Ankur DhingraAnother executive is out at Illumina.
The DNA sequencing company said earlier this week that CFO Joydeep Goswami will exit and the position will be taken over by Ankur Dhingra. Prior to Illumina, Dhingra was the CFO at Summit Therapeutics.
In addition, Illumina named Jakob Wedel as chief strategy and corporate development officer, a position Goswami also held.
Illumina has seen a good amount of high-profile turnover in recent months, including in January, when former chief commercial officer Susan Tousi left to take the CEO spot at Delfi Diagnostics.
Both Dhingra and Wedel are relocating to San Diego, where Illumina is headquartered. The company is looking to finalize the divestment of Grail this quarter.
Over the last year, activist investor Carl Icahn has scrutinized the company, but he appears to be backing off. Icahn Enterprises CEO Andrew Teno won’t be up for reelection on Illumina’s board, and Icahn hasn’t offered anyone else as a replacement.
— Jared Whitlock
Jude Samulski→ A gene therapy giant is stepping down from his post.
Jude Samulski, the CSO of Bayer sub AskBio since its inception, passed the baton to Mansuo Shannon on Monday. Renowned for his research on adeno-associated viruses (AAV) as a vector for gene therapy, Samulski turned 70 in March and will keep his seat on the board of directors. He co-founded AskBio with Sheila Mikhail and Xiao Xiao 23 years ago.
Shannon comes to AskBio from another gene therapy developer, Eli Lilly’s Prevail Therapeutics, where she was quickly elevated to CSO after serving as VP of research. Earlier, she held several roles at the Indianapolis pharma for nine years, concentrating on programs for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
“I am confident that Mansuo’s extensive background in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases, in particular, will bring us closer to achieving our strategic vision of creating a new reality for people living with diseases that currently lack effective treatments,” AskBio CEO Gustavo Pesquin said in a statement.
Samantha Avivi→ Jeff Jarrett will retire as chief marketing officer of Bayer’s consumer health unit in North America, and the German conglomerate has lined up fellow Procter & Gamble vet Samantha Avivi once Jarrett departs at the end of May. Avivi will end a yearlong stint as the marketing chief for Advance Auto Parts, and she’s also been a marketing leader with ADT and Kimberly-Clark. CEO Bill Anderson has his work cut out for him to get Bayer off the struggle bus, trying to repair four “badly broken” areas while punting a decision on whether to break up the pharma, consumer health and crop science divisions.
Frank Neumann→ Frank Neumann has left Kite to become CMO for Tom Barnes at circular RNA shop Orna Therapeutics. Neumann was Verastem Oncology’s medical chief for a hot second in 2021 before packing up for Kite as its global head of clinical development. He spent more than four years with Takeda and served as head of oncology clinical research at bluebird bio from 2019-21. In August 2022, Orna teamed up with Merck and pulled together a $225 million Series B, but Barnes confirmed a round of layoffs to Endpoints News last November. “We did take a defensive reduction in headcount to ensure that we can bring our lead program, ORN-101, to a meaningful clinical inflection point without needing to be reliant on capital markets,” Barnes wrote to Endpoints in an email.
Markku Jalkanen→ Faron Pharmaceuticals CEO Markku Jalkanen will retire and the Finnish cancer player has tapped his son, Juho Jalkanen, as his successor. Juho Jalkanen was elevated to COO in January 2022 after nearly four years as chief development officer. Markku Jalkanen, 69, founded Faron in 2006 and will still have a presence on the board of directors when Juho takes over on May 1. But in a separate release, Faron said Frank Armstrong and Erik Ostrowski won’t seek reelection to the board and that Tuomo Pätsi will take Armstrong’s place as chairman.
Chrystal Louis→ TScan Therapeutics medical chief Debora Barton cited personal reasons for her departure, and she’ll be replaced by Chrystal Louis. Since December 2022, Louis had led clinical development at Zentalis, and she previously spent two years as CRISPR Therapeutics’ head of medical affairs. She’s also been the executive director, US medical affairs, myeloid diseases for Celgene/Bristol Myers Squibb. TScan is a Peer Review frequent flyer that has onboarded CFO Jason Amello, chief technology officer Justin McCue and clinical development leader Dawn Pinchasik in the last few months.
Melissa Epperly→ An SEC filing shows that Zentalis CFO Melissa Epperly handed in her resignation on April 5, continuing a spate of CFO departures that we’ve seen from biotechs like Voyager, Zymeworks and Arvinas. Here’s how Zentalis execs will split up her responsibilities: President Cam Gallagher will take over as interim finance chief, treasurer and principal accounting officer, while VP of finance Vincent Vultaggio will be interim principal accounting officer.
→ David Topper has taken the CFO job at Arcutis Biotherapeutics. In December 2022, we told you that Topper was named CFO of NewAmsterdam Pharma, but by August he pivoted to the same role at San Diego-based I&I biotech Inmagene Biopharmaceuticals, from which he’s jumping to Arcutis. John Smither, Arcutis’ CFO from 2019-21, came out of retirement on an interim basis after Scott Burrows left for Aeglea BioTherapeutics in August.
Bart Cornelissen→ Xencor has found a CFO to succeed John Kuch. Bart Cornelissen was Seagen’s VP, corporate finance, helping the ADC pioneer cross the finish line with its $43 billion sale to Pfizer. Cornelissen came to Seagen in 2019 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he held the role of VP, finance for the END (Ending Neglected Diseases) Fund. Kuch had a 23-year career with Xencor before his retirement in March.
→ Cancer vaccine maker IO Biotech has tapped Kadmon business development vet Faiçal Miyara as CBO. At Ipsen, Miraya was recently promoted to head of external innovation oncology and lead on venture capital activities. The French pharma hired Miyara in 2021 as head of global partnering oncology. A pivotal Phase 3 study is underway with IO Biotech’s lead drug IO102-IO103 in combination with Keytruda for advanced melanoma.
Melita Sun Jung→ Melita Sun Jung will join Terns Pharmaceuticals as CBO on April 22. Jung held the same role at Structure Therapeutics, which hit the Nasdaq when few biotechs dared with a $185 million IPO in early 2023. She’s also worked for Sangamo as head of business development and for Ipsen as a senior product manager. Like Structure, Terns has an oral GLP-1 candidate for obesity in its pipeline.
Gene Mack→ Return of the Mack: Gain Therapeutics drops by for the second straight week, appointing Gene Mack as CFO. Mack was here twice in 2021, when he became CFO at Coya Therapeutics and then did a U-turn a month later, going to Belgian biotech Imcyse instead. Gain makes this move right after it hired medical chief Jonas Hannestad in late March.
→ Adcentrx Therapeutics board member Meng Jiang has now moved into the CFO slot after she spent a decade with CBC Group, which contributed to the company’s seed financing. The tidal wave of momentum for antibody-drug conjugates hasn’t receded all that much, and Adcentrx has $51 million in Series A+ funds to push its lead ADC program ADRX-0706 through a Phase 1a/b trial.
John Lee→ Nuevocor has rolled out the welcome mat for John Lee as CMO. He also served in this role at PhaseBio and was VP, global head, cardiovascular center of excellence at Quintiles. Earlier in his career, Lee was with Bristol Myers as executive director, discovery medicine.
→ Swiss biotech Pharvaris has enlisted David Nassif as CFO. Nassif hops aboard from Sio Gene Therapies — now in dissolution — where he was CEO, CFO and board member. Earlier on, he was CFO of SteadyMed Therapeutics, Histogen, Zogenix, Amphastar Pharmaceuticals and RealAge. Nassif’s appointment comes after the FDA lifted its hold on Pharvaris’ IND in January.
Snehal Shah→ Two eye disease biotechs have brought in new execs: First, Oculis has welcomed Snehal Shah as president of R&D. Shah is a Roche and Kyowa Kirin vet in regulatory affairs who had been chief regulatory & product strategy officer for Iveric Bio. Astellas bought Iveric for $5.9 billion last year, adding the geographic atrophy treatment Izervay to its portfolio.
→ Next, John Han has joined Opthea as VP of medical affairs. Han was also the medical affairs leader for Adverum Biotechnologies and had a 13-year career with Regeneron, where he was involved in the early program medical ophthalmology strategy before Eylea’s initial approval in wet AMD and helped launch the drug in more indications.
Kyle Garland→ Cambridge, MA-based Factor Bioscience has brought on Kyle Garland as director of translational science. Garland joins the team from Eterna Therapeutics, where he was head of the department of research and development.
Michael Davidson→ BioAge Labs has carved out space for NewAmsterdam CEO Michael Davidson on the board of directors. California-based BioAge, which hauled in $170 million for its Series D in February, has something in common with NewAmsterdam: They’re both testing ex-Amgen cardio drugs. BioAge is hoping that its Phase 2 study of azelaprag begins “in mid-2024.”
→ Ex-Sana Biotechnology CMO and development leader Sunil Agarwal is now on the board of directors at Astria Therapeutics. After Gary Meininger replaced Agarwal as Sana’s medical chief last year, Agarwal picked up board seats at Arvinas and HI-Bio.
Shannon Campbell→ Ex-Bristol Myers marketing chief Wendy Dixon and Versant’s Alex Mayweg are no longer on the board of directors at Black Diamond Therapeutics, but there are two new faces on the board: Shannon Campbell is the chief commercial officer for Merus and the former head of Novartis’ US solid tumor franchise, and Prakash Raman is a Novartis vet in his own right who was president and CEO of Ribon Therapeutics.
Chris Liu→ DNA damage response biotech Artios Pharma has elected Chris Liu to the board of directors. Liu jumped from GenScript to RTW Investments in 2018 as a research intern and is currently a senior research analyst for oncology.
→ Gamida Cell CEO Abbey Jenkins makes a return trip to Peer Review with her appointment to the board of directors at kidney disease biotech XORTX Therapeutics. Jenkins picked up a board seat at Aquestive Therapeutics last week.
→ Ex-Pharmacyclics medical chief Lori Kunkel has punched her ticket to the board of directors at Boulder, CO-based Enliven Therapeutics. Kunkel is also a board member at Nurix Therapeutics, ORIC Pharmaceuticals and K36 Therapeutics.