Gone away are the bluebird execs as COO, CMO both leave the nest; Mike Nally is latest major figure to move on from Merck
→ As bluebird bio’s regulatory concerns swell yet again by pressing the pause button for LentiGlobin a month ago, Joanne Smith-Farrell won’t be around to see how the saga plays out with the FDA. Smith-Farrell has taken the helm at Longwood-backed B cell biotech Be Biopharma, which launched last October with a $52 million Series A round. She was previously bluebird’s COO and business unit head, oncology, and she first came to Nick Leschly’s team as CBO in 2017 after her Big Pharma experience in business development with Merck and Pfizer. Smith-Farrell tells our Kyle Blankenship that her decision to become CEO at Be Bio wasn’t related to the decision to split bluebird into two companies in January.
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