Biotech and pharma companies make appointments to strengthen executive teams, with moves at Sanofi, Forma, Orchard, CLSA, Sangamo, and more.
Sanofi -- Alan Main, global head of Sanofi’s consumer healthcare division was unanimously elected chairman of the World Self Medication Industry, a federation of associations, manufacturers and distributors of non-prescription medicines from around the world. Main, who has been in his role at Sanofi since 2016, said there has never been a greater need for innovation in order to help consumers live healthier lives. “We live in a digital era of great promise, where we can truly transform how consumers take control of their health,” Main said in a statement. Main succeeds Brian McNamara, chief executive officer of GSK Consumer Healthcare. McNamara will continue as a member of the WSMI board of directors and executive committee.
APhA -- Cynthia J. Boyle, chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administration at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, was named the recipient of the 2019 APhA Foundation Jacob W. Miller Award. The award recognizes individuals who have advanced the APhA Foundation’s mission through involvement in its programs, support of its initiatives or leadership in carrying out its mission.
FORMA Therapeutics – Genentech veteran Frank D. Lee was named chief executive officer of Watertown, Mass.-based Forma Therapeutics. Lee succeeds Steve Tregay, who is transitioning to the role of senior adviser to the CEO. Most recently, Lee served as senior vice president of global Product Strategy and Therapeutic Area Head for the Immunology, Ophthalmology and Infectious Diseases at Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. Prior to his time at Genentech, Lee spent approximately 13 years across Novartis, Janssen and Eli Lilly in engineering, manufacturing, sales/marketing and business development.
Check-Cap – Israel-based Check-Cap Lt. named Mira Rosenzweig as chief financial officer effective April 28, 2019. Rosenzweig brings nearly 20 years of executive financial management experience, most recently serving as chief financial officer of Entera Bio Ltd. Prior to Entera Bio, Rosenzweig served in various finance roles including vice president and chief financial officer of Camtek Ltd. and director of finance at Elron Electronic Industries Ltd.
Orchard Therapeutics – Ran Zheng was appointed to the newly-created role of chief technical officer at London-based Orchard Therapeutics. As chief technical officer, Zheng will oversee all aspects of manufacturing and supply chain management, which was previously led by Stewart Craig who stepped down from his role as chief manufacturing officer at Orchard. Zheng spent the last 16 years with Amgen in roles of increasing responsibility in operations. Most recently, she served as vice president of development supply chain, overseeing end-to-end supply chain, development labs and pilot plants and manufacturing operations across multiple geographic. Prior to Amgen, Zheng held various leadership positions in process development and process engineering at Diosynth and Genzyme
Sangamo Therapeutics – California-based Sangamo tapped Jason Fontenot as its head of cell therapy. Fontenot will oversee Sangamo’s growing engineered cell therapy portfolio, including a proprietary immunology pipeline based on chimeric antigen receptor regulatory T cells, as well as partnerships with Sanofi and Kite Pharma. Before joining Sangamo, Fontenot served as chief scientific officer at Immusoft. Prior to Immusoft, he served as head of exploratory research at Juno Therapeutics, He also held roles at Biogen.
California Life Sciences Association -- California Life Sciences Association, appointed Andrew Setikas as senior vice president of Business Development and Strategy. Setikas will be responsible for the recruitment and retention of CLSA membership, including active involvement with prospects and members and leaders of CLSA’s business development team. Setikas joins CLSA from Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he most recently served as senior director of business development. Prior to Thermo Fisher, Setikas held positions of increasing responsibility in the life sciences, including business development roles at Roquette Frères, Adhesives Research Inc. and FMC Corporation.
Synaptive Medical – Toronto-based Synaptive Medical named Sandra Clarke as chief financial officer. Before joining Synaptive Medical, she ran finance and operations, including all aspects of strategic decision support, at Architech, a software development company. Prior to her time at Architech, Clarke served as a Principal at SOLV Consulting.
Diassess – Erik T. Engelson was named president and CEO of California-based Diassess. Engelson previously served as CEO at Medina Medical, which is now part of Medtronic. Engelson currently serves on the Board of Directors of Neptune Medical and ARANZ Medical.
Caliva – Cannabis company Caliva named Carol Bartz, former CEO of Yahoo and Autodesk and former Cisco Board Member as its chairman of the board. The company now employs over 440 workers and has two current operating locations in the Bay Area.
higi – Chicago-based higi named GlaxoSmithKline veteran Darren Singer as its new group vice president of Network Alliance. In this newly created role, Singer will call on his extensive retail pharmacy background and consumer brand expertise to help higi unlock and deliver the greatest value for all its stakeholders, most especially consumers. For more than 20 years, Singer served as business unit leader for GSK Consumer Healthcare.
Akorn – Illinois-based Akorn named Dandy Dorado-Boladeres as its head of global quality. Most recently, Dorado served as vice president of quality affairs at American Regent. Previously, he served as a head of global quality services at Teva and vice president of International Quality Operations at Allergan.
Nimbus Therapeutics – Cambridge, Mass.-based Nimbus named two experts in drug discovery and development to its leadership team. Alan Collis, who was formerly executive director of DMPK at Forma Therapeutics, will serve as vice president of Preclinical Development. Jennifer Rocnik, who has served as Nimbus’ director of Oncology Biology since 2015, has been promoted to vice president, Biology. Prior to joining Forma Therapeutics, Collis served as Novartis’ Executive Director of Scientific and Strategic Planning and Global Leader of the Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics group. Prior to Nimbus, Rocnik held roles of increasing responsibility in the oncology division of Sanofi.
NovoCure -- Eilon Kirson, Novocure’s chief science officer and head of Research and Development, will resign from the company effective May 1, 2019. Kirson will step away from the healthcare industry and frequent international travel to spend more time with his family. Uri Weinberg, Novocure’s vice president of Clinical Development, will assume responsibilities for preclinical and clinical development and regulatory affairs. Effective April 1, Ely Benaim will join Novocure as chief medical officer and will assume responsibilities for clinical operations, medical affairs and medical safety.
Cydan -- Yongchang Qiu was named head of Preclinical Development and Ryan Tyler was named senior director of preclinical research at Cydan. Also, Niels Svenstrup, was promoted to senior vice president of development.
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