Novartis vet O'Dowd takes the helm at Neon; FDA slaps a hold on Cel-Sci's PhIII cancer study
Cambridge, MA-based Neon Therapeutics is celebrating its first birthday with a new CEO appointment. In classic Third Rock fashion the neoantigen biotech got started with a venture partner — Cary Pfeffer — at the helm. Pfeffer is now stepping to the chairman’s post while a veteran Novartis exec, Hugh O’Dowd, comes in as CEO. In some respects, O’Dowd is an unusual choice for the position. He played a prominent role in Novartis’s commercial operations, rather than R&D, which has provided the bulk of the industry migrants handing in their corporate positions in favor of small biotech startups. But O’Dowd tells me he relishes the new challenge. As he looked over various biotech opportunities, he said, “nothing proved quite as unique as Neon.” Neon will be in the clinic before year’s end with its take on personalized cancer vaccines, says O’Dowd.
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