To Amanda Wagner, the past two years or so she’s spent at Immunitas feels like a microcosm of her entire career up to now.

Trained in neuroscience and equipped with an MBA, Wagner’s 16-year biopharma career could be split into a first half in R&D and a second in corporate finance and business development. She was consulting for the Longwood Fund in 2019 when the VC firm pulled her aside to talk about a new immuno-oncology company it was incubating.

Glen de Vries, the co-founder of the clinical IT software giant Medidata Solutions, died in a plane crash last week.

Emergency crews found the wreckage of a Cessna 172 in a wooded area in northern New Jersey on Thursday. De Vries was an instrument-rated private pilot, though authorities have not yet said who was piloting the plane. He was with his flight instructor Thomas Fischer, 54, and the plane was headed to Sussex Airport from Essex County Airport in Caldwell. He had started his private pilot training with Fischer in February 2016. Fischer opened the flight school with his wife Jodi in March 2012.

A biotech’s first drug approval is a process often years in the making and a crowning achievement for founder-CEOs who have run the race from the beginning. After 17 years watching Cara Therapeutics grow to a commercial brand, this biotech’s founding CEO is now ready to move on to his next phase.

Cara has appointed Christopher Posner, a current board member and former CEO of Leo Pharma’s US branch, as its next leader, replacing founding CEO Derek Chalmers, the company said Wednesday. Chalmers will move over into a senior advisory role, with Posner set to take on the mantle Nov. 9.

It’s hard to imagine what comes next for a physician-scientist who’s developed one of the most lucrative vaccines in biopharma history. On Monday — a month after leaving his post at Moderna — Tal Zaks cleared up some of the mystery, announcing a new gig at a leading startup engine.

Zaks is joining OrbiMed along with Sheila Gujrathi, former CEO and co-founder of Gossamer Bio. They’ll be taking venture partner and venture advisor roles, respectively, to help find and fund the next breakthroughs in drug development.

Mirati is on the cusp of emerging as the sole challenger against Amgen in the suddenly hot KRAS inhibitor market and thinks it has the man to take it across the finish line. But new leadership often means shakeups, and now two Mirati execs are being shown the door.

Mirati CMO Joseph Leveque and Daniel Faga, the biotech’s chief operating officer and principal financial officer, have both departed the company as it enters the homestretch for filing its KRAS drug adagrasib with the FDA, Mirati revealed in an SEC filing Monday.

John Maraganore knew that people would be surprised when Alnylam announced his departure this morning after 19 years as CEO of the company. But he said it shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.

“Nineteen years as a CEO leading Alnylam has been the greatest joy of my life, but 19 years has been a long time,” he said in an interview Thursday morning. That’s “being in the 24/7 operational mode of running a company for 19 years.”