Ac­celeron poach­es ex-Abl­ynx CMO Robert Zeldin; Deb­o­rah Dun­sire leaves for Lund­beck­'s top job af­ter XTu­it im­plo­sion

→ Af­ter bounc­ing around the high-risk biotech world in Boston/Cam­bridge for the past few years, ex-Mil­len­ni­um chief Deb­o­rah Dun­sire is now tak­ing the top seat at Den­mark’s Lund­beck, left va­cant af­ter Kåre Schultz jumped to Te­va. A high-pro­file ex­ec in the US, Dun­sire left Mil­len­ni­um as Take­da ab­sorbed and re­struc­tured the com­pa­ny, mak­ing it a cen­tral part of their US hub. She lat­er took the helm at Fo­rum Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, leav­ing not long af­ter the com­pa­ny was hit by a clin­i­cal hold on Alzheimer’s and a failed clin­i­cal pro­gram in schiz­o­phre­nia. Her next stop, XTu­it, was a com­bi­na­tion can­cer/fi­bro­sis com­pa­ny that has now fall­en off the map, with most of its se­nior staffers mi­grat­ing to new po­si­tions, the web­site down and the voice mail full, with no vis­i­ble signs of ac­tiv­i­ty. Dun­sire’s com­pa­ny email ad­dress is de­funct. Lund­beck, though, of­fers Dun­sire a chance to take a new, high-pro­file po­si­tion in the bio­phar­ma world — the kind in­volv­ing a vi­able com­pa­ny with rev­enue. Lund­beck Chair­man Lars Ras­mussen told Reuters that Dun­sire’s biggest re­spon­si­bil­i­ty will be in R&D, which is where she’s had the least suc­cess. As for Dun­sire, she’s look­ing to grow the pipeline, which may mean some new deals on the hori­zon.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER