Pharma Supply Chain People Moves
The latest appointments, promotions, and structural changes across the pharmaceutical supply chain.
April 2024:
In the spirit of expanding AI operations in pharma, Cresset has created a brand new Vice President role to lead their AI strategy, AI Solutions. .png)
The new Vice President, Mutlu Dogruel is highly experienced in tech and AI, coming from Microsoft where he held the roles of Pharma GenAI Lead Architect and Senior Cloud Solution Architect in Data and AI most recently. In the new capacity as Vice President of AI Solutions at Cresset, Dogruel will be spearheading the development of their AI strategy in determining the role of AI in drug discovery.
Rob Scoffin, CEO of Cresset commented on the appointment: “The marriage between AI techniques and pharmaceutical science has unleashed a new era in drug discovery and development. This is an exciting time of growth for Cresset, and we are delighted that Mutlu is joining us to spearhead our AI initiatives.”
Novartis this month announced a new restructuring strategy across it's global platform. The company states that it is hoping to invest more in R&D and focus on patient-driven medicine provision. The restructuring however means diverging resources away from some areas of the business, leading to lay-offs in product development. There expected to be cuts of 440 development positions in Switzerland and up to 240 roles in the USA, according to initial reporting by Reuters.
The product development job cuts are seperate to the overal global restructing plan of the company, where it's expected that 8,000 roles out of the 78,000 strong workforce could be affected.
"We remain committed to development in Switzerland as our innovation hub for complex development, and providing strategic leadership as the global headquarters for development," a spokesperson from Novartis stated.
"The US remains a key development hub with strong representation in our global program teams, responsible for advancing our medicines pipeline."
Lonza have announced the appointment of a new CEO in Wolfgang Wienand, currently CEO of Siegfried Holding. Chairman Albert Baehny, who has been serving as interim CEO at Lonza since October 2023, will be replaced by Wienand in the summer of 2024 after a short transition period.
Wienand served as Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Strategy Officer at Siegfried Holding before becoming CEO, showing a range of experience at a high level.
"The board is delighted to have appointed a seasoned CEO with a strong and established track record of success in the CDMO industry," Baehny said in a statement.
"Wolfgang brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Lonza, complemented by his deep scientific and strategic expertise," he added.
February 2024:
Robert A. Michael is set to become the next CEO of AbbVie in July 2024. The appointment comes after the annoucement of Richard A. Gonzalez' retirement, to be taken at the same time. Michael has been working for AbbVie since 2013 and currently serves in the position of COO. Knowing the compnay as he does will serve for a seamless transition into the role.
Michael commented: “I am honored to assume the CEO role for AbbVie, and I am excited about our company's bright future. Rick has been a tremendous leader for AbbVie and mentor to me personally. His legacy at AbbVie will be felt for years to come. I would like to thank the board for expressing its confidence in me, and I look forward to working with Rick and the entire board to deliver results for our patients, our employees, our shareholders and our communities."
Gonzalez, who has been CEO since the company formed in 2013 will still be involved with the future of AbbVie as he takes up the mantle as Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.
January 2024:
As part of a movement to expand commercial operations in the US, Onyx Scientific, a small molecule CDMO
appoints Anthony Harbour as Business Development Manager in North America. The company has seen growth in it's non-GMP and GMP manufacturing capacities by 50%, and a corresponding increase in the number of employees in the last couple of years, leading to the appointment of Harbour to strengthen it's position and growth in this region.
Onyx Scientific's Commercial Manager Chris Atherton commented on the appointment: “The appointment of Anthony Harbour as our Business Development Manager marks the latest phase of our expansion in the US market. He has a proven track record of seamlessly integrating his scientific knowledge with business management experience and sales acumen to drive forward commercial growth.
Anthony brings adept negotiation skills, creative marketing abilities, and capacity for high-level engagements with clients. He will play a pivotal role in achieving Onyx Scientific’s future growth targets across the pond.”
AES Clean Technology, a leading provider of cleanroom technology, expands their senior leadreship team with the appointment of Brian Weed in the position of Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Weed has 18 years of experience in the controlled environment industry, working with multiple partners to develop programmes and ensure they are in line with financial and regulatory requirements.
Weed commented: "This role is new for AES, and for me, and therefore provides an exciting opportunity. I am keen to drive to meet its goals by looking at new markets and offerings that will positively contribute to achieving them. I am delighted to apply my deep experience in the cleanroom industry to AES and look forward to my future here”.
SGD Pharma has appointed Fabio Invernizzi as the new General Manager of their West Business Unit. This unit covers the company's commercial activities across MEA, North and South America, and the manufacturing division in Europe. Invernizzi joins SGD Pharma from his last position as Vice-President and EMEA BU Head of Capsules and Health Ingredients at Lonza.
Invernizzi commented: “In starting this next chapter, I am excited to join the experienced SGD Pharma team working alongside CEO Olivier Rousseau and the Executive Committee. I am eager to continue writing the success story of SGD Pharma with my team and colleagues – I believe we can bring the company to the next level of leadership in Europe in the Primary Pharmaceutical Packaging market. Together with the strong team in place, I also look forward to continuing to grow in the Americas.”
November 2023:
To strengthen their position in the field Sygnature Discovery have appointed two new members to their board of directors, Vanessa Malier and Martin LeBlanc.
Malier's background is in pharma, biotechnology, and venture capital giving her copious amounts of experience in business development and strategy, this is coupled with her 10-year history with a Paris-based investment firm that invested in biotech across Europe.
LeBlanc brings experience directly from the drug development and life sciences field, as co-founder and CEO of CellCarta, a precision medicine company. He has experience in clinical and preclinical drug development as well as in corporate development.
Simon Hirst, CEO of Sygnature Discovery, expressed his enthusiasm about the appointments, stating: "We are delighted to welcome Martin LeBlanc and Vanessa Malier to our Board of Directors. Their collective expertise and industry insights will be instrumental as we continue to grow through driving innovation and expanding our service offerings. I am confident that their guidance will play a pivotal role in our future strategic decision-making processes."
October 2023:
Quotient Sciences appoints Thierry Van Nieuwenhove as its new Chief Executive Officer. The drug development and manufacturing acceleration company has seen major growth in the past few years, including the acquisition of Arcinova, a UK-based CDMO. Van Nieuwenhove takes over from Mark Egerton who has retired after 18 years as CEO.
Van Nieuwenhove said: "I am honoured to join Quotient as its new CEO and lead a team dedicated to improving the lives of patients worldwide. I have admired the company’s strong development in recent years, building a global footprint and bringing its innovative Translational Pharmaceutics delivery platform to customers across the world. I’m grateful for the opportunity and looking forward to driving the business through its next phase of growth, and continuing the team’s desire to accelerate the development of new medicines.”
July 2023:
Jake Kushner has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Invectys, building from his role as executive advisor, Kushner also serves as Medical Director at McNair Interests, and will be responsible for leading the transformation in the Houston and Paris offices of the company.
“Invectys is entering a new, thrilling phase of its development,” commented Kushner. “CAR-T cells have delivered stunning results in blood cancers, but their promise in solid tumors has yet to be fulfilled. Invectys has the potential to turn this promise into a reality and breathe new hope into the cancer care field. I am honored and humbled the Board has entrusted me with leading this bold and visionary Company.”
EpiBiologics receives a boost with some new funding of US$23 million and the appointment of a new CEO, President, and Board member. Ann Lee-Karlon joins EpiBiologics from Altos Labs where she was Chief Operating Officer, and before that having spent 18 years at Genentech. Lee-Karlon will be integral in the expansion of EpiBiologics’ proprietary EpiTAC platform, establishing collaborations, and building the company’s pipeline of bispecific antibody protein degrader therapeutics.
June 2023:
In an effort to transform medical excellence, Inizio appoints Shauna Aherne as President of Medical Excellence, Specialized Services. Aherne joins Inizio from MedEvoke, where she acted as President. Aherne has worked with some of the key players in pharma, biotech, and medical device companies. She'll be using this experience to drive forward progress in specialist medicine and sustainable practices. Her appointment comes as Inizio recognises the need to have someone to captain the journey of innovation and cultural excellence in the commercial side.
Abzena names Thomas Castellano as the Chief Financial Officer of the CDMO. Castellano has over 20 years experience in the finance sector, with solid basis in biotechnology industry finance, moving to Abzena from his 15-year stint at Catalent.
Matt Stober, CEO of Abzena commented:
“I am pleased to welcome Tom to the strong leadership team here at Abzena. Tom’s wealth and breadth of industry-relevant financial experience will be valuable as we continue to build on our excellence in bioconjugation and biologics services. Tom is hugely skilled and experienced in this space, and so him joining our team at Abzena further highlights the strength in our capabilities to help our customers advance their programmes, as well as the impressive growth trajectory we are about to embark on.”
May 2023:
DSM-Firmenich celebrate the appointment of a new Chief Sustainability Officer, Katharina Stenholm. Stenholm comes from PepsiCo wehre she led the European Sustainability function, bringing her experience to engineer a robust and progressive ESG strategy, building a more sustainable and stable business.
Geraldine Matchett and Dimitri de Vreeze, Co-CEOs of DSM-Firmenich, commented:
"We are excited to welcome Katharina as our new Chief Sustainability Officer. She is widely recognised as an exceptional leader and innovator in the field of ESG and her extensive experience and expertise will be invaluable in helping us achieve our purpose. With her guidance and leadership, we are confident that we will create positive impact for people and planet, while building sustainable business growth."
Inizio adds two new appointments to it's senior leadership team in the Inizio Medical division. Matt Lewis is appointed as Global Chief Artificial and Augmented Intelligence Officer and Paul Hatton takes up the mantle as President of Medical Analytics and Innovation. The roles are reflective of the trends in the market, pushing towards growth in innovation and artificial intelligence.
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Lewis (left) previously worked for Inizio for 8 years in various roles, most recently as Global Chief Medical Analytics and Innovation Officer at Inizio Medical. In this newly created role, Lewis will be looking to capitalise on commercial opportunities in AI and tech. 
Hatton (right) brings expertise from previous roles as Managing Director of Synaptik and Medical Expressions for Nucleus Global and aims to integrate the latest digital and analytics innovations into the business.
Elaine Ferguson, Global President of Inizio Medical, commented:
“The speed of technological innovation and the rise of AI will act as a catalyst for change across the sector. As part of the largest group of medical agencies, we are well-positioned to be market leaders in this space and ensure our global clients stay at the cutting edge of innovation."
April 2023:
Evofem Biosciences, a company developing innovative products to address unmet needs in women's sexual and reproductive health, has appointed Ivy Zhang as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Secretary. Zhang's role will include overseeing finance organization and financial activities including financial planning and analysis, accounting, external audit, tax, controllership, and treasury functions. Zhang has had roles in finance at Evofem Biosciences and most recently at HUYABIO International, but now returning to Evofem to the joy of the Evofem team.
Abzena continues to build out it's team this year alongside it's on the ground growth by the appointing of Sean O’Brien as Senior Vice President and Site Head at its San Diego Biologics facility. O'Brien will be responsible for overseeing all operations at the site, with a particular expertise in regulatory approval and manufacturing improvements. O'Brien previously worked for pharmaceutical companies including Alexion Pharmaceuticals and Amgen. O'Brien is looking forward to encouraging further Abzena's ethos of continuous improvement.
Recipharm brings on board Joaquim Mascaro in the role of Chief Financial Officer to strengthen the senior leadership team. Mascaro has a wealth of experience in building strong teams and supporting business through growth phases across pharma, biotech and healthcare.
Marc Funk, CEO of Recipharm commented: “I am delighted to welcome Joaquim to the Recipharm team as we continue to drive our business forward. Joaquim’s impressive credentials and expertise will be a real asset to the senior leadership team and to the business”.
March 2023:
Joe Principe and Matthew Pinkston have been recently appointed as Chief Commercial Officer and Vice President of Program Management at Abzena. Abzena is a leading end-to-end integrated CDMO for ADCs and complex biologic molecules. Principe comes from a strong background in CDMO commercial activities, after 25 years in the field and Pinkston brings 13 years of experience in the life sciences industry, with a strong focus on operations strategy, manufacturing optimisation, and R&D management. Abzena are excited for the two appointments to improve their scientific and solutions services for their customers.
Thomas Schinecker assumes the mantle of CEO at Roche after Severin Schwan steps into a Chairman role. Schinecker brings a wealth of experience to propel Roche into the future and advance the mission to help patients live longer, better lives. Schwan commented on Schinecker's appointment:
"He is a highly qualified successor who has been working for Roche in leadership positions around the globe for twenty years."
February 2023:
Ahead of the spin off of Sandoz in late 2023, Novartis (Switzerland) has appointed Gilbert Ghostine as chairman-designate of Sandoz. The spin off is part of Novartis' plan to shed their 'non-core' business and allow refocusing into their drug development pipeline. Ghostine has much experience as a CEO and Novartis are confident they will be Sandoz in safe hands.
Smith+Nephew, the UK-based medical technology company, names the chairman to succeed Roberto Quarta later this year as Rupert Soames. Soames previously held the position of Chief Executive at Serco Group, a supplier championing the Test and Trace programme in the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Smith+Nephew are looking forward to sharing Soames' experience in value creation and his understanding of corporate governance.
January 2023:
Ingenza (Scotland, UK) annouces the appointment of Ian Shott CBE as Executive Chairman to their board. Shott brings over 35 years of experience in the life science and biotechnology industries globally, and is also Executive Chairman of Shott Trinova, an investment firm that specialises in supporting life sciences businesses. Having worked with several big companies to develop and implement successful growth plans, Shott will be invaluable in advising Ingenza on entering their newest growth phase.
Derek Smith is appointed as Interim Cheif Commercial Officer for Aptamer Group plc.
Smith has been a part of Aptamer since 2018 in the position of Director of Global Sales and has worked tirelessly to oversee the development and implementation of the company's global sales objectives. Arron Tolley, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Derek’s business acumen and commitment to his role have contributed to an impressive increase in our sales and revenue. Derek’s commercial mindset and dedication to the business will stand him in good stead as Interim Chief Commercial Officer."
New Head of Statistics appointed at Quanticate to kick off the New Year. Yolanda Barbachano takes up the position at the data-focused CRO, leading the Statistical Consultancy team and overseeing the statistical programming deliverables. Barbachano brings expertise from previous roles for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency so will be well placed in helping gain drug approvals.
November 2022:
The Executive Leadership Team at Genezen expands with the addition of Jeff Whitmore in the role of Chief Commercial Officer. Whitmore was previously Vice President of Commercial Operations at TriLink BioTechnologies, the mRNA therapeutic CDMO. Genezen are looking forward to Whitmore increasing their commercial presence, especially in the context of their new viral vector process development and cGMP production facility in Indiana, USA.
Teva Pharmaceutical has appointed Richard Francis as the succussor to CEO Kare Schultz following his upcoming retirement. Francis currently holds roles at Purespring Therapeutics and Forcefield Therapeutics, and formerly worked at Novartis and Biogen, playing an integral role in launching multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera at the latter. Francis' experience will support the growth of Teva's three core businesses of generics, biosimilars and specialty.
After months of searching for a new CEO, Biogen named Christopher Viehbacher as Michel Vounatsos' replacement. Viehbacher was formly at Sanofi from 2008-2014, and then Boston Pharmaceuticals. Viehbacher will bring this expertise to lead Biogen in rebuilding the company after setbacks earlier in the year.
“Chris is the rare pharma executive who has a keen understanding of the complexities involved in running a multibillion-dollar global pharma business as well as a deep appreciation for the value of innovation,” commented Stelios Papadopoulos, board chairman at Biogen.
Inizio expands its senior leadership team by appointing Stephanie Hasenbos-Case as the Chief Human Resources Officer. Inizio is a solutions partner for health and life sciences companies, and Stephanie will be overseeing the people strategy side of the company, concentrating on talent management, leadership development, compensation and benefits. Stephanie has over 25 years of experiance leading global HR teams.
Stephanie commented: “My passion for people drives me every day to help others realize their full potential. I’m fortunate to inherit a highly skilled and experienced team who share that same drive as me and we are looking forward to making Inizio the number one destination for employees.”
Stephanie Hasenbos-Case
October 2022:
Guillaume Herry, a renowned biopharma executive, has been appointed as CEO for AcuraBio. AcuraBio, known as Luina Bio until it's recent aquisition by Glenn Haifer and Ampersand Capital Partners, is a biopharmaceutical CDMO providing proteins, vaccines, and biotherapeutic products. Herry brings a wealth of international experience in biotherapeutics and medical device innovation to the company.
Herry stated: “I’m excited to be part of this new phase of growth and to be working with Glenn and the Ampersand team. I look forward to leveraging the business’ deep technical experience to grow the company and expand the service offering.”
Bora Pharmaceutical has appointed Don Liscombe as Vice President and General Manager at their flagship North American manufacturing facility in Mississauga, Canada. Liscombe will oversee growth plans for the current workforce of 400, bringing his experience in pharmaceutical operations and contract manufacturing to the role. On the appointment, Liscombe commented: "I am privileged to serve in an industry that has a profound impact on people's lives, and I am honoured to join the Bora team whose mission is 'contributing to better health all over the world.'"
Former Novartis leader Hilmar Ebersbach has joined ImmunOs Therapeutics as VP of antibody development and protein engineering. Ebersbach brings previous experience as group head of Novartis Pharma to the role. Commenting on the appointment, he stated: "I am excited to use my expertise in protein engineering for therapeutic and multi-specific proteins and to help build the Company's pipeline of innovative HLA-based therapies, which are designed to address both the adaptive and innate immune systems."
Health Union has announced the addition of Scott Schappell and Steve Warker to their expanding leadership team, servicing as Chief Revenue Officer and EVP of product respectively. Schappell previously served in positions at Merck and GSK while Warker worked at Sunoco, MMIT, and GalaxE. Solutions.
Syneos Health has named William E. Klitgaard as a member of its board of directors. Previously serving on the company's board since 2017 before resigning for personal matters in May 2022, Klitgaard brings an extensive healthcare and private equity background to the role. The company also announced that Todd M. Abbrecht has stepped down from the board.
Pharmaceutical packaging and clinical services provider Sharp has appointed Robert Feltz as Director, Analytical and Formulation Services, and Michael MacNeir as Vice Presidency, Global Business Development. Feltz brings over 15 years of industry experience, moving to Sharp from Altasciences. Macneir joins Sharp from Marken, with over 14 years of clinical trial supply and operational experience.
L-R: Robert Feltz, Michael MacNeir
Roche Holding has named Matt Sause Head of Roche Diagnostics' North America region. Sause will lead the group's diagnostics business. Incumbent Head of Roche Diagnostics, Thomas Schinecker, will become CEO as of March 15, 2023.
September 2022:
SP Industries, Inc., a global provider of fill-finish drug manufacturing solutions, lyophilizers, and laboratory equipment and supplies, has announced Kevin Sutherby as its new President. Sutherby brings 15+ years of experience in leading global manufacturing companies, with leadership positions at Danaher and Fortive. Commenting on his appointment, Sutherby says: "I'm really looking forward to spearheading the next chapter in SP's success and developing our aseptic and non-aseptic lyophilizatino portfolio, fill-finish solutions, and life science portfolio with the ATS family of companies."
Kevin Sutherby
Inizio Biotech, a business unit of Inizio, has appointed Jay Janus as Senior Account Director in order to meet demand from emerging biotech partners. Janus commented on the appointment: "Emerging biotech companies have become incredibly skilled at developing molecules and progressing trials but their journey to market requires further expertise and guidance... It's this gap that Inizio Biotech fills... I am excited to join the company at a time when the industry continues to go from strength to strength."
GSK has appointed its first female CFO, Julie Brown, to succeed Iain Mackay. Brown joins Emma Walmsley, GSK's CEO, in an all-female top management team at a British company and major pharma company.
Lonza's Sara Lesina has joined SIRIO Pharma as their new GM in Europe to drive forward a strategy of targeting small and medium brands launching novel nutraceutical formulations. She previously acted as Executive Director at Lonza. On joining the SIRIO team, she comments: "I envisage our growth will come as a true CDMO partner, with customers attracted by our large scientific teams to help them bring to market truly innovative and unique formulations."
Sara Lesina
Patient-centric trial solutions Trialbee has named three digital healthcare executives to its advisory board. Rachel Berman, digital content leader with Dotdash, Ritesh Patel, digital healthcare evangelist, and John Whyte, WebMD CMO, join Trialbee in advising their Honey platform and use of real-world data to provide solutions to sponsors, CROs, and trial sites.
August 2022:
Biotechnology company Tessera Therapeutics has appointed Anne-Virginie Eggimann as Chief Regulatory Officer (CRO) responsible for leading US and global regulatory science and programme portfolio management for the company's GENE WRITING development programmes.
Additionally, former CVS Health and Eli Lilly executive Derica Rice has joined the company's Board of Directors.
ValenzaBio, a biopharmaceutical company developing monoclonal antibody treatments, has announced the appointment of Peter Greenleaf to its board of directors. Greenleaf has more than 30 years of experience leading successful life sciences companies and is currently president and CEO of Aurinia Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Fresenius SE has announced that its Chief Executive Stephan Sturm intends to quit and will be replaced by the head of the company's drug unit, Michael Sen. Sen will take over on October 1.
Sturm has been CEO since 2016 and leaves on 'good terms' according to a statement, though he did not give a reason for departure.
Inizio, a strategic partner for health and life sciences companies, has announced two senior appointments. Mary-Kate McGarry transitions to VP for Corporate and Global Strategy from her role as VP of Strategy and Key Initiatives for Inizio Advisory. She will oversee strategy at Inizio and its five specialist business units, Advisory, Medical, MarComms, Engage and Biotech.
Lori Hawthorne has been appointed as the new Global Head of Talent Acquisition. She joins the company from communications company WPP, where she oversaw corporate and client recruitment and enterprise-wide operations. In her new role, Hawthorne will lead recruitment across Inizio's business units.
L-R: Lori Hawthorne, Mary-Kate McGarry
BioAgilytix Labs, LLC, a contract research organisation that works with pharma and biotech partners, has appointed Dr. Linda Robbie as Chief Operating Officer, effective as of August 9, 2022. She leaves her role as Vice President and General Manager of Boston operations, where she was responsible for leading all bioanalytical services at the company's Boston, MA laboratory.
Commenting on the appointment, Dr. Robbie said: 'I could not be more enthusiastic to step into this important role at BioAgilytix, as my predecessor leaves an incredible legacy of high-performing teams and growth. This is an exciting time for me but also for BioAgilytix as we chart our course forward.'
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Dr. Linda Robbie, Chief Operating Officer, BioAgilytix Labs
Mathai Mammen, M.D., Ph.D., has left his position as Executive Vice President, Pharmaceuticals, R&D at Johnson & Johnson, to pursue other opportunities outside the company. William Hait, M.D., Ph.D., wil serve as interim head of the Pharmaceutical R&D organisation until new leadership is identified. Dr. Mammen joined the company in 2017 as Global Head of Janssen R&D.
ChargePoint Technology, a powder containment and aseptic transfer valve market leader, has appointed Jonathan Bardsley as Global Applications and Solutions Engineering Manager. His role will include collaborating with sales, marketing and service teams to ensure customer feedback is implemented to improve and enhance the company's offering. Jonathan brings over 25 years of experience to the company.
'For many years I have worked closely with ChargePoint Technology as a loyal customer and I was always impressed by the outstanding service provided. That customer experience allows me to identify opportunities from which ChargePoint can continue to build and improve,' Bardsley said.
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Jonathan Bardsley, Global Applications and Solutions Engineering Manager
CDMO Curia has appointed Niall Condon as president of its manufacturing division, where he will oversee operational delivery of the company's commercial manufacturing services and products, including APIs and drug products.
Speaking about the appointment, Condon commented: 'I'm excited to be joining Curia with its mission of life-changing life science. The CDMO industry is dynamic and Curia is uniquely positioned to serve customers with its innovative portfolio of solutions and products spanning R&D through manufacturing. I'm looking forward to meeting its talented community of colleagues and making an impact for our customers and the patients they serve.'
AnHeart Therapeutics - a global biopharma company developing novel precision oncology therapeutics - has appointed Shuanglian (Lian) Li, M.D., Ph.D., as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. In this role, Dr. Li will oversee and direct all US-based clinical programmes.
Dr. Li has over 15 years of drug development experience from preclinical drug safety to late-stage drug development and post-marketing clinical research. Prior to joining AnHeart, Dr. Li served as SVP, Clinical Development at Ansun Biopharma, where she directed overall clinical development strategy of the company's oncology pipeline.
Rubedo Life Sciences, a biopharma company pioneering first-in-class therapies for chronic age-related diseases targeting the senescent cells that drive cellular aging, has announced the appointment of Ali Siam as Chief Business Officer and Ofir Moreno, Ph.D, as Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery. Both executives will report directly to Rubedo CEO Marco Quarta.
Valo Therapeutics - a developer of novel, adaptable immunotherapy platforms for cancer and infectious diseases - has announced four appointments to its Scientific Advisory Board. The appointees are: Professor Paolo A. Ascierto, Dr. Jeffery Bockman, Professor Malcolm K. Brenner and Professor Kevin Harrington.
Speaking about the appointments, ValoTx's CEO Paul Higham said: 'We are delighted to welcome our distinguished, and expert, SAB members. They bring a wealth of scientific and clinical understanding which will be of great help in progressing our antigen-coated oncolytic viruses and vaccine vectors as innovative immunotherapy approaches against cancer and infectious diseases. We look forward to working with them all.'
July 2022:
Crown Bioscience has appointed Michael Prosser as its Chief Business Officer in a restructuring of its commercial leadership team. Prosser has been at Crown Bioscience for over ten years, serving in a variety of operational and commercial leadership positions. Most recently he served as Senior Vice President, Commercial and Strategic Development.
Three new roles have been created within the commercial team, who will report to the Chief Business Officer. Alex Slater will take on responsibility for APAC business development in his role as Vice President of Global Business Development, while Dr Jonny McMichael has been appointed to Vice President of Client Experience and Enablement, and Dr Achim Quandt has joined the company as Executive Director of Product Management.
Brii Biosciences, a multi-national company developing therapies to address unmet medical needs, has appointed Susannah Cantrell, Ph.D., as its Chief Business Officer. Dr. Cantrell has more than 20 years of experience in the healthcare and biotechnology industries spanning global pipeline strategy, sales, operations, marketing and new product commercialisation.
Precision immunotherapy company Immunitas Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Lynette Herscha, J.D., as its Chief Operating Officer. Ms. Herscha joins Immunitas from Senda Biosciences, where she most recently served as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary. She has held additional leadership roles at multiple biopharma companies including Solid Biosciences and Concert Pharmaceuticals.
Glass primary packaging supplier SGD Pharma has announced the appointment of Olivier Rousseau as its new Chief Executive Officer. He joins the company after four years as CEO and President of Verallia France, a producer of glass packaging for food and beverages.
Commenting on his appointment, Rousseau said: 'I am proud to join SGD Pharma and am looking forward to supporting the business at this exciting stage in its growth trajectory. I will continue to build on the strong foundation created by all members of the global SGD Pharma team in providing customers with high quality, innovative products to meet their changing demands, while improving our industrial performance across all plants.'
Olivier Rousseau, Chief Executive Officer of SGD Pharma
Leading pharmaceutical partner Catalent has announced changes to its operating structure and executive leadership team, which went into effect on July 1. Under the new organisational structure, four reporting segments will merge into two, each representing roughly half of the total company revenue.
Dr. Aris Gennadios was named Group President of the company's newly formed Pharma and Consumer Health segment, while Jonathon Arnold was named as Catalent's new Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, and Head of Transformation. Additionally, Steven Fasman will take up the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, while Karen Flynn will retire from her role as Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer.
Celmatix Inc, a biotech focused on ovarian biology, announced this week that Dr. Bart CJM Fauser will join and chair the company's Scientific Advisory Board and newly formed Clinical Trial Steering Committee. Dr. Fauser is a pioneer in ovarian physiology and function who has published over 500 peer reviewed articles.
ReviR Therapeutics, a biotechnology company focused on developing RNA-targeting small molecule drugs, announced the appointment of Paul August, PhD, as its Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. August has more than two decades of senior experience in pharmaceutical research and development and previously served as Vice President of Discovery Biology at Agios Pharmaceuticals.
ReviR Chief Executive Peng Yue commented: 'We are thrilled to welcome Dr. August to our team. Paul has extensive experience in drug discovery through development and regulatory approval. His in-depth knowledge of rare genetic diseases will greatly accelerate our progress towards discovering novel medicines that treat diseases with unmet medical needs.'
Biopharmaceutical company DURECT Corporation has announced the appointment of Timothy M. Papp as its Chief Financial Officer. In this new role, Mr. Papp will oversee all financial and capital markets activities. He joins DURECT from RBC Capital Markets, where he was Managing Director of Healthcare Investment Banking.
Sharp, a leading provider of pharmaceutical packaging and clinical services, has appointed Michael Moes as Senior Vice President, Global Operations and Roger Sim as SVP and Chief Financial Officer. Michael Moes will be responsible for identifying and implementing continuous process, productivity and cost improvements while increasing asset and resource utilisation, while Roger Sim will lead all aspects of finance for Sharp and join the company's Board of Directors.
Global contract research organisation (CRO) BioAgilytix Labs, LLC has appointed Nathan Speicher as the company's Chief Financial Officer. Speicher has more than 16 years of experience in a variety of roles, with a focus on the biopharma and pharma services sectors. Before joining BioAgilytix he was Chief Financial Officer at NationsBenefits, a supplemental benefits provider.
Speaking about the appointment, Speicher commented: 'I am excited to join BioAgilytix at such an exciting time in its trajectory, with key initiatives spanning advanced modalities including cell and gene therapies, expansion into adjacent services and site expansions in the US, Europe and Australia underway, all of which will help us better serve our customers as they seek to set a new standard of care for patients.'
Nathan Speicher, Chief Financial Officer at BioAgilytix
June 2022:
UK-based Transine Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Andy Billinton as Chief Scientific Officer as the company triples its footprint at the Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge. Transine is developing a novel class of therapeutic RNAs capable of upregulating protein expression with a superior level of control and specificity across a range of difficult-to-treat diseases.
Transine CEO Jan Thirkettle expressed her support for the appointment, commenting: 'We are thrilled and very fortunate to have Andy join Transine. His experience, skill and passion bring innumerable benefits to the team and to our mission to develop life-changing therapeutics for serious, underserved diseases.'
Global contract research organisation BioAgilytix has appointed Euan Menzies as Chairman and CEO with immediate effect. Outgoing CEO Jim Datin will continue to serve as non-executive member of the Board of Directors. Euan Menzies previously served as CEO and Chairman of Bioclinica before its merger with ERT (now Clario) and CEO of software company Vertafore.
Commenting on the move, Menzies said: 'I am thrilled to assume my new role at BioAgilytix and I look forward to working with my colleagues across our key locations in the US, Europe and Australia. By focusing on outstanding quality and timeliness for our clients, we will continue to grow at an accelerated pace.'
Euan Menzies, Chairman and CEO of BioAgilytix
Congenica, a digital health company focused on precision medicine, has appointed Robert Denison as its new Chief Executive Officer. He will also join the company's Board of Directors. Denison joined the company as Chief Information Officer (CIO) in September 2019 and has since led a transformation of the company's core technology.
Consulting engineering firm Terracon Corporation has appointed Karim Mattar as its Quality Engineering Manager. Mattar has previously worked at Tiffany's Whirlpool and Life Instruments. Commenting on his move to Terracon, Mattar said: 'I'm excited to be joining a company striving for the highest product quality and an ambitious growth strategy. Being part of an established manufacturing company who is now a part of a leading life science platform, such as Charge Point Group, is a great step in my career'.
Terracon provides expertise in single use accessories for the mixing, transferring and storing of fluids for the biopharma and life sciences industries.
Karim Mattar, Quality Engineering Manager, Terracon Corporation
The European Medicines Agency has appointed Steffen Thirstrup as its Chief Medical Officer. In this role, he will provide scientific leadership across the agency and its scientific committees. Prof. Thirstrup is a medical doctor with a PhD in pharmacology and broad clinical experience in general internal medicine. He previously led the Division for Medicines Assessment and Clinical Trials at the Danish Health and Medicines Authority and was the Danish member of the EMA's human medicines committee.
On 1st June, Pfizer Inc. announced that Annaliesa Anderson, Ph.D., has been appointed Senior Vice President and Head of the Company’s Vaccine Research & Development (R&D) organization effective August 1.
With more than two decades of biopharmaceutical R&D experience, Dr. Anderson most recently served as Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for Bacterial Research and Hospital within the Vaccine R&D organization. Dr. Anderson also led the team of infectious disease biologists that validated and delivered an emergency use authorization PAXLOVID™, Pfizer’s novel COVID-19 oral treatment.
Dr Anderson succeeds Kathrin U. Jansen, Ph.D., who will be retiring.
Emergence Therapeutics AG, a biopharmaceutical company developing novel antibody drug conjugates (ADC) for the treatment of cancers with high unmet needs, announced the appointment of Hatem Azim, MD, PhD, as Chief Medical Officer (“CMO”), as of 6 June 2022.
Dr. Hatem Azim joins Emergence Therapeutics from Pierre Fabre, a French multinational pharmaceutical company where he was Head of Oncology Early Clinical Development. In this role he was responsible for strategic clinical drug development and management of immuno-oncology and ADC research projects. Prior to this, Dr. Azim held the role of Vice President, Head of Clinical Development at Innate Pharma in France.
Azim comments: "Emergence Therapeutics is on the frontier of developing novel, highly selective ADCs for the treatment of hard-to-treat cancers. I’m very excited to join at this critical and exciting phase and look forward to joining the senior leadership team to help further advance ETx-22’s clinical development and future programs.”
Quanterix Corporation, a company digitizing biomarker analysis with the goal of advancing the science of precision health, today announced that Karen A. Flynn, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Catalent Pharma Solutions, has been appointed to Quanterix’ Board of Directors effective June 6, 2022.
Ms. Flynn is an accomplished healthcare leader with over 35 years of commercial, operations and general management experience in the pharmaceutical services industry. She currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer of Catalent Pharma Solutions, and previously served as the President of Catalent’s Biologics business.
Prior to Catalent, she served as Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer for West Pharmaceutical Services and as President of West’s Pharmaceutical Packaging Systems business. In addition to her experience leading high growth businesses, Ms. Flynn brings an extensive background in commercial strategy, strategic planning and innovation and quality management. She previously served on the Board of Directors of Recro Pharma, Inc., a specialty pharma and contract development and manufacturing organization focused on developing non-opioid products for acute pain and on solving complex formulation and manufacturing challenges primarily in small molecule therapeutic development.
May 2022:
ADC Therapeutics announces that co-founder Chris Martin is stepping back from his role. Martin will serve in an advisory role for three months and transition to become a board member and the chair of ADC's science and technology committee.
The incoming CEO is Ameet Mallik, formerly Novartis' U.S. head of oncology. Mallik also has CEO experience as the head of Rafael Holdings, a biotech company focused on oncology and immune therapies, where he still serves on the board.
Global contract research organisation BioAgilytix Labs, LLC has appointed healthcare executive David King to its Board of Directors. King is the former Executive Chairman and CEO of Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp). He led Labcorp's transformation from a pure-play US testing laboratory into a leading global life sciences company. He joins BioAgilytix as the CRO embarks on a major expansion of its services, including the creation of hundreds of new scientific roles across the company.
'I'm thrilled to join BioAgilytix at such an exciting juncture in its journey. I very much look forward to working with the Board and the great BioAgilytix team to build on the organisation's impressive track record of success,' King said.
BioAgilytix also announced the appointment of Lynn Kamen and Michelle Miller as scientific officers. Between them they bring more than two decades of experience in drug discovery, development and immunology, and toxicology.
Kamen is an immunologist who most recently worked at Genentech as a principal scientist within the Development Sciences organisation, leading the bioanalytical analysis for large molecules for late-stage research through the clinic, while Miller worked with BioAgilytix previously as a bioanalytical associate director. Prior to joining the company, Miller led GLP toxicology and immunotoxicology studies and developed high throughput screening assays as lead investigator. She also worked as an R&D scientist in the pharmaceutical industry.
Speaking about the appointments, BioAgilytix Chief Scientific Officer 
Jim McNally said: 'We are delighted to welcome Lynn and Michelle to our team. They will both be valuable assets to our internal teams and partners to our clients. Their experience with drug development and bioanalytical support will immediately add value to BioAgilytix'.
Michelle Miller (L) and Lynn Kamen (R)
Abzena has appointed Dr. Petra Dieterich, DPhil, MBA as its new scientific lead. She will report to the company's chief technology officer, Dr. Louise Duffy, and will support Abzena's drug development and manufacturing operations. Dr. Dieterich most recently served as senior vice president at Aptuit Oxford, a pharmaceutical services provider that offers early discovery to mid-phase drug development solutions.
April 2022:
Exelixis has announced that co-founder Charles Cohen, Ph.D. will retire from the Board of Directors, choosing not to stand for re-election at the company's 2022 AGM in May. His resignation from the Board will take effect on the day of the meeting. Dr. Cohen is an independent investor and former biopharma chief executive officer who has served on the company's Board of Directors since November 1995.
Osivax appoints Dr. Michael Watson, former president of Moderna's vaccine division, to its Board of Directors. He joins the company as it advances its influenza vaccine candidate through Phase 2 clinical studies and prepares to enter the clinic with its universal coronavirus vaccine candidate, OVX033. Osivax is a biopharma company focused on developing vaccines to protect against highly mutating infectious diseases. Dr. Watson is currently the Executive Chairman of VaxEquity and CEO of MEVOX, two companies specialised in vaccine development.
CARsgen Therapeutics appoints Dr Raffaele Baffa as Chief Medical Officer, where he will oversee global clinical development strategies and operations for the company's pipeline product candidates. Prior to joining CARsgen, which focuses on CAR T cell therapies, Dr Baffa served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Ziopharm Oncology, recently rebranded as Alaunos.
OGT appoints Adrian Smith as CEO from April 1. Smith joins OGT, a provider of clinical and diagnostic genomic solutions, from diagnostic and medical imaging solutions company Hologic, where he was General Manager of the UK and Ireland. The appointment comes as Dr John Anson retires from his position as CEO and member of the Board, after more than 16 years with the company.
Smith commented: "I'm excited to join OGT at this moment in the company's development. John has done a fantastic job steering this team - it's rare to come across a company so passionate and dedicated to partnering with its customers to improve clinical care".
March 2022:
MedPacto appoints global clinical expert and former lead clinician at KaryoPharm, Dr. Timothy R. Allen, as EVP of Clinical Development. Dr Allen is a clinical expert in the field of oncology, who most recently served as Vice President of Clinical Development at KaryoPharm.
Neuraxpharm Group announces the appointment of Monica Torrecilla as Country Manager for Portugal, reinforcing the company's push to increase its management team in Europe. In the new role she will focus on expanding the company's position in key areas and adding to the current portfolio on schizophrenia and sleep disorders, as well as the new launches on epilepsy and depression.
Avacta Group, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing cancer therapies, announces the appointment of Christina Coughlin as Non-executive Director to the Board with immediate effect. Coughlin is the CEO of CytoImmune Therapeutics, which focuses on the development and commercialisation of novel cancer immunotherapy products.
PCI Pharma Services appoints John Cullivan as a new member of the Executive Leadership Team in the role of Chief Corporate Development Officer. Cullivan will play a key role in PCI’s growth strategy, with a particular focus on M&A, focusing on acquisitions to enter new markets and geographies, and strengthen PCI's portfolio of client solutions.
Awakn Life Sciences, a biotech focused on the research, development, and delivery of psychedelic therapeutics to treat addiction, announces the appointment of Kevin Lorenz as their new U.S. Head of Commercial Development. Lorenz will lead Awakn’s therapeutics commercialisation activities in the United States, starting with the launch of its Licensing Partnership business.
February 2022:
LEO Pharma announces the appointment of Brian Hilberdink as Exectuive Vice President and President of LEO Pharma Inc., in the United States. Hilberdink joins LEO Pharma from Novo Nordisk, where he served as Senior Vice President of Sales for the U.S.
DFE Pharma announces that Martti Hedman has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer. An experienced business leader, Hedman will succeed Bas van Driel. Hedman is a former CEO of Colorcon, and brings many years of global pharma leadership, having held executive positions in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Finland. He shares:
“I am excited to join DFE Pharma as its new CEO. The company is a global market leader in its excipient categories. I am looking forward to working with all my new colleagues and taking the company to the next phase. I am especially pleased to know that DFE Pharma plays a key role in the COVID-19 therapies – both in vaccines and in solid oral dosage forms”.
ApiJect Systems, a medical technology public-benefit corporation, whose platform helps pharmaceutical and biotech companies efficiently fill-finish and deliver their injectable medicines in prefilled delivery systems, announced today the hiring of new Chief Technology Officer, Products, Molly Weaver, PhD. Dr Weaver most recently served as Vice President for Containment Systems & Portfolio Management at West Pharmaceutical Services, and is a seasoned industry leader whose background includes pharmaceutical and medical technology. Her leadership and expertise spans strategy, product development, and execution across a broad range of industrialization and drug delivery systems.
Stevanato Group announces the appointment of Riccardo Butta to the role of president, Americas. The appointment of a dedicated executive to lead the company’s long-term strategy in the Americas is indicative of the company’s commitment to broaden its footprint, accelerate its market penetration and improve proximity to its customers in the US. Butta joins the group with more than 30 years of management experience, including 20 years with CDMO, Flex Ltd.
SK Capital Partners, a private investment firm focused on the specialty materials, specialty chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors, today announced the hiring of Anne Kolton as its first Chief Sustainability Officer. Ms. Kolton will chair the SK Capital Sustainability Board, composed of a subset of SK Capital’s portfolio company CEOs and Managing Directors that oversee SK Capital’s Sustainability Program. She will also lead the Sustainability Council of SK Capital, consisting of 21 Sustainability leaders representing each of SK Capital’s portfolio companies. Ms. Kolton has 20 years of advocacy, issues management and sustainability experience, integrating strategy development, cross-industry and cross-value chain collaboration, industry and public policy development, legislative and regulatory government relations and strategic communications. She also previously served as a White House Spokesperson, an Advisor to the Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and as Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Department of Energy.
January 2022:
Galapagos NV announces the appointment of Dr. Paul Stoffels as Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1, 2022. Dr. Stoffels brings an impressive track record of success in innovative drug discovery and development, and a wealth of experience in biotech and pharma, across a range of roles and therapeutic areas. He will succeed current Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Onno van de Stolpe, following planned retirement. Stoffels was previously Chief Scientific Officer at Johnson & Johnson since 2012 and led development of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine which won U.S. regulatory authorization in February last year.
GlaxoSmithKline's top scientist, Hal Barron, will leave the British drug-maker to become CEO of Silicon Valley based start-up Altos Labs. He will transition into a Non-Executive Director at GSK role in August 2022. Tony Wood will replace Barron as Chief Scientific Officer, assuming full responsibility for R&D. Emma Walmsley, Chief Executive Officer said: “We are delighted to appoint Tony as our next CSO. He is an outstanding scientist who is highly respected inside and outside GSK. Tony has been a key partner to Hal in delivering our R&D approach, and with his experience and expertise across science, data and new technologies, he is perfectly placed to build on Hal’s outstanding progress and to deliver value from our pipeline. Hal’s appointment to Altos Labs is a unique opportunity for him and we are pleased that GSK will continue to benefit from his expertise at the Board and in support of R&D. Altogether, these changes provide us with a clear pathway for continued momentum in R&D to deliver our new ambitions for growth and scale impact for patients.”
Adare Pharma Solutions Announces Appointment of Tom Sellig as Chief Executive Officer. Sellig, a 30-year veteran of the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries, will lead the organization in supporting pharmaceutical companies in the development and manufacturing of transformative medicines that improve patient health and outcomes. The announcement of Sellig’s appointment comes on the heels of Adare’s acquisition of Frontida BioPharm, which expanded Adare’s global footprint to seven manufacturing and R&D sites dedicated to contract services for the pharmaceutical industry. Adare is backed by private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., and Frazier Healthcare Partners.
Catalent announces that its Board of Directors has appointed Alessandro Maselli, currently President and Chief Operating Officer, as the company’s next President and Chief Executive Officer, effective July 1, 2022. Maselli will also join the company’s Board of Directors upon assuming his new role. Current Chair and Chief Executive Officer John Chiminski will remain in his present role until July 1, 2022, when he will assume the position of Executive Chair of the Board.
November 2021:
Alcami has appointed Timothy Compton as Chief Business Officer. Mr. Compton, who brings over 25-years of industry experience leading high-performing business teams, will be responsible for driving the continued growth of Alcami's service offerings.
Prior to joining Alcami, Mr. Compton was the Chief Commercial Officer at Avid Bioservices. From 2015 to 2019, he was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Avista Pharma, a private equity-owned CDMO acquired by Cambrex Corporation in January 2019.
AGC Biologics says Jean-Baptiste Agnus has been appointed as the company’s Chief Business Officer (CBO). In this position, he is responsible for strategic leadership over all aspects of the company’s global business development and sales and marketing teams. Mr. Agnus brings more than 20 years of experience in biopharmaceuticals and contract development and manufacturing. He joins AGC Biologics after three years with Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services, where he led the company’s strategic vision of its worldwide sales and marketing activities. Prior to that, he worked for 13 years at Novasep, and held a number of business development leadership roles with increasing responsibility both in Europe and the US.
October 2021:
Rentschler Biopharma has appointed Dr. Robert Panting as General Manager of Rentschler ATMP Ltd. Center of Excellence in Stevenage, UK, Europe's largest cell and gene therapy hub. It was set up to address the gap in capacity and support for early-stage innovators in cell and gene therapy. In this position, Dr. Panting will manage all operations at the site.
Prior to joining the company, Dr. Panting spent ten years at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, where he held positions in the areas of project management, customer management and business planning. Most recently, as Vice President for Program Management and Sales & Operations Planning, he focused on driving delivery of client projects and overseeing short- and long-term planning for the company’s UK operations.
Alcami has announced the appointment of three additions to their senior leadership team. Chad Bovero has been appointed to the role of Vice President, Charleston Sterile Operations, James Fife has been appointed to the role of Vice President, Validations and Metrology and Tobin Cowart has been appointed to the role of Senior Director, Technical Services.
Mr. Bovero began his career in the United States Air Force as a Calibration Technician and brings a depth of technical expertise and a track record of leading sterile manufacturing operations. Before joining Alcami in July, he was the Director of Operations at LSNE Contract Manufacturing. Previously, he held roles as the Filling and Lyophilization Manager at Xellia Pharmaceuticals and Biologic Operations Manager at Pfizer.
Mr. Fife returns to Alcami after spending three years at Exela Pharma Services LLC as Executive Director of Manufacturing Operations and, most recently, as Vice President of New Initiatives and Opportunities. He brings over 25 years of sterile manufacturing experience and various leadership roles at Cardinal Health, Akorn, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, and Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing.
Mr. Cowart returns to Alcami after spending four years at Exela Pharma Services as Director of Technical Services. Before this, he spent 20 years at AAI Pharma Services (Alcami) in various validation, engineering, process development, manufacturing, and technical service roles.
August 2021:
Sharp, a part of UDG Healthcare and a leading provider of pharmaceutical packaging and clinical services, has appointed Paul Thomas as Business Development Manager for its UK commercial services. Reporting to Jeff Benedict, Chief Commercial Officer, Mr Thomas has taken responsibility for generating commercial packaging sales at Sharp’s Rhymney site in South Wales and will also work alongside European BD colleagues supporting Sharp’s Belgian and Netherlands facilities. Mr Thomas, who joins Sharp from Westfield Medical Ltd, has over twenty years’ experience in healthcare and pharma packaging sales. In the past, he has worked for Aptar Pharma where he was responsible for the commercial device development for Narcan®, an overdose rescue medicine, which was approved by the FDA in 2015. He has also held roles at Bemis Healthcare Packaging, Budelpack and GE Healthcare in Cardiff, where he was Packaging Development Manager.
Altasciences has appointed Dr Bruce Frank as Vice President, CDMO Operations. Dr Frank has 30 years of experience with product formulation and development, leading discovery chemistry, new technology evaluation, and project management initiatives, in both small and large biotechnology firms. At Altasciences, he will oversee the Manufacturing, Formulation, and Analytical teams, applying his most recent experience from Lubrizol Life Sciences to maximize client experience and streamline early phase drug development.
Ashfield Health, a global healthcare marketing and communications network and part of UDG Healthcare, has named William Martino (below) as Growth Director, North America. In this new role, Martino will lead the business development for Ashfield Health and Mind+Matter, an Ashfield Health agency. Mr Martino has more than 20 years of leadership in healthcare marketing, including pharmaceuticals, OTC, animal health, and health technology. Before joining Ashfield Health, he served as the chief growth officer at Wunderman Thompson Health, and during his tenure, served in a variety of management, strategy, and account roles.
CRO Quanticate has named Piotr Karasiewicz as the company’s new Head of Machine Learning and Digital Transformation to lead process improvements and ensure efficient and high-quality data analysis. Reporting to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Underwood, Karasiewicz will lead the execution of technology strategy with specific focus on the research and development, and optimization of, new and existing products.
July 2021:
Bora Pharmaceuticals has appointed Sally Langa as its new Global SVP Sales and Marketing to help drive the company’s continued growth and achieve its aggressive expansion plans. Bringing a wealth of experience within the highly competitive contract manufacturing industry, she has held several senior roles in some of the industry’s most prominent CDMOs. Ms Langa, who will report directly to Bobby Sheng, Bora’s Chairman and CEO, will be responsible for building the overarching strategy and roadmap for Bora Pharmaceutical’s CDMO services.
June 2021:
Cleanroom microbiology solutions provider Cherwell Laboratories has promoted Steven Brimble (below) to the newly created role of Director of Quality and Technology, with a core focus on product innovation and continual improvement. He has worked for the past five years as Cherwell’s Quality Manager, is a Practitioner with the Chartered Quality Institute, and was also formerly the National Quality Manager for Public Health England Food, Water & Environmental Microbiology.
Abzena has appointed Patrice Dudley Aviles as the Chief Human Resource Officer. With over 25 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she has previously held roles at Pfizer, Amgen, Alexion, and Genentech. At her previous company, Genentech, she was the Global Human Resources Business and North America Human Resources Leader to Pharma Technical Operations.
CDMO Recro Pharma has appointed Laura Parks to the company’s board of directors. Dr. Parks most recently served on the executive leadership team at Patheon until its acquisition by Thermo Fischer Scientific in 2017. In this role, she led strategic commercial and operational initiatives including development and execution of an end-to-end pharmaceutical services offering, as well as global strategic enterprise accounts organization. Prior to her role with Patheon, she served as president of DSM Pharmaceuticals, the $250 million steriles and oral solid finished dose CDMO of DSM, until its 2014 merger with Patheon. Dr. Parks was also senior vice president, marketing and sales for DSM Pharmaceuticals, during which time she successfully led the marketing and sales team in support of the business unit’s world-class contract manufacturing services for finished dose pharmaceuticals, including sterile injectibles, orals, topicals, as well as developmental services.
CMO Symbiosis Pharmaceutical Services, which specialises in sterile manufacture of vaccines, pharmaceuticals and biopharmaceuticals, and headquartered in Stirling, UK, has appointed Jette Cowan as Business Development Manager for the Northern region of the European Union. She brings to Symbiosis decades of business development success, plus key experience gained from roles with several prominent European life science companies.
Selexis SA, a JSR Life Sciences company, has named Roland Hoffmann-Hecht as its new chief business officer. As a member of the company’s executive leadership team, Dr. Hoffmann-Hecht will be responsible for all corporate and business development activities and will report directly to Selexis Chief Executive Officer Dirk Lange. He joined Selexis from Polpharma Biologics where he was head of business development, CDMO Europe. Previously, he was chief customer officer at CDMO start-up biopharmaceuticals company, Halix B.V.
May 2021:
Adare Pharma Solutions has hired Robert Muschert as Chief Commercial Officer, and Dr. Vipan Dhall as Chief Scientific Officer, expanding its executive leadership team. Mr Muschert brings nearly 30 years of pharmaceutical industry experience to Adare. His career has spanned business development and sales, supply chain and manufacturing operations, strategic procurement, and technical services in global pharmaceutical and services organizations. Most recently, he was Head of Sales, US Global Account Management Lonza, where he oversaw account management and business development for the company’s east coast partners and new business relationships. Dr. Dhall has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical development experience in traditional pharma as well as the CDMO space. Prior to joining Adare, he was Vice President of Life Sciences, North America at SGS.
ACG has appointed two senior executives at its R&D facility in Germany. Daniel Illmer joins as design head – encapsulation, and Afsaneh Nakhavoli as design head – tableting. Both join the company’s R&D facility in Germany. Mr Illmer will oversee product development, maintenance, improvements, redesign, and will report to Werner Bongers, CEO, SciTech, ACG. He joins from Robert Bosch Packaging Technology, where he was responsible for mechanical design, development, and engineering among other areas. Ms Nakhavoli’s new role as design head – tableting will include leading innovation and product development, with the same reporting lines. In the last seven years as a project engineer at Fette Engineering GmbH, she led the development and construction of automatic capsule-filling machines.
Pharmaceutical packaging and clincial services provider Sharp has appointed Walter Tyrrell as chief financial officer and Robert O’Beirn as senior vice president and commercial director. Mr. O’Beirn takes interim responsibility for Sharp’s European commercial packaging operation, while also leading corporate development overall for the division. Mr. Tyrrell moves to Sharp from within the wider UDG Healthcare group, where he has been Head of Internal Audit since 2014. Prior to joining UDG Healthcare, Walter held senior roles in the banking and life assurance sectors. Mr O’Beirn joined UDG Healthcare in 2011 as senior legal counsel, later joining the corporate development area, with particular focus on M&A.
CDMO Woodstock Sterile Solutions has named Oliver Vogt as Vice President and General Manager – Site Operations. Mr Vogt has previously served as General Manager for Woodstock and its predecessor, Catalent, for the past three years. In his new role, he is responsible for Woodstock’s manufacturing business as well as leading its supply chain and site operations, including new product development and customer service. Before joining Catalent, he served as the General Manager of Chicago Operations for Adello Biologics; the Vice President of Manufacturing Operations for Merz North America; Director of Global Process and Equipment Engineering for Hospira, and he also had stints at TEVA Pharmaceuticals and Abbott Laboratories.
April 2021:
Adare Pharma Solutions has announced that Ludger Roedder has joined the organization in the newly created role of President of Adare Biome. He will assume responsibility for the entire Microbiome business and serve as a member of Adare's Executive Leadership Team. He brings over 30 years of global business and marketing leadership to Adare and expertise in animal and human nutrition including probiotics and enzymes. He has successfully led business growth through commercial development and successful M&A in Europe, Asia, South America, and the US in the animal and human nutrition spaces. Prior to joining Adare Biome, Ludger was Chief Business Officer at BRAIN AG, where he held responsibility to commercialize the business on a global scale and served as a member of the management Board.
Mayne Pharma's CDMO division, Metrics Contract Services, has named Stephanie Emory as Associate Director of Pharmaceutical Development. Ms Emory was most recently at the FDA where she reviewed the CMC/Drug Product portions of INDs, NDAs, and industry meeting packages for CDER’s Office of Pharmaceutical Quality. Prior to the FDA she spent seven years at UPM Pharmaceuticals, a then Baltimore-based CDMO, serving as both technical lead and project manager for the development of Pre-clinical through Phase III clinical supplies.
AGC Biologics has appointed Jun Takami as General Manager/Site Head at its Chiba, Japan site. Mr. Takami transitioned from his previous role as Project Manager Director at the Japan facility – a role he assumed in 2017 when joining AGC Biologics. He has over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with roles in process development, GMP manufacturing, process engineering and PLI activities with the Roche group at Chugai Pharmaceuticals.
Clinical stage biotech Imvax has named Sean Hemingway (below) as chief operating officer. He will lead the expansion of Imvax's new manufacturing facility at The Curtis and support IT and facilities management functions as well as overseeing manufacturing and supply organisation and building out the company's cell therapy platform. Mr. Hemingway has over 25 years of expereince in biological manufacturing and supply chain. He was previously senior vice president and global head of the BioLife Plasma Services Business Unit at Takeda.
Contract packager Legacy Pharma Solutions has promoted Brad Rayner to President. In his new role, Mr. Rayner’s will be responsible for all of Legacy Pharma Solutions’ sales, operations, quality control and finances. Along with Dave Spence, the company’s Chairman & Majority Owner, Mr. Rayner will set and execute a long-term sales strategy, define target markets and strategically position Legacy for continued growth. In his previous role as EVP, Sales & Business Development, Mr. Rayner was primarily focused on spearheading sales, marketing and customer service teams.
March 2021:
Bioprocess technology provider Univercells Technologies has named Mathias Garny as Chief Executive Officer. Already acting as General Manager, Mr. Garny has been responsible for overseeing the company’s operations and leading the strategy development and implementation. He first joined Univercells in 2015 as Chief Financial Officer before transitioning to Chief Commercial Officer in 2017, playing a key role in Univercells’ development and commercialization efforts of the technology portfolio, including the scale-X single-use bioreactor range and the NevoLine biomanufacturing platform.
ApiJect Systems has appointed Craig Cohon (below) as Chief Strategy Officer. In his new role, London-based Mr. Cohon will lead the company's strategic and brand development in the US and abroad. He has been global advisor to the company since May 2020 and spent 14 years in executive leadership with The Coca Cola Company, spearheading its entry into Russia in 1991 and leading brand work for Coca-Cola globally. He also spent close to a decade owning and leading the Cirque du Soleil business in Russia.
CDMO Alcami has appointed Patrick Walsh as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. He succeeds Walter Kaczmarek, who is stepping down. Prior to joining Alcami, Mr. Walsh was co-founder and CEO of TriPharm Services, a parenteral manufacturing business that was acquired by Alcami in January 2020. From 2015 to 2019, he was CEO at Avista Pharma, a private equity-backed global provider of contract manufacturing, development, and analytical testing services. Mr. Walsh also served as CEO of AAIPharma Services Corporation, a predecessor company to Alcami, from 2010 to 2014.
Cell and gene therapy-focused CDMO The Center for Breakthrough Medicines (CBM), has appointed women to four senior leadership positions. Sybil Danby has joined as Senior Vice President of Business Development & Strategy; Eileen Brett is the Vice President of Project Leadership; Dana Cipriano serves as Vice President of Testing and Analytical Services; and Emily Moran is Vice President of Viral Vector Manufacturing. Prior to joining CBM, Ms. Danby spent over three years with responsibility for the strategic business development of Paragon Bioservices, playing an active role in grooming the company for acquisition by Catalent Pharma Solutions in 2019. She also spent two years at Pall Corporation as a driver of the development and sales of disruptive manufacturing technologies, and just under nine years at GSK in both the manufacturing and R&D organizations. Ms. Brett was most recently Head of the Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC) Leaders organization for Janssen's Biotherapeutics Development with responsibility for delivering the portfolio of biotherapeutic assets from discovery to post-launch. Ms. Cipriano is creating a testing and analytical services portfolio that enables efficient discovery, development, commercialization, and manufacturing of CGT products, supplying end-to-end solutions for CBM clients and enabling speed to market. Prior to this position, she was in leadership roles at Wuxi Advanced Therapies for two decades, most recently as Senior Director of Operations & Strategic Projects. Ms. Moran was previously Head of Viral Vector Manufacturing at Lonza delivering both clinical and commercial viral vector products from 50L-2000L scale across multiple modalities. Prior to that, she spent 12 years with Sanofi in applied operational and quality roles of increasing responsibility.
US-based CDMO Pharmaceutics International (Pii) has promoted Monique Mendoza (above) to the position of Head of Quality. She will be responsible for the entire Quality unit at Pii and report directly to the President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Kurt Nielsen. Her scope of responsibilities include Sterility Assurance, Batch Disposition, Investigations, Change Controls, Product Complaints, Supplier Qualification, Raw Material Release, Audits (internal, external and client), Document Control, and Quality Control across all facilities including Microbiology Laboratories. Prior to joining Pii, Ms Mendoza served as Director of Quality for Dynavax Technologies both domestically and internationally. She also worked for Bayer Healthcare for over 15 years with increasing responsibilities in both Manufacturing and QA.
Shorla Pharma has named Nicholas Holsman as Chief Commercial Officer. A highly experienced US industry executive with in-depth experience in scaling oncology & specialty pharma enterprises, Mr Holsman was most recently Head of Commercial Operations at Oncopeptides, where he was responsible for building the infrastructure to support the launch of Pepaxto, a peptide-conjugated alkylator for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients. Before Oncopeptides, Holsman spent nearly four years leading the commercial efforts at KemPharm as Senior Director of Commercial Strategy & Market Access and held roles of growing responsibility at Gilead and Symphony Health.
February 2021:
Spark Therapeutics, a member of the Roche Group (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) and a fully integrated, commercial gene therapy company has appointed Cynthia Pussinen as chief technical officer. Ms Pussinen has more than 25 years of experience in the biopharma industry, leading teams in manufacturing, quality, supply chain, formulation development and process sciences. As CTO, she will oversee Spark’s manufacturing and technical operations, including pipeline process development, preclinical and clinical manufacturing, and the commercial manufacturing and distribution of Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec-rzyl).
Sai Life Sciences has hired ex-Novartis veteran Dr. Mahavir Prashad as Vice President of Early Phase Process Development. Dr. Prashad is a recognized leader in Chemical Process R&D and leveraging Green Chemistry principles and modern technologies in API synthesis and won the Novartis Leading Scientist award in 2002 and also the 2010 Diversity & Inclusion award of the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.
Oral solid dosge specialist CDMO Recro Pharma has made a couple of key appointments to its management team and board of directors. The company has named Jim Miller, a highly regarded CDMO industry thought leader, to its board of directors. Additionally, Recro appointed Ryan Lake as chief financial officer (CFO), in late 2020. Mr. Miller is a well-known and highly regarded advisor on drug manufacturing strategy and a pre-eminent authority on the biopharmaceutical CDMO industry. He is founder and former president of PharmSource,, which was sold to Global Data, a London-based provider of market intelligence services in 2016. Prior to joining Recro, Mr. Lake served as CFO and vice president of finance of Aspire Bariatrics, a commercial-stage medical device company.
BioDuro-S undia has appointed Haijun Dong as Chief Executive Officer, taking over from Cyrus Mirsaidi. The executive team, now led by Mr Dong, will continue to be co-located in both China and the US. Mr Dong has been a General Manager & CEO in China for over ten years, with experience in large multinational companies, including Roche and Eli Lilly. Mr Mirsaidi will continue to serve as Advisor to BioDuro-Sundia’s Board of Directors and leadership team.
Albany Molecular Research (AMRI) has announced the appointment of Scott Waldman as senior vice president, Corporate Development. Mr Waldman will drive key growth initiatives globally, including mergers and acquisitions, and serve as a member of the company’s executive committee. Most recently, he served as an advisor to private equity firms and select pharma industry clients. and previously worked in a number of executive roles at Lonza Group, including chief strategy officer where he led Lonza’s M&A activities.
Metrics Contract Services has appointed Britton Jimenez as Vice President of Business Development. He is responsible for marketing and sales in an executive leadership capacity to support the growing demand for novel oral solid dosage (OSD) projects. Mr Britton joins from Catalent Pharma Solutions, where he was Global Director of Business Development, and he will report to John Ross, President of Mayne Pharma US and Metrics Contract Services.
January 2021:
UK topical and transdermal specialist MedPharm has launched its Scientific Advisory Committee, headed by company founder and board member, Professor Marc Brown (above). Mr Brown has served as MedPharm’s Chief Scientific Officer for over 20 years and will be stepping down from his CSO role to chair the newly formed committee. Comprised of international experts, the SAC will ensure that MedPharm continues to provide clients with scientific services and access to strategic alliances. Dr Jon Lenn (below) will take over the role of CSO, with responsibility for MedPharm’s global scientific operations. Dr Lenn is well established as an authority in the development and optimization of topical products and has played a critical role in MedPharm's growth as well as the development and success of the Durham, NC site.
AGC Biologics has appointed David Stewart as General Manager/Site Head to oversee the startup, strategic development and operational excellence in large-scale biologics production at its Boulder, Colorado site, effective February 1. He also brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in the biotechnology and manufacturing industry, including roles with Biogen and Genentech.
CRO Quanticate has named Lee Patterson as the company's Chief Operating Officer. Reporting to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Underwood, Mr Patterson will work across Quanticate's global office network (UK, North America, India, South Africa, and Poland).
With data-focused solutions growing in importance in response to the trend towards virtual and decentralised trials, patient centricity and more efficient monitoring techniques, Mr Patterson will help guide and implement innovative tools, services and approaches with a constant focus on quality.
Sanofi has announced the appointment of Karl Rotthier as the chief executive officer of its newly formed European API unit, EUROAPI, effective January 18th. Mr Rotthier was most recently the Chief Executive Officer of Centrient Pharmaceuticals, and will lead the creation of EUROAPI, which will employ 3,200 skilled employees and be headquartered in France. A planned IPO on Euronext Paris will be evaluated with a decision expected by 2022, subject to market conditions.
December 2020:
Novavax has appointed Rick Crowley to the newly created position of Executive Vice President, Chief Operations Officer. In this role, Mr. Crowley will have leadership responsibility for all operations, including Quality, Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Regulatory Affairs. He takes over manufacturing from Ben Machielse, who will continue with the company as an executive advisor to the Chief Executive Officer, supporting the development of the COVID vaccine. Prior to joining Novavax, Mr. Crowley was Executive Vice President, Technical Operations for TerSera Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for technical support as well as development and strategy for the company’s products, created the initial quality systems, and managed all CMC activities.
Injectable platform technology company, ApiJect Systems, has hired James Garrett as its new General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Mr. Garrett joins ApiJect with extensive legal and strategic business expertise, and was previously Senior Vice President for Business and Quality Systems, as well as Government & Regulations Strategy at NuVasive.
Samsung Biologics has appointed John Rim (below), the company’s former Executive Vice President, as the new President & Chief Executive Officer. Mr Rim brings more than 35 years of industry expertise and experience in biopharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Samsung Biologics in September 2018, he served as the head of manufacturing, sales, development department, and as a CFO at global biotech companies like Roche and Genentech.
Catalent has hired Nakaya “Nick” Matsumaru as General Manager of its new clinical packaging facility in Minakuchi, located in the Shiga prefecture of Japan. Reporting to Roel de Nobel, Catalent’s Vice President of Operations for Europe and Asia-Pacific, Mr. Matsumaru joins the company from SymBio Pharmaceuticals, where he held the role of Senior Director Supply Chain & Quality Assurance. Prior to this, he spent four years in vice president, executive officer and head of operations posts with AstraZeneca, and seven years in Japan-based supply chain management with Johnson & Johnson and Janssen.
ACG, a supplier of fully integrated solutions to the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industry, has appointed Dr. Marcus Michel (below) as the new CEO of ACG Engineering. In his new role, he will be responsible for continuing to drive ACG's focus on the global pharmaceutical industry, innovative technologies, Business Excellence, and Institution Building. He joins ACG from the GEA Group in Germany where he was Executive VP for the entire GEA Pharma Solutions business.
CDMO Frontida BioPharm has appointed Puneet Sapra as new Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Sapra will be replacing Andrew Wang, who recently accepted the CFO role at Frontage Holdings Corporation, a Contract Research Organization based in the US and China. Mr. Sapra has over 20 years of pharmaceutical and healthcare experience in executive roles at Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Halma and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
November 2020:
CDMO Idifarma, specialising in niche and highly potent drugs, has announced a partnership with Stefano Console from Swiss life sciences consultancy Oriento SA. Bringing with him over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industry, Console will be Idifarma’s scientific advisor focusing upon spray drying technology and particle engineering.
Catalent has named Behzad Mahdavi as Vice President of Open Innovation, Biologics, Cell and Gene Therapy. In this new role, reporting to Julien Meissonnier, Catalent’s Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Mahdavi will join a team of experts in Catalent’s Science and Technology Group that works with customers and external innovators in both small and large molecules, to accelerate the adoption of new development and drug delivery technologies, and scalable manufacturing processes and techniques. With over 20 years’ experience in developing and implementing growth strategies in the biopharmaceutical industries, Dr. Mahdavi joins Catalent after a 13-year career at Lonza, where he held the role of Vice President Strategic Innovation & Alliances, and various board-level positions at other innovative companies. Prior to joining Lonza, he was Chief Executive Officer of SAM Electron Technologies, a venture capital-backed company in the life sciences field.
Brian Sasaki has joined Pharmaceutics International, Inc. (Pii) as Director of Business Development. He has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and is responsible for Pii’s business development operations in the Western Region of the United States. He began his career as a bench scientist with Bayer Corporation. His range of experiences includes roles with Pfizer, Takeda/Abbott, GE, Lonza, Catalent, and Rapid Micro Biosystems.
Biopharmaceutical CDMO Cytovance Biologics has named Bin Zhang as Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Zhang served two months as Interim CEO before this formal appointment by the board and will report to Mr. Li Li, founder and Chairman of the Board for Shenzhen Hepalink Pharmaceutical Group (Hepalink). and member of the Board for Cytovance. Mr. Zhang has been with Cytovance as a member of the Board of Directors since 2018. In this role as CEO, he will provide oversight in the implementation of the company’s business strategies in the innovative drug development and contract manufacturing market.
Pierre-Alain Ruffieux has now started his role as Chief Executive Officer of Lonza, announced in June. Albert Baehny, who has been CEO ad interim since November 2019 will work with Mr Ruffieux to ensure a smooth handover of leadership before returning to his role as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
October 2020:
The Drug, Chemical & Associated Technologies Association (DCAT) has announced the members of its Board of Directors for the fiscal year, November 1, 2020 to October 31, 2021. Elected as President is Sean Diver, Director, Commercial Development, Small Molecule Drug Substance Lonza. Joining Mr. Diver as officers and Executive Committee members are Kerri McCullough Wood, Senior Vice President, Head of Commercial, Teva API and Medis, who served as 2nd Vice President and Finance Officer. This coming term, she will serve as 1st Vice President for the organization. Sally Macaluso, Vice President & Chief Procurement Officer, Medical Devices and Business Services Procurement, Johnson & Johnson, who served as 3rd Vice President, will become the 2nd Vice President and Finance Officer. Elected to the Executive Committee as the new 3rd Vice President is Charles Davies, Associate Vice President, Global Sourcing & Procurement/Global Pharmaceutical Operations, Merck & Co. Mr. Davies has served as a Director on the Board during the last two years.
August 2020:
SK pharmteco has appointed Joyce Fitzharris (above) as general manager, SK biotek Ireland. She has been leading operations at the company’s Swords Campus in Dublin, on an interim basis since December 2019. She has worked within the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients business for close to 30 years, previously holding multiple technical and quality management positions with Bristol Myers Squibb and managed Operational Excellence across several affiliated API sites while with BMS and later at SK biotek Ireland.
CureVac has named Franz-Werner Haas, previously acting Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer (COO), as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Before Dr. Haas joined CureVac in June 2012, he worked as Vice President Operations and Chief Compliance Officer of SYGNIS Pharma AG, where he was responsible for the execution of M&A and capital market transactions. In addition, CureVac has announced that Igor Splawski joins the executive team as Chief Scientific Officer with immediate effect. In this role, he will be responsible for leading CureVac’s mRNA biology research. Dr. Splawski comes to CureVac from the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), where he served for two years as Executive Director and Site Head of the NIBR Biologics Center in Cambridge, Mass.
July 2020:
ApiJect Systems America, a public benefit corporation at the heart of the COVID-19 response, and its subsidiary, RAPID USA, have announced that Franco Negron has joined both organizations, as their new Chief Executive Officer. RAPID stands for “Rapid Aseptic Packaging of Injectable Drugs”. Mr. Negron comes to his new role at ApiJect and RAPID USA after most recently serving as President of Commercial Operations of Thermo Fisher Scientific. He joined the company in 2017 when it acquired his previous employer, Patheon Pharmaceuticals, where he served as President of Development & Commercial, North America. Mr. Negron succeeds ApiJect Systems America and RAPID USA co-founder Jay Walker, who had been serving in the dual role of Chairman and CEO. Mr. Walker will continue to serve as Executive Chairman, with a full-time focus on corporate strategy, product development, and global alliances.
CDMO Bora Pharmaceuticals, which specializes in immediate and modified release tablets and capsules, along with serialized packaging, has announced the appointment of four business development directors to its commercial teams in the US and Taiwan. Mark Dawson joins the team as Senior Director of Business Development. Based on the West Coast of the US in San Francisco, Mark brings a wealth of CDMO sales experience, having worked for Catalent, Eurofins, and Patheon over the last decade. Heading up the Southeast and Mid-West sales in the US, David Scheib joins the team as a Business Development Director. Based in Georgia, David brings almost 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical sales, having worked at Avara Pharmaceutical Services and Recro Pharma. Responsible for the Northeast US and Eastern Canada, Bora welcomes Kalyan Potluri as a Business Development Director. She was formerly a Research Scientist at Pfizer before moving into sales for CDMOs such as Almac. Finally, the company has appointed Wayne Hsiao as Asia Business Development Director. Wayne brings over 17 years' sector experience, previously working in API business development and regulatory technical services at ScinoPharm. He will be responsible for advancing strategic partnerships across Asia.
PMI BioPharma Solutions has announced it will rebrand to August Bioservices afte securing new funding from Oak HC/FT to expand its capabilities to become a specialized, one-stop-shop CDMO for clinical and commercial injectable therapies. PMI has also appointed several industry executives to its leadership team, including Jenn Adams as CEO; Mats Bjoerkman as CFO; Joe Mase as EVP of Operations and Brad Leach as SVP of Commercial Development.
Avomeen has hired Hashim Ahmed (below) as its new Head of Formulation and Manufacturing. In this position, he will further strengthen and expand Avomeen’s formulation and manufacturing segment by partnering with biopharmaceutical clients who are navigating the small- and large-molecule product development life cycle. Most recently, he held a Managing Director position at QLife Pharma. Prior to this, he held leadership positions at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, GSK-Stiefel, and Hoffmann-La Roche.
CDMO Cytovance Biologics has promoted Dr. John Mott (below) to Vice President of Development. Dr. Mott will serve on the Senior Leadership Team and report to Dr. Jesse McCool, Chief Executive Officer for Cytovance Biologics.Dr. Mott brings over 35 years of industry experience with bacterial protein expression and over 25 years of experience with mammalian protein expression. Prior to Cytovance, he served as Vice President of Laboratory Services for Aragen Bioscience. During his 30 years at Pfizer, he established the Cell Line Development group.
In this role, Dr. Mott will provide scientific and operational oversight of R&D Services and the Open Innovation team. He will lead the strategic growth of Cytovance, including creating new business opportunities, acquiring cutting edge technologies, and promoting our technical expertise to new clients and partners.
June 2020:
Vaccine developer Novavax has named Ben Machielse as Executive Vice President, CMC, with responsibility for overseeing manufacturing, process technology, quality and regulatory functions. He was most recently Chief Executive Officer of rare disease company Vtesse, before its acquisition by Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, now a part of Mallinckrodt.
Biologics CDMO Avid Bioservices has appointed Nicholas Green president and chief executive officer, as well as a member of the company’s board of directors, effective July 30, 2020. He will succeed Rick Hancock who has served as interim president and CEO since May 2019. Mr. Hancock will continue to serve on Avid’s board of directors. Mr. Green has more than 30 years of experience in the global pharmaceutical and healthcare services industry with expertise in the contract manufacturing of novel pharmaceutical products.
Inovio has expanded its senior management team by appointing two experienced executives to lead its growth in the Asia market and to advance the clinical development of its DNA vaccine INO-4800 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Gene Kim joins as President of Inovio Asia, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Inovio based in Seoul, Korea and will report to Dr. J. Joseph Kim, Inovio CEO. Mammen (Anza) Mammen joins as Senior Vice President, Clinical Development, overseeing the clinical development of INO-4800. Dr. Mammen will report to Inovio CSO Dr. Laurent Humeau.
Aldevron has named Kevin Ballinger as Chief Executive Officer, effective July 13. He joins from Boston Scientific, where he served the past nine years as Executive Vice President and Global President of its largest division, Interventional Cardiology. Mr. Ballinger will assume day-to-day operational leadership of Aldevron, facilitating the company’s rapid growth. Meanwhile, Aldevron’s co-founder, Michael Chambers, has been named Executive Chairman of the board. Mr. Chambers initiated the transition to allow him to focus on innovation, corporate strategy and working with clients and industry thought leaders to develop new technologies that enable genetic medicine.
Cambrex has named Tom Loewald as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the company’s board of directors, effective September 7th. As previously announced, in the interim, the company will be led by an Office of the CEO comprised of Wayne Hewett, Chairman of the Board, Robert Green, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Samantha Hanley, Senior Vice President and General Counsel. Mr. Loewald is a 15-year veteran of Thermo Fisher Scientific and currently serves as President of the Flexibles Division of flexible packaging manufacturer ProAmpac.
Moderna has hired Ray Jordan as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, effective Monday, June 15. He will serve on Moderna’s Executive Committee and report to Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel. Mr. Jordan served as Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs at Amgen from 2012 through 2019.
Boehringer Ingelheim has appointed Jean-Michel Boers (above) as US Country Managing Director, President and CEO. He will succeed Dr. Wolfgang Baiker, who will retire on July 31 after 31 years at the company. Mr Boers is currently President of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, having joined in 1998 in Belgium, and advancing through various roles in corporate and operating units, including Corporate Vice President, Marketing and Sales Effectiveness, Country Managing Director for France and Human Pharma head of a European region consisting of mid-sized countries.
Lonza has announced that Pierre-Alain Ruffieux (above) has been appointed Chief Executive Officer effective 1 November, 2020. At that point, Albert Baehny will relinquish his position as CEO ad interim and return to his role as non-executive Chairman. Mr. Ruffieux is currently Head of Global Pharma Technical Operations at Roche. Prior to that he held roles of increasing seniority at Novartis and has over 20 years’ experience in biopharmaceuticals.
CDMO Alcami has named industry veteran Walter J. Kaczmarek III (above) as Chief Executive Officer. He has served in executive roles at sveral pharmaceutical companies, including as President of the Multisource Pharmaceuticals division of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, COO of Aceto Corporation, and most recently, as President and CEO of Cosette Pharmaceuticals.
Vectura has appointed Trevor Archbold and Robert Gurley as Business Development Directors with responsibility for Europe and the US West Coast respectively. Additionally, Chris Vernall will join Vectura in August as Business Development Director, and will work alongside Mr Archbold in Europe. All three will report to Mark Bridgewater, who was appointed as Vectura’s Chief Commercial Officer in March 2020. Mr Archbold was most recently Strategic Account Manager at DuPont Pharma Solutions prior to stints at The Dow Chemical Company, Croda and Catalent. Mr Gurley has over 20 years’ CDMO experience, and joins from Cambrex where he was Director of Business Development for the North West territory. Mr Vernall joins Vectura from Nanopharm (part of Aptar Pharma), where he led its business development activities.
Steven Klosk will retire as Chief Executive Officer of Cambrex on June 30 after 28 years with the company. The company’s board is currently in the advanced stages of a search for Mr. Klosk’s successor. In the interim, the company will be led by an Office of the CEO comprised of Wayne Hewett, Chairman of the Board, Robert Green, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Samantha Hanley, Senior Vice President and General Counsel. In addition to Mr. Klosk’s retirement, Shawn Cavanagh will step down as President, Chief Operating Officer and member of the Board of Directors, but will take on the new role of strategic advisor to the incoming CEO and Board of Directors for an initial twelve-month period.
Catalent has appointed Charles Lickfold as Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer. Mr. Lickfold succeeds John McGill, who, following a period of transition, plans to retire in September 2020. Mr. Lickfold will report to Alessandro Maselli, the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer, and assume responsibility for Catalent’s global IT services and technology. Prior to joining Catalent, he held numerous leadership positions, including Chief Information Officer at Alcami, Avara Pharmaceutical Services, and Gilbarco Veeder-Root.
Aruvant Sciences has announced the appointment of V. "Palani" Palaniappan (above) as Chief Technology Officer. In this role, Dr. Palaniappan will be charged with growing Aruvant's technical and manufacturing capabilities for current and future programs. With 25 years of research and drug development experience, including extensive work in chemistry, manufacturing and controls, Dr. Palaniappan will oversee the manufacturing of ARU-1801, a one-time, potentially curative investigational gene therapy for patients with sickle cell disease.
WuxiAppTec has appointed Dr. David Chang as Chief Executive Officer of its cell and gene therapy CDMO, WuXi Advanced Therapies. In this new executive role, Dr. Chang will provide strategic, scientific and operational leadership to the company's global cell and gene therapy R&D and manufacturing services. He was previously Corporate Vice President and Head of Cell Therapy Global Manufacturing at Celgene, where he oversaw the CAR-T manufacturing network and the global manufacturing sciences and technologies teams.
May 2020:
Immunomedics has announced that Harout Semerjian has decided to step down from his role as President and Chief Executive Officer. The biotech company says the decision, which is effective immediately, is "precipitated by the unfortunate significant logistical obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, including Mr. Semerjian’s ability to fully assume his duties as CEO." Dr. Behzad Aghazadeh, Executive Chairman of Immunomedics, will continue to support the Company in an executive leadership role going forward.
Late-stage biopharmaceutical firm Elevar Therapeutics has announced Mark Gelder as Vice President of Medical Affairs. Dr. Gelder will build and lead Elevar's global medical organization. Dr. Gelder has 17 years of global medical affairs experience leading therapeutic oncology programs for Pfizer, Wyeth and Bayer, where he was involved in the approval and launch of several cancer therapeutics.
Biopharmaceutical company Hoth Therapeutics has appointed Michael H. Peters to its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Peters is the inventor of Hoth's newly licensed Novel Peptide COVID-19 Therapeutic, to prevent spike protein binding, which may be a leading cause of COVID-19.
James M. Loar has been appointed chief commercial officer at CJB Applied Technologies, where he will head up global commercial activities related to innovation, contract development and manufacturing. He previously worked at Cool Planet for five years, most recently as president and chief executive officer.
North Carolina-based CDMO Alcami has named Brian Dillion as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance and Jacquelyn Uribe as Vice President of Quality Operations. “Jacque and Brian bring broad compliance expertise with a track record of success upholding the rigorous standards required by both customers and regulators in high growth environments,” commented Chief Financial Officer Eric Evans.
Clinical-stage drug discovery, development and manufacturing company Sutro Biopharma has appointed Craig Berman as Vice President of Clinical Development promoted Regina Cheng to Vice President of Finance and Controller. Dr. Berman has over 17 years of experience in drug development, including immuno-oncology, and most recently was Vice President of Clinical Development at QED Therapeutics.
Selexis SA has promoted Myriam Adam to Vice President, Operations and Intellectual Property; Séverine Fagète to Vice President, Cell Line Development Services; and Valérie Le Fourn to Vice President, Research.
CordenPharma has appointed William Cashin as Chief Quality & Compliance Officer and Dr. Lee Newton as Chief Operating Officer. Both were previously at Lonza, where Mr Cashin served as Global Head Quality, Mammalian & Microbial and where Dr. Newton most recently held the role of Senior Vice President and Business Unit Head for Lonza’s small molecule API business.
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