Up and Coming

January 19, 2020

This feature highlights changes in clinical trial organizations’ personnel.

AbbVie

After its recent $63 billion acquisition of Allergan, AbbVie has announced a new executive team of the company. Richard Gonzalez, CEO of AbbVie, will head the merged company, and Michael Severino will continue as president and will oversee research and development (R&D). Other executive team members will include Carlos Alban as chief commercial officer, Henry Gosebruch as strategy officer, Robert Michael as financial officer, and Azita Saleki-Gerhardt as president of operations. Carrie Strom, Allergan’s senior vice president of the U.S. medical aesthetics division, will lead Allergan Aesthetics, a new global business unit in AbbVie.

ADC Therapeutics

Joseph Camardo has been named ADC Therapeutics’ new head of medical affairs. Most recently, Camardo was the senior vice president of Celgene Global Health.

Affirmed

Andreas Harstrick has been appointed to the position of chief medical officer at Affirmed, which will start in March 2020. Prior to this appointment, Harstrick was chief medical officer at Molecular Partners.

Altasciences

Paul Sidney has been appointed to the position of senior director of compliance and regulatory affairs. Previously, Sidney served as executive director QA of mergers and acquisitions at Charles River Laboratories.

AMAG Pharmaceuticals

AMAG Pharmaceuticals has announced that William Heiden, CEO of the organization, will step down from his position. The board of directors at AMAG is now launching a search for Heiden’s replacement, which is expected to be completed in the middle of the year.

Antengene

Mark J. Alles has been named as Antengene’s independent director, joining the organization from his most recent 16-year tenure position as chairman and CEO of Celgene.

Arcturus Therapeutics

Steve Hughes is now serving as the chief development officer at Arcturus Therapeutics. Hughes has spent the past 20 years leading medical affairs and clinical development teams at several biopharma companies.

Carisma Therapeutics

Debora Barton was appointed to the role of chief medical officer at Carisma Therapeutics, joining the company after serving as the senior vice president of clinical and safety at Iovance Biotherapeutics.

Cellectar Biosciences

Igor Grachev has been named Cellectar Biosciences’ chief medical officer. Prior to this appointment, Grachev served as global development leader and head of innovative clinical trials initiative, R&D at TEVA Pharmaceuticals.

Clasado BioSciences

Lucien Harthoorn has been appointed to the position of R&D director of Clasado BioSciences.

Dyve Biosciences

Chuck Harbert has been recruited by Dyve Biosciences to be the company’s new chief scientific officer.

FibroGen

FibroGen has appointed Enrique Conterno as the company’s new CEO. Conterno was most recently a senior vice president at Eli Lilly.

Fred Hutchinson

Thomas Lynch, chief scientific officer at Bristol-Myers Squibb, is now president and director at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

GlaxoSmithKline

Deborah Waterhouse, CEO of ViiV Healthcare, has been appointed to the corporate executive team at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Guerbet

Guerbet has appointed Thomas McLaughlin to the position of vice president for the company’s North America division. Previously, McLaughlin served as the organization’s general manager of North American sales and service.

Immuneering

Howard L. Kaufman has been appointed to the position of head of R&D at Immuneering. Prior, Kaufman was chief medical officer at Replimune Group.

Intrexon (Precigen)

Helen Sabzevari will join Intrexon, now named Precigen, as the organization’s newest CEO. Sabzevari joined the subsidiary in June 2017.

Ipsen

Ipsen has named Steven Hildemann as the biotech company’s new executive vice president and chief medical officer. Previously, Hildemann was the chief medical officer at Germany’s Merck.

Kronos Bio

Wes Trotter has been appointed to the position of vice president of chemistry at Kronos Bio. Prior, Trotter served as director of discovery chemistry at Merck.

MBX Biosciences

MBX Biosciences has announced the appointment of Kent Hawryluk to the position of president and CEO. Hawryluk has since served as partner of Twilight Venture partners. Greg Davis has been named the vice president of product development at MBX.

Pieris Pharmaceuticals

Ingmar Bruns is now senior vice president and head of clinical development at Pieris Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Bruns served as the company’s vice president of clinical development. Pieris has also appointed Shane Olwill, the organization’s vice president of development and immuno-oncology, to the position of senior vice president and head of translational science.

Revitope Oncology

Steve Arkinstall will now serve as the CEO of Revitope Oncology, joining the company after previously serving as CEO of Elstar Therapeutics.

Rhythm

Rhythm has announced the resignation of Keith Gottesdiener from the role of president and CEO. A search committee has been formed by the company’s
board of directors to find its new chief executive.

Rubius Therapeutics

Rubius Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Laurence Turka to the position of the company’s first chief scientific officer. Prior to joining Rubius, Turka was the chief scientific officer at Rheos Medicines, where he was a co-founder.

Saniona

Rami Levin has been appointed to the role of CEO of Saniona after recently holding the role of president of Sobi.

The Carlyle Group

Following his former role as CEO and chairman at Pfizer, Ian Read is joining The Carlyle Group as the new operating executive.

Theragnostics

Alex Jackson has been appointed to the position of head of R&D at Theragnostics. Jackson was previously responsible for the discovery phase of immune-oncology PET projects at GE Healthcare. Theragnostics has also named Archie Hale as the company’s director of clinical operations. Previously, Hale was involved with drug development at Biogen, BTG and Roche, in addition to other small biotech companies.

Turnstone Biologics

Turnstone Biologics has named Saryah Azmat as the company’s new senior vice president of business development and corporate strategy. Previously, Azmat served as the global lead for Oncology Search & Evaluation at Bristol-Myers Squibb.