an absolute privilege to serve as CEO of Actelion and Idorsia for the past 24 years. I can think of no greater endeavor than discovering new medicines that help patients lead better lives,” Clozel said in a statement. “Having devoted so much energy to Idorsia, I want to stay engaged and support the company to realize its potential.”
Muller was CFO at Actelion and followed Clozel to Idorsia as finance chief after J&J bought Actelion for $30 billion in 2017. Muller had a 17-year career at Pierre Fabre, where he was CFO from 2002-11.
Idorsia has notched two FDA approvals in its seven-year history: insomnia med Quviviq and high blood pressure drug Tryvio.
Naimish Patel→ CRISPR Therapeutics has found a new medical chief and promoted one of its execs. Naimish Patel takes over as CMO from PK Morrow, who resigned on Jan. 26 and joined Takeda as head of the oncology therapeutic area unit. Patel quickly moved up to global program head for the megablockbuster Dupixent early in his tenure at Sanofi, where he was recently the head of global development in immunology and inflammation.
Vertex’s Casgevy partner has also elevated Julianne Bruno to COO. She left McKinsey for CRISPR in 2019 and had been SVP and head of programs & portfolio management since March 2023.
→ Bavarian Nordic will be looking for a CMO after Laurence de Moerlooze’s departure at the end of the month. The GSK and Takeda vaccines alum succeeded Chris Heery as medical chief in the spring of 2020. “We have an operational setup that is robust enough for people to continue doing their jobs until a replacement is in place,” Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin told MedWatch about the search. “They can manage that for six months or more, so I have no concerns at all.”
Hanneke Schuitemaker→ Meanwhile, at another vaccine developer, Valneva has welcomed Hanneke Schuitemaker as CSO. As J&J’s global head of viral vaccine discovery and translational medicine, Schuitemaker was involved in the development of vaccine candidates for Covid-19, HIV, RSV, Ebola and more. Valneva overcame a nearly two-and-a-half-month delay and received an accelerated nod from the FDA last November for its chikungunya vaccine Ixchiq.
Maria Alfaiate→ Maria Alfaiate will get started on Aug. 1 in the new role of EVP, commercial and corporate strategy at Lundbeck. She’s the current SVP and global head of new products commercialization and portfolio strategy for Bayer, and has further experience with major pharmas from her time at AstraZeneca and Merck. Lundbeck sells Rexulti for major depressive disorder, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s-related agitation, and the migraine drug Vyepti, among other products.
→ With several major depressive disorder candidates in the pipeline, Alto Neuroscience has recruited Michael Hanley as COO. Hanley has familiarity with the neuro arena as the former head of US sales for the psychiatry business unit at Lundbeck. From 2019-23, Hanley worked for Aeglea BioTherapeutics (now known as Spyre Therapeutics) as chief commercial officer and chief business officer. The 10-year Takeda vet was also group VP of marketing for the Americas and Asia-Pacific in Horizon’s orphan business unit. Alto began listing on the NYSE in early February with a nine-figure IPO.
Deborah Knobelman→ The road has gotten progressively bumpier for Kronos Bio, conserving cash with multiple rounds of job cuts and parting ways with several senior leaders. As it pins its hopes on two candidates — KB-0742 for solid tumors and KB-9558 for multiple myeloma — Kronos has selected Pfizer vet Deborah Knobelman as COO and CFO. Knobelman resigned on May 3 as Tim Lu’s CFO and head of corporate development at Senti Bio. Kronos CMO Jorge DiMartino, CSO Christopher Dinsmore, and COO and general counsel Barbara Kosacz all left earlier this year in a move “designed to focus on pipeline advancement and align with Kronos Bio’s current operating needs,” the company said at the time.
Jenny Marlowe→ Competing in the epigenetic editing space with such companies as Epic Bio and Tune Therapeutics, Chroma Medicine has introduced Jenny Marlowe as chief development officer. Following a decadelong tenure at Novartis, which she ended with a brief run as director of translational safety models, preclinical safety at NIBR, Marlowe held the role of CSO at AavantiBio/Solid Biosciences and was the program lead for the beta thalassemia gene therapy Zynteglo during her four years with bluebird bio. Chroma reduced its headcount several weeks ago, but wouldn’t specify how many staffers were affected by the wave of layoffs.
Jonathan Cheng→ SystImmune has hired another Bristol Myers Squibb alum, bringing in Jonathan Cheng as CMO. Cheng is a Merck oncology veteran who was Bristol Myers’ SVP and therapeutic area head of oncology clinical development from 2020-23. Bristol Myers plunked down $800 upfront in its ADC deal with SystImmune, which poached CEO Jie D’Elia from the pharma giant last month.
Karim Benhadji→ Robert Wasserman has retired as CMO of Inspirna, and Karim Benhadji has taken his place at Oz Azam’s cancer biotech. Benhadji had a 13-year career with Eli Lilly’s oncology team, then pivoted to Taiho Oncology as head of clinical development and operations. A brief run as CMO at GV20 Therapeutics ended in February. Wasserman will still be an advisor for Inspirna, which is testing its lead asset ompenaclid in advanced or metastatic RAS mutant colorectal cancer.
→ Immunome has removed the interim tag and named Max Rosett as CFO on May 9. Rosett had been acting COO of Morphimmune and became SVP of operations after the merger with Immunome last year. He then moved up to interim CFO in January when Corleen Roche left to take the same job at CG Oncology.
Juan Carlos Lopez-Talavera→ There are three new faces at Anavex Life Sciences, all of whom are Intercept vets: Juan Carlos Lopez-Talavera (head of R&D) spent nearly four years as CMO of Fractyl Health and held leadership roles at Roche, Bristol Myers and AbbVie. Terrie Kellmeyer (SVP of clinical development) was in charge of regulatory affairs at Madrigal Pharmaceuticals from 2019-21 and had been group VP of clinical development for Acer Pharmaceuticals before coming to Anavex. This is the fourth company in which Kellmeyer and Jeffrey Edwards (VP of clinical pharmacology and science) have worked at the same time. He’s the ex-VP of clinical science at both Madrigal and Acer.
Serena Hung→ Boston-based RNAi biotech Atalanta Therapeutics has enlisted Serena Hung as CMO and Jeffrey Young as CFO. Hung worked for Arkuda Therapeutics in the same capacity and she has filled in as interim medical chief at Remix Therapeutics. During his five and a half years as CFO of Axial Pharmaceuticals, Young guided the biotech through two rounds of financing — a $25 million Series B in 2019 and a $37.25 million Series C in 2021.
Harpreet Singh→ The former director of the FDA’s Division of Oncology 2 in the Office of Oncologic Diseases (OOD), Harpreet Singh, has now joined Precision for Medicine as CMO. Besides her work in the OOD, Singh was division director at the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence. Singh was also a former fellow at the National Cancer Institute.
Joe Senn→ Helmed by former CRISPR Therapeutics exec Lawrence Klein, chronic skin disease startup Oruka Therapeutics has tapped Joe Senn as SVP of nonclinical R&D and Rajiv Panwar as head of CMC. Senn had led R&D for SalioGen since March 2023 and is the former VP of nonclinical development at Moderna. Panwar is a Magenta alum who comes to Oruka from Disc Medicine, where he was VP of CMC and clinical supply chain.
Emma Huang→ London-based Engitix has plucked its latest hires from J&J’s interventional oncology team, also referred to as INTO. Matt Edwards (SVP, discovery) is a Novartis and GSK alum who had served as INTO’s global head of discovery and translational sciences; Emma Huang (VP, data sciences) was elevated to the same role at the R&D group last November. Engitix CSO Christopher Stevenson also comes from this crew at J&J.
→ Marinus Pharmaceuticals chief Scott Braunstein and Adverum Biotechnologies CEO Laurent Fischer have picked up seats on the board of directors at atai Life Sciences. As Peer Review reported last week, atai will change CEOs at the end of the year, when CSO Srinivas Rao takes over for Florian Brand after a brief period in which they will run the company as co-CEOs.
Elias Zerhouni→ One-time NIH Director Elias Zerhouni has succeeded Stefan Meister as chairman of the board at Boston Pharmaceuticals. Zerhouni, a board member at the liver disease biotech since 2021, retired as Sanofi’s global head of R&D in 2018.
→ Former Anokion CEO John Hohneker has joined the board of directors at Nasdaq newbie ArriVent BioPharma. The Novartis vet picked up a board seat at Carisma Therapeutics last month, and you can also find him on the boards of Curis, Sonata Therapeutics and Trishula Therapeutics.
Troy Ignelzi→ Another new Nasdaq listing, neuro and I&I biotech Contineum Therapeutics, has made room for Troy Ignelzi on the board of directors. We caught up with Ignelzi when he was named CFO of Rapport Therapeutics, which just filed for its own IPO.
→ By a unanimous vote, Nurix Therapeutics has elected Julia Gregory to chair the board of directors. Her predecessor, David Lacey, will keep his seat on the board. Gregory holds the top spot at Isometry Advisors and is the former CEO of Five Prime and ContraFect.
Simon To→ Simon To, the chairman of Chinese drugmaker Hutchmed, is heading into retirement and handing over his seat to Dan Eldar. Eldar has been serving as a non-executive director of Hutchmed’s board since August 2016 and currently serves as executive director of Hutchison Water. In addition, To’s position on Hutchmed’s remuneration committee is being filled by Edith Shih.
→ Last month, Kincell Bio bought Imugene’s cell therapy manufacturing facility for $6 million. Now, the company has named Mark Bamforth as chairman, replacing Shailesh Maingi, who will remain on the board. Bamforth has founded three CDMOs: Arranta Bio (sold to Recipharm in April 2022), Brammer Bio (acquired by Thermo Fisher in April 2019) and Gallus BioPharmaceuticals (sold to Patheon in 2014).
→ Actio Biosciences, a rare disease biotech in San Diego chaired by former Celgene exec George Golumbeski, has appointed The Scripps Research Institute’s Ben Cravatt to the board of directors. Cravatt has co-founded several companies, including Vividion Therapeutics and Belharra Therapeutics.