Biopharma companies strengthen their senior leadership teams and boards of directors.
Assembly Biosciences – It didn’t take too long for John McHutchison to land a new job after stepping away from his role as chief scientific officer at Gilead Sciences. McHutchison was named president and chief executive officer of South San Francisco-based Assembly Biosciences, a company focused on developing therapeutics targeting hepatitis B virus and diseases associated with the microbiome. McHutchison, who successfully guided Hepatitis C treatments through regulatory approval at Gilead, succeeds Derek Small, who co-founded Assembly Biosciences in 2014. Small will return as managing director of his venture creation firm, Luson Bioventures, and will continue to serve on Assembly’s board as a director and senior advisor. Prior to his nine years at Gilead, McHutchison held numerous positions at Duke University Medical Center, including associate director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, professor of medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, director at Duke Clinical Research Unit and co-director of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Award. Earlier in his career, McHutchison spent nearly a decade at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation.
Teva Pharmaceuticals – Michael (Mike) McClellan has stepped down from his role as chief financial officer of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical. The company noted that McClellan’s decision was due to personal reasons, which required him to be closer to his family. McClellan is expected to remain in his role through the announcement of third-quarter results to assist with a smooth transition. Teva has initiated a search to identify its next CFO. McClellan was appointed Teva’s CFO in November 2017 after serving as interim group CFO from July 2017. From 2015 to November 2017, McClellan served as CFO of Global Specialty Medicines.
Eli Lilly and Company – Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly announced a number of changes to its leadership team. Darren Carroll, senior vice president of corporate business development, will retire at the end of August after 22 years of service with the company. Carroll has led Lilly’s corporate business development organization for nearly a decade, including the $8.1 billion acquisition of Loxo Oncology earlier this year. In two related moves, Phil Johnson, senior vice president and treasurer, will assume additional duties overseeing merger & acquisition activity, while Heather Wasserman, has been promoted to vice president of corporate business development, with responsibility for business development transactions, emerging technologies and innovation and venture capital. The company also announced today that Levi Garraway has resigned from his position as senior vice president of oncology research and early phase development in order to pursue other opportunities. Josh Bilenker, chief executive officer of Loxo Oncology, will lead oncology research and early phase development in the interim, in addition to his current responsibilities. In addition, Frank Cunningham has been promoted to senior vice president of managed healthcare services.
SQZ Biotech – Teri Loxam was named CFO of Watertown, Mass.-based SQZ Biotech. Loxam joins SQZ with deep experience in investor relations, strategy, corporate communications and finance. She most recently served as senior vice president of investor relations and global communications at Merck & Co. At SQZ, Loxam will be responsible for leading the company’s financial and investor activities. Prior to Merck, Loxam served as vice president of investor relations at IMAX Corporation where she led the investor relations function, and also spent eleven years at Bristol- Myers Squibb, where she held positions of increasing responsibility across strategic planning and portfolio management, treasury and investor relations.
Veravas, Inc. – Carroll E. Streetman was named CEO of emerging diagnostic company, Veravas, Inc. He is stepping into the role as a member of Veravas’ advisory board and an early investor in the company. Carroll previously held executive positions with industry-leading companies such as DiaSorin where he managed the in vitro diagnostics and medical device manufacturing business. Carroll joins the Veravas team having recently served as president of Full Spectrum Behavior Analysis, LLC, a medical services company, and consulting for public and private companies as a president and managing partner at CSHC Consultants.
Allogene Therapeutics – Rafael Amado was named head of research and development and chief medical officer of South San Francisco-based Allogene Therapeutics. Amado will join Allogene on Sept. 3 from Adaptimmune and will work alongside former colleagues, Allogene co-founder Arie Belldegrun and CEO David Chang. At Adaptimmune, Amado served as head of R&D and CMO. Prior to Adaptimmune, he held several roles of increasing responsibility at GSK, most recently as head of oncology R&D. Prior to GSK, Amado served as executive director of Therapeutic Oncology at Amgen and before that he was on the faculty at UCLA.
NemaMetrix – Oregon-based NemaMetrix tapped Stephen Turner, founder and CTO of Pacific Biosciences, as a Senior Research Fellow to help spearhead the company’s expansion. Turner will work to expand the company’s offerings for drug discovery, agribio and precision medicine. Dr Turner is founder and continues in his role as Chief Technical Officer at Pacific Biosciences, which was recently acquired by Illumina.
Exicure, Inc. -- Bali Muralidhar, a partner at Abingworth LLP, and Bosun Hau, a managing director and co-head of private equity at Tybourne Capital Management, were named to the board of directors of Chicago-based Exicure. Muralidhar currently serves as partner at Abingworth, an international investment group dedicated to life sciences. Prior to joining Abingworth, Muralidhar was a senior partner at MVM Partners LLP. Hau served as managing director and partner at Sailing Capital. He also served as a partner at MVM Partners and as a consultant with McKinsey & Company. Prior to McKinsey, he was part of GlaxoSmithKline’s corporate venture group.
ERT -- Timothy Kulbago, vice president of imaging has been named one of the 100 most inspiring individuals in the life-sciences industry by PharmaVoice. The PharmaVoice 100 honorees are selected based on how they have inspired their colleagues and affected positive changes in their organizations, as well as their involvement in the community and philanthropic activities.
Progenity, Inc. – Brian Kotzin was named to the board of directors of San Diego-based Progenity, Inc., a privately-held biotechnology company developing precision medicine solutions across genomic/epigenomic, proteomic, and microbiomic diagnostic and therapeutic platforms. Kotzin is a board of directors member at Rigel, currently serves as a principal fellow and senior vice president for Nektar Therapeutics. He also consults for companies developing therapeutics for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. His previous roles include head of the Inflammation Therapeutic Area and head of Medical Sciences at Amgen.
Berkeley Lights – Emeryville, Calif.-based Berkeley Lights named Sarah Boyce to its board of directors. Boyce has served as the president and a member of the board of directors of Akcea since April 2018. Prior to joining Akcea, Boyce served as CBO at Ionis Pharmaceuticals and held executive-level roles at large pharmaceutical and biotech companies including Forest Laboratories, Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Oncology.
Kronos Bio -- Kronos Bio, Inc., a Two River portfolio company, announced the appointment of Roger D. Kornberg, to its Scientific Advisory Board. Kornberg, a renowned biochemist, is Winzer Professor in Medicine in the Department of Structural Biology at Stanford University School of Medicine and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2006 for his studies of the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription, the process by which DNA is copied to RNA.
Catabasis Pharmaceuticals – Cambridge, Mass.-based Catabasis added Hugh M. Cole to its board of directors. Cole is currently the CBO and head of Corporate Development at Jounce Therapeutics. Prior to Jounce Therapeutics, Cole served as CBO at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals from 2014 to 2017 and was previously at Shire Pharmaceuticals as head of Strategic Planning and Program Management from 2012 to 2014.
XyloCor Therapeutics – Rickey Reinhardt was named CMO of Philadelphia-based XyloCor Therapeutics, a private clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of gene therapy for unmet needs in cardiovascular disease. Reinhardt will focus on clinical development of XyloCor’s pipeline and its lead candidate, XC001, for the treatment of refractory angina. Prior to XyloCor, he headed clinical development at Comet Therapeutics and before that, he served as head of clinical research and development at REGENXBIO. He also held roles at GlaxoSmithKline, Covance and Novo Nordisk.
Aktana – Derek Choy, co-founder and COO of Aktana, was selected as one of PharmaVoice’s 2019 100 Most Inspiring People in the life sciences industry. As COO, he is responsible for strategic definition and scalable execution of Aktana’s vision.
Vor Biopharma – Robert Ang was named president and CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Vor Biopharma. Ang is the former CBO of Neon Therapeutics. Prior to Neon, he served as head of Business Development at Bavarian Nordic. He also held roles at Cadence Pharmaceuticals (now Mallinckrodt) and worked at Frazier Healthcare Ventures, a leading life sciences venture capital firm.
Altasciences – Beatrice Setnik was named CSO of Quebec-based Altasciences. She has held roles with Ventana Clinical Research in Canada, King Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer in North Carolina, and since 2014 with Syneos Health (formerly INC Research).
OcuNexus Therapeutics – San Diego-based OcuNexus added Rajiv Shukla to its board of directors. Shukala is currently chairman and CEO of Constellation Alpha Capital Corp. and former managing director of a Morgan Stanley Healthcare Fund.
