Ex-Metacrine chief Preston Klassen recharges at microRNA biotech; Allogene begins search for a CFO

→ Preston Klassen has mapped out his next destination as president and R&D chief of microRNA developer Regulus Therapeutics. Klassen was the CEO of Metacrine, a biotech co-founded and chaired by Rich Heyman that was ensnarled in toxicity issues with its NASH program. Metacrine would hand out pink slips to half its workforce before a merger with Equillium that ultimately didn’t materialize. Earlier, Klassen was CMO and US president of Sanifit and then led R&D at Arena Pharmaceuticals. Regulus also welcomed Allergan vet Curtis Monnig as VP of CMC, the same position he previously held at January Therapeutics.

Eric Schmidt

→ Allogene CFO Eric Schmidt is leaving in early August “to spend more time with his family on the East Coast,” according to a press release. Schmidt had a 20-year career at TD Cowen before joining Arie Belldegrun and David Chang’s off-the-shelf CAR-T biotech in June 2018. This is the second high-level exec to break away from Allogene in a short amount of time — CMO Arun Balakumaran bolted for Replay last month.

Paul Burton

→ It seems like just the other day that we were telling you about Paul Burton succeeding Tal Zaks as CMO of Moderna following a 16-year tenure with J&J. Two years to the day after the Moderna announcement, Burton is in demand again. An internal memo says he will become medical chief at Amgen on June 26, returning to the California pharma after an earlier gig as a global development leader from 2002-05. Darryl Sleep, Amgen’s SVP, global medical, had been in charge of the newly-formed chief medical office. Nicole DeFeudis has more on Burton’s next chapter.

Susanne Schaffert

→ Galapagos CEO Paul Stoffels is bringing a J&J colleague into the fold to replace Bart Filius as CFO and COO. Thad Huston spent 25 years in various capacities at J&J, including CFO of the global surgery and medical device divisions, and he’ll be global head of finance and corporate operations at Gilead’s Kite for just a little longer before he arrives at the Belgian biotech on July 1. Another Galapagos note: Ex-Novartis Oncology president Susanne Schaffert has joined the board of directors. Peer Review informed you about Schaffert’s board appointment at Incyte in October, and she also has a board seat at Novo Holdings. She replaces former chairman Raj Parekh, who ends his 19-year tenure on the Galapagos board.

Sath Shukla

→ On Aug. 1, Sath Shukla will take over for Ankit Mahadevia as president and CEO of antibiotics biotech Spero Therapeutics, and Mahadevia will replace Milind Deshpande as chairman. Shukla, the CFO at Spero since 2021, was the head of corporate finance at Vertex before a brief run as finance chief of Ziopharm Oncology (now Alaunos Therapeutics). Spero initially had a rough go in 2022, dismissing 75% of its 146 employees in the throes of the bear market and watching its complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI) tablet tebipenem HBr get a CRL. But GSK gave new life to the drug in September by making a $75 million licensing deal with Spero in all territories except Japan and select Asian countries.

→ New Cerevel president and CEO Ron Renaud is relying on a familiar face to lead business development and strategic operations. Paul Burgess and Renaud worked together at Translate Bio, where Renaud was CEO and Burgess served as COO and chief legal officer. Earlier in his career, Burgess was a patent attorney at J&J and has also been VP of intellectual property at Scholar Rock. Renaud succeeded Tony Coles on Monday, a move that Renaud called “a capstone opportunity” when he spoke to John Carroll in May.

Rajiv Patni

→ Rajiv Patni has been named chief R&D officer at Skyclarys maker Reata Pharmaceuticals as former Global Blood Therapeutics execs continue to filter into other companies. Patni was GBT’s medical chief until the sickle cell biotech was sold to Pfizer for $5.4 billion last summer, and he also took on the role of CMO at Portola Pharmaceuticals and Adamas Pharmaceuticals. Skyclarys received an FDA nod in February for Friedreich’s ataxia, but Reata and Kyowa Kirin dumped their chronic kidney disease drug bardoxolone a month ago, a decision that gives Reata more cash runway until the end of 2026.

Ellen Snow

→ By contrast, Akebia Therapeutics won’t quit on its own CKD drug vadadustat as the biotech brings in Ellen Snow as CFO on July 17. Snow spent the last two years as chief accounting officer of Pear Therapeutics, which filed for bankruptcy in April. At first the FDA insisted on running another trial to assuage safety concerns that precipitated its rejection of vadadustat, but the agency then made an about-face by allowing Akebia to refile an NDA without new data.

Alexandra Snyder

→ Alexandra Snyder has tacked on the role of EVP, R&D to her existing responsibilities as CMO of Flagship’s Generate:Biomedicines, the 2022 Endpoints 11 honoree that teamed up with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in April to develop protein-based cancer drugs through generative AI tech. Snyder is closing in on her one-year anniversary with Generate:Biomedicines and was the head of translational oncology at Merck.

Christie Bloomquist

→ Astellas has appointed Christie Bloomquist as VP, US government affairs and policy, a spokeperson tells Peer Review. She succeeds 20-year Sanofi vet Joe Devaney and comes from AstraZeneca, where she was VP, US corporate and government affairs. Bloomquist first worked at AstraZeneca from 2008-12, then returned to the pharma giant in 2014 as the head of US federal government affairs and policy. Astellas doled out $35 million upfront this week to Cullgen in a protein degradation pact potentially worth $1.9 billion.

→ David Urso has officially replaced Dan Gold as CEO of MEI Pharma, and there’s another major change on the horizon at the San Diego cancer player that’s merging with Infinity Pharmaceuticals. CFO Brian Drazba is stepping down “no later than” Sept. 1, according to the release, and MEI has recruited Jay File to replace him. File, who was just named EVP of finance in the interim, finished up an eight-year run as CFO at Evofem Biosciences.

Melanie Morrison

→ Black Diamond Therapeutics has promoted Melanie Morrison from SVP, development operations to chief development officer. Morrison led clinical operations during a decade at Medivation and came to Black Diamond in October 2022 from Nuvation Bio, where she was SVP, program management and clinical operations. Black Diamond raised the curtain on its Versant-backed antibody spinoff Launchpad Therapeutics in December.

→ Delix Therapeutics has tapped Aaron Koenig as CMO in another big pickup for the Boston psychedelics biotech. Koenig rose to VP of early clinical development at Sage, and he took his first biotech job in 2017 as Biogen’s associate medical director, early clinical development, neurology. Delix has kept quiet on the financing front since its $70 million Series A in September 2021, but it did make a little noise by hiring former Shire CSO and ex-Passage Bio interim medical chief Eliseo Salinas as head of R&D last fall.

Pejvack Motlagh

→ French antibody-drug conjugate developer Mablink Bioscience, which pulled together a €31 million Series A in October 2022, has enlisted Big Pharma alum Pejvack Motlagh as CMO. Motlagh’s leadership posts in oncology include stops at GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca before venturing off to his most recent position at Boehringer Ingelheim as head of immuno-oncology.

→ GSK partner PathAI has pulled out the welcome mat for Matt Grow as president of biopharma and CBO. Grow joins the team with experience from previous stints at PPD and Thermo Fisher, serving as SVP, global head of biopharma business development.

Annie Murphy

→ Now operating with a leaner staff, Roche sub Foundation Medicine has promoted five execs: Lucas Dennis (from VP, lifecycle product development to SVP and head of R&D); Annie Murphy (from VP, global marketing and product strategy to chief commercial officer); Michael Kling (from SVP of engineering to chief technology officer); Jennifer Romans (from VP, corporate affairs to SVP); and Troy Schurr (from VP, biopharma marketing and solutions to chief biopharma business officer). This spring, Foundation Medicine shed about 135 people from a headcount of 1,900.

→ Under the direction of new CEO Craig Collard, Heron Therapeutics has plugged in William Forbes as chief development officer, while EVP, drug development Kimberly Manhard has resigned from the San Diego biotech. Forbes owned this title at Trevi Therapeutics and is the ex-president and CEO of Vivelix Pharmaceuticals. Aponvie, Heron’s injectable for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting, hit the market in March.

Edwin Tucker

→ Big Pharma vet Edwin Tucker gets another shot as a medical chief, this time at Jasper Therapeutics, which is now placing a higher priority on testing briquilimab in chronic urticaria. Tucker has CMO experience from Mirum Pharmaceuticals and the now-shuttered Goldfinch Bio; the ex-Acerta Pharma COO has also been a VP at Bayer, J&J and Genentech. Jasper’s acting CMO Daniel Adelman shifts to a senior clinical advisor role and will have a spot on the scientific advisory board.

→ Toronto-based Damona Pharmaceuticals has brought on John Reilly as CEO. Reilly has previously held the top spot at Apic Bio and Gendyne Therapeutics, and also served as VP of business development at Tetragenetics.

Simon Barnett

→ Dimension, the bicoastal VC that debuted with a $350 million fund in January, revealed on its blog that Simon Barnett is on board as its research director. Barnett was previously with Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest as director of life sciences research.

→ Flagship’s Senda Biosciences has poached Marc Wolfgang from BioNTech as he takes on the role of SVP, manufacturing. Wolfgang was named VP, technical operations at Neon Therapeutics in 2016, and after Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine partner bought Neon for a song in January 2020, Wolfgang was in charge of BioNTech’s US manufacturing and supply chain for cell and gene therapies.

→ Moderna’s CAR-M partner Carisma Therapeutics has installed Terry Shields as SVP of human resources and Eric Siegel as general counsel and corporate secretary. Shields is a longtime HR consultant who assisted Carisma for four years, “so this is a seamless transition,” CEO Steven Kelly said in a statement. Siegel pivots to Carisma after his stint as US chief compliance officer at Idorsia, and he’s been the compliance chief at Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Incyte. Sesen Bio brushed aside an investor attack and merged with Carisma in a deal that closed in March.

Michelle Frazier

→ Treg upstart Coya Therapeutics, which is putting together an IND submission for its ALS drug COYA 302, has selected Michelle Frazier as SVP of regulatory affairs. Frazier got her start at the FDA and is a veteran in CMC regulatory affairs with MacroGenics, Amgen and AbbVie. She became VP of regulatory affairs at CytomX in May 2022 but hit the exit nine months later.

→ Cambridge, UK-based Metrion Biosciences has recruited Steve Jenkinson as VP, drug discovery and safety assessment. Jenkinson joins after stints at GSK and Tanabe Research Laboratories. Most recently, Jenkinson was senior director, secondary pharmacology with Pfizer.

Michael Booth

→ Cell coding company bit.bio, which picked up $103 million from a Series B in 2021, has now appointed Michael Booth as SVP, external affairs and investor relations. Booth joins the team from Crescendo Biologics, where he served as CFO. Booth also had gigs at Incyte, Algeta and The Trout Group.

Bob Azelby

→ Former Eliem Therapeutics CEO Bob Azelby has sewn up a spot on the board of directors at ADC Therapeutics, and ex-ADC chief Chris Martin is one of several board members on their way out. Martin had kept a board seat since he co-founded the company a dozen years ago, and with the departures of Stephen Evans-Freke, Michael Forer and Jacques Theurillat, the board has now been whittled down to nine members.

→ Arvinas CEO John Houston is taking over for Canaan’s Tim Shannon as chairman of the protein degradation biotech’s board. Ex-Sana CMO Sunil Agarwal has notched another board appointment here after becoming a director at HI-Bio in April.

Bridget Martell

→ Radiotherapy specialist Point Biopharma has reserved space for Pfizer and Kura Oncology alum Bridget Martell on the board of directors. We caught up with Martell when she was named president and CEO of Yale spinout Artizan Biosciences in 2021.

→ Longeveron, which picked up its new CEO Wa’el Hashad in March after Geoff Green hit the exit, has elected Hashad, Khoso Baluch and Jeffrey Pfeffer to the board of directors. The trio replaces existing board members Donald Soffer, Erin Borger and Todd Girolamo. Baluch is the former CEO of CorMedix and previously had a 24-year run with Eli Lilly. Baluch now serves as chairman of Poxel and a board member of Processa Pharmaceuticals. Meanwhile, Pfeffer is a professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

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