Let’s take a look at who made a splash in the pharma and biotech world the past week.
Agios Pharmaceuticals – Longtime Celgene veteran Jacqualyn (Jackie) Fouse has taken over the reins of Cambridge, Mass.-based Agios Pharmaceuticals. She will assume her the role of chief executive officer on Feb. 1, 2019, when current CEO David Schenkein steps down. Fouse has been serving on the Agios board of directors since December 2017. Fouse joined Celgene in 2010 and served as chief financial officer, and president of the company’s Hematology & Oncology franchise. She was elevated to the role of COO and company president in January 2016. She resigned from that company in 2017. In addition to her role with Agios, Fouse had a short-lived relationship with Vivek Ramaswamy’s Dermavant Sciences. In July she took on the role of executive chairman of the board at Dermavant, but resigned this week to take over the leadership of Agios.
Rheos Medicines -- Roche veteran Sanjay Kaswani was named CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based Rheos Medicines. Kaswani joins Rheos from a stint at global pharma giant Roche, where he served as global head of neuroscience, ophthalmology and rare diseases for Roche Pharma Research and Early Development. Prior to his time at Roche, Kaswani served as head of exploratory and clinical translational research at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Radius Health – AstraZeneca veteran Charles Morris was named chief medical officer of Radius Health. Morris will oversee all clinical development, as well as regulator and medical affairs strategies for the company. Morris was tapped to help transform the company into becoming a “key player in oncology and osteoporosis.” Morris most recently served as chief development officer for PsiOxus Therapeutics, a cancer gene therapy company. He also had a long tenure with AstraZeneca where he had a key role in the development of the breast cancer drug Faslodex. Morris was also involved with the clinical development of the cancer treatment Iressa. He has held leadership roles at Cephalon. He served as CMO of Allos Therapeutics and CDO of ImmunoGen.
BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics -- Arturo O. Araya, a veteran of Novartis’ now-disbanded Cell and Gene Therapies Unit, was named chief commercial officer at Israel-based BrainStorm. He has served on the company’s board of directors since 2017 and will be responsible for leading the potential commercial launch of NurOwn, the company’s late-stage amyotrophic lateral sclerosis treatment. Araya served at Novartis from 2002 to 2016. He was global head of commercial when the unit was disbanded. Prior to Novartis, Araya held leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Palvella Therapeutics, Inc. – Elaine J. Heron joined the board of directors of Pennsylvania-based Palvella Therapeutics. Heron has served on the board of BioMarin since 2002. Most recently, Heron served as chief executive officer of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals. She also served as CEO of Labeyte Inc.
Certara – Based in Princeton, N.J., Certara tapped Mark Holbrook to the newly-created position of vice president of quantitative systems toxicology and safety. Holbrook will lead Certara’s QSTS division from the company’s Simcyp offices in Sheffield, UK. Prior to Certara, Holbrook was director and co-founder of VAST Pharma Solutions, a drug discovery and development company.
SpringWorks Therapeutics -- Saqib Islam was named CEO of SpringWorks Therapeutics. He previously held positions of both CBO and chief financial officer at the company. Islam joined SpringWorks from Moderna Therapeutics, Inc., where he served as CBO and oversaw global strategic planning, corporate development and business development. Before Moderna, Islam served as chief strategy and portfolio officer at Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
Gossamer Bio – San Diego-based Gossamer Bio named Luisa Salter-Cid its new chief scientific officer. She will lead the company’s research and preclinical development efforts. For the past 13 years, Salter-Cid served in various roles of increasing responsibility at Bristol-Myers Squibb, including head of immunology, small molecule immuno-oncology and genomics discovery. Prior to joining BMS, she worked at La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company where she led discovery projects. She also held positions at GENSET Corporation and Johnson & Johnson.
Applied Therapeutics – Sanofi veteran Riccardo Perfetti was named CMO of New York-based Applied Therapeutics. Perfetti spent a decade at Sanofi. While there, he held numerous roles, including head of global medical affairs, Diabetes and Cardiovascular Business Unit at Sanofi. Prior to Sanofi, Perfetti was the director and global development leader in diabetes, obesity, metabolism and endocrinology at Amgen. Additionally, Applied Therapeutics added of two clinicians to the company’s Scientific Advisory Board: Dr. Donald D’Amico, chairman of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College and Ophthalmologist-in-Chief at the New York Presbyterian Hospital, and Eric Kanter, partner at Retina-Vitreous Consultants.
Tempest Therapeutics – Ginna Laport was named CMO of Tempest Therapeutics, a company advancing small molecules that modulate anti-tumor immunity pathways. Laport will lead the evaluation and clinical development of Tempest’s portfolio of novel first-in-class drug candidates in patients with advanced malignancies. Prior to joining Tempest, Laport served as vice president of clinical development at Corvus Pharmaceuticals, where she led the clinical development of small molecules and antibodies targeting the adenosine pathway to treat advanced solid tumors. In addition, Tempest promoted Alicia Levey to the role of CBO. Levey previously was head of Tempest’s business development and strategy.
Aileron Therapeutics – Manuel Aivado was named president and CEO of Watertown, Mass.-based Aileron Therapeutics. Since 2012, Aivado has served as Aileron’s CMO and CSO. He succeeds John P. Longenecker, who was appointed interim CEO on May 15, 2018. Most recently, Aivado led Aileron’s clinical testing of stapled peptides against intracellular targets and designed and implemented the ALRN-6924 first-in-human trial. Prior to Aileron, Aivado served as vice president of clinical development and pharmacovigilance at Taiho Oncology. He previously served as a senior medical director in clinical development at GlaxoSmithKline.
Metacrine –Hubert C. Chen was named CMO of San Diego-based Metacrine, Inc. Chen most recently served as CMO and CSO at Pfenex Inc. Prior to that, he served as head of clinical development of Aileron Therapeutics. Chen also held clinical leadership roles at Regulus Therapeutics, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, and Amgen. In addition to Chen, Andrew Guggenhime was named a director of the company. Guggenhime currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Dermira, Inc.
Altasciences – William J. Foster was named principal investigator and consultant on clinical trials at Laval, Quebec-based Altasciences.
Khondrion – Netherlands-based Khondrion named PTC Therapeutics veteran Morgan Conn as its new chief business officer.
