→ According to an SEC filing, Aurinia’s EVP of research Robert Huizinga and CMO Neil Solomons are both walking away by Halloween, and while no explanations are given, details of their severance packages were provided. Huizinga had spent the last nine years at Aurinia after the Isotechnika merger: first as VP, clinical affairs, then as EVP, corporate development before his latest promotion in 2020. Solomons co-founded Aurinia a decade ago and used to be VP of R&D with Vifor Pharma. The Peter Greenleaf-led Aurinia just launched its “Get Uncomfortable” ad campaign, urging lupus nephritis patients to schedule checkups with their doctor.

→ Revance feels like it has a competitive advantage over AbbVie’s blockbuster Botox with only biannual injections of its freshly approved Daxxify, as opposed to the injections every three or four months that Botox requires. But you come at the king, you best not miss, and as Daxxify hits the market, Revance has now tapped David Hollander as CMO. Hollander was previously the chief R&D officer at Aerie Pharmaceuticals, which was sold to Alcon a couple months ago in a $770 million deal, and he has familiarity with the Botox developer through his 10 years at Allergan. From 2011-16, he was Allergan’s VP, global therapeutic area head in clinical development for anterior segment and consumer eye care. The Nashville biotech is also testing DaxibotulinumtoxinA in patients with cervical dystonia, among other conditions.

Up until recently, Alban de La Sablière was Sanofi’s chief dealmaker, reporting directly to CEO Paul Hudson without officially being a C-suite executive.

That’s now changed with de La Sablière’s newest position at a much smaller French biotech, Sanofi partner Owkin. And to top it off, it’s his first job in the C-suite.

Tuesday was his first day as the chief business officer at Owkin, a now-transatlantic biotech with offices in both France and the US. Its emphasis in AI and a concept called “federated learning” earned a $270 million investment from the Big Pharma last year, with an eye to improving its odds in clinical development. The company has now inked other AI deals with other Big Pharma companies such as Bristol Myers Squibb.

Nenad Grmusa was “really happy” at Takeda, where he’d been for more than a decade in various R&D strategy and finance positions. However, the more he learned about DEM BioPharma, the more intrigued he became by cancer’s unexplored “don’t eat me” signals.

Jonathan Weissman and team launched the aptly-named biotech back in June to deploy macrophages and other myeloid effector cells against tumors by using so-called “don’t eat me” and “eat me” signals, which allow cancer cells to evade the immune system.

Upon taking the helm at precision oncology-focused Scorpion Therapeutics last summer, Axel Hoos told Endpoints News that he had a clear vision of the type of leaders he wanted to hire.

It appears that former Sanofi project head Michael Streit, one of Hoos’ old colleagues from GSK, fits the bill.

Streit has been tapped to lead Scorpion’s first two experimental drugs into the clinic, the company announced on Monday. When Hoos approached him about the open CMO position, Streit said he was “keen about the opportunity” to work together again.

→ In the Big Pharma world, companies like J&J and Merck have experienced a pronounced sea change in leadership over a two-year period, and you can begin to say the same at Novartis, which dismissed head of development John Tsai and head of oncology Susanne Schaffert as part of CEO Vas Narasimhan’s wide-ranging restructuring plan. The next shoe to drop is Jay Bradner, the president of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, who is leaving his post on Halloween and passing the baton to Fiona Marshall, Merck’s SVP and global head of discovery sciences, preclinical development and translational medicine.

→ When Mythic Therapeutics CEO Alex Nichols spoke to Endpoints News last December about the biotech’s $103 million Series B, he and fellow co-founder Brian Fiske emphasized safety, saying that they’re “really working on trying to overcome what has been one of the most historically challenging obstacles to realizing the full potential of ADCs.” But Mythic will have to look for someone else to take up that mantle.