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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