Biogen vet Alpna Seth jumps to George Scangos’ biotech startup; Top FDA scientist makes a leap to PhRMA

Alpna Seth

⇨ Longtime Biogen exec Alpna Seth has decided to head west, way west, to rejoin ex-Biogen CEO George Scangos as COO of his upstart biotech. He left the big company in July, according to the Boston Business Journal.

⇨ With Eduardo Sanchiz following through on stepping down from the helm at Almirall, the company has recruited a senior Sanofi executive for its new CEO. Peter Guenter has spent the past 22 years at Sanofi, most recently as executive vice president diabetes and cardiovascular global business unit.

⇨ PhRMA has brought in a top clinical research expert — and senior FDA vet — to help guide its lobbying work in Washington, DC. Richard Moscicki is jumping from his post as deputy director for science operations at CDER right over to a new role as chief medical officer at PhRMA, which has been doing its best to spotlight the industry’s multibillion-dollar investment in drug R&D as it seeks a helpful stance from the federal government on a score of key issues. After an internal review that led the group to cut ties with companies that had a less-than-stellar track record in investing in R&D, Moscicki will bring an insider’s knowledge of the agency to his new role leading science and regulatory advocacy efforts

Fred Callori

⇨ Christian Meyer is the new chief medical officer at Therachon. Meyer’s resume includes a stint as the CMO at uniQure where he had a helping hand in bringing the world’s most expensive but no longer in production drug Glybera to the market.

⇨ Conatus Pharmaceuticals has bagged Keith Marshall for their EVP-COO-CFO combo gig.

⇨ Karolinska Development’s latest CEO is Viktor Drvota, who replaced Jim Van heusden. Chairman Bo Jesper Hansen also decided to step down and was replaced by board member Niclas Adler.

⇨ Humanigen shares $HGEN were blitzed this week, right after the company named Greg Jester as its new CFO.

⇨ Chris Garabedian’s new company Xontogeny has named Fred Callori as SVP of corporate development. Callori is a former partner at Choate Hall & Stewart with experience creating and funding life sciences companies.