Af­ter Prometheus sale, Mark McKen­na heads to an­oth­er au­toim­mune biotech as chair of Apogee

Af­ter Mark McKen­na sold a biotech for $10.8 bil­lion, the ex­ec­u­tive re­cruiters like­ly came knock­ing, try­ing to poach the CEO who took an im­munol­o­gy and in­flam­ma­tion biotech from ear­ly-stage pri­vate fi­nanc­ing to an IPO to key Phase II da­ta in the span of four years.

As it was, two months af­ter Mer­ck closed its ac­qui­si­tion of Prometheus Bio­sciences, McKen­na is tak­ing on the chair­man post at an­oth­er I&I drug de­vel­op­er, Apogee Ther­a­peu­tics. The biotech is fresh to the pub­lic mar­kets, tak­ing the leap on­to the Nas­daq last month just weeks be­fore start­ing its first clin­i­cal tri­al. Its first-time CEO, Michael Hen­der­son, could use a vet­er­an side­kick to fine-tune the young biotech’s di­rec­tion as it looks to take on Sanofi, Eli Lil­ly and oth­er com­pa­nies in atopic der­mati­tis, pso­ri­a­sis, COPD and oth­er in­di­ca­tions.

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