Pharma and biotech companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with this week’s hires.
Eli Lilly – Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly announced new leadership in its oncology R&D business. The company will combine the Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL) oncology organization and Loxo Oncology, which was acquired by Eli Lilly in early 2019. The new organization, which will take the Loxo name, will be led jointly by Josh Bilenker, Jacob Van Naarden and Nisha Nanda. The three will report to Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories. The new Loxo Oncology at Lilly organization will have an expanded global presence, with team members in Boulder, Colorado; Indianapolis, Indiana; New York City, New York; South San Francisco, California; Stamford, Connecticut; and Madrid, Spain. Additionally, Eli Lilly announced that David Hyman will join the leadership team as chief medical officer of the new organization, beginning in January 2020. Hyman currently serves as chief of the Early Drug Development Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Akcea Therapeutics – Alex Howarth was named chief operating officer of Akcea Therapeutics, a majority-owned affiliate of Ionis Pharmaceuticals. In this role, Mr. Howarth will oversee a broad range of operational areas including corporate strategy, business development, management of stakeholder alliances, legal and compliance, as well as product supply chain. Prior to Akcea, Howarth served as president at Lycera Corp., a private biotechnology company. Before that, Howarth served as chief financial officer of moksha8, a specialty pharmaceutical company. Prior to joining moksha8, Howarth was chief business officer at Vitae Pharmaceuticals and previously spent more than 10 years at GSK in a variety of corporate development and finance roles, including leading GSK Venture Partnerships.
W2O -- Veteran biopharmaceutical executive Jonathan Peacock and notable advertising and digital marketing expert George Gallate have joined the board of directors of W20. The appointments are intended to guide W2O’s accelerated growth plans to meet the evolving needs of its healthcare clients in a digital world and on an international scale. Peacock has held global CFO roles at Novartis and Amgen, as well as leadership positions in strategy and corporate finance at McKinsey & Company and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Gallate is rejoining the W2O board of directors. As the former Global CEO and then Chairman of digital marketing agency giant Havas Digital, Gallate helped build the company into one of the largest digital networks globally.
Evelo Biosciences – Industry veteran Juan Andres was named to the board of directors of Evelo Biosciences, Inc. Andres is currently Chief Technical Operations and Quality Officer at Moderna, Inc. Prior to joining Moderna, he was the Global Head of Technical Operations at Novartis. Previously, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis, including Group Quality Head, Global Head of Technical Research and Development, and Global Pharmaceutical Operations Head. Prior to Novartis, Mr. Andres worked at Eli Lilly & Co. in a variety of senior manufacturing, production, and quality roles.
Mogrify – Jane Osbourn, chair of U.K.-based Mogrify Ltd. received the Lifetime Achievement Award from MSD. Osbourn received the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the biotech industry throughout her career. Osbourn is a scientific leader in the field of antibody engineering with more than 30 years of experience in biologics discovery and development. During this time she has been head of research and development and Site Leader at MedImmune (AstraZeneca), formerly Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), chair of the Board of Directors of the BioIndustry Association, and director of Babraham Bioscience Technologies, and a director of Cambridge Enterprise. She has made significant contributions to the discovery and development of phage display technology, eight marketed drugs and over 40 clinical candidates.
Orthofix – Kevin Kenny was named president of the Orthofix Global Spine business. Kenny previously served as vice president of U.S. Sales for Medtronic Spine and Biologics where he oversaw all sales functions for approximately 1,500 direct and non-direct sales personnel. During his nine-year tenure with Medtronic, Kenny held a variety of sales roles, each with increasing areas of responsibility. Kenny more recently served as the COO for Cardiovascular Systems Incorporated where he drove business strategies focused on developing and commercializing new products worldwide. Earlier in his career, Kenny served as head of sales for Bausch and Lomb, and also held various sales leadership roles with B. Braun/McGaw, a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of medical devices.
Inistro – San Francisco-based inistro tapped Serafim Batzoglou as chief data officer. Batzoglou joins insitro from Illumina, where he recently served as the company’s vice president of Applied and Computational Biology. There, he led research and technology development of AI and molecular assays to make genomic data more interpretable in human health. Batzoglou is also the co-founder of DNAnexus, a secure cloud platform and global network for scientific collaboration and accelerated discovery, and previously served on the company’s board of directors. He has served on many scientific advisory boards, including at 23andMe, Moleculo and NextBio.
CNSI -- Kelly Schlageter joined business solutions provider CNSI as chief marketing and communications officer. In this role, she will be responsible for communications, marketing, and branding for CNSI. Most recently, she led marketing and communications at the Inova Health System for the Inova Center for Personalized Health, including the branding and launch of the new Inova Schar Cancer Institute. Before joining Inova, Schlageter held various leadership roles at Sprint, where she spent 14 years.
Oramed – Arie Mayer was named to the board of directors of Oramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mayer is currently the managing director and chairman of the board of Merck Life Science Israel.
