
Time Passages: Bruce Goldsmith out at Jim Wilson's gene therapy biotech; Flagship reveals Michael Severino’s CEO gig

→ When Passage Bio readjusted its pipeline priorities, pruned its workforce by 13% and saw its R&D chief Eliseo Salinas walk out in March, it would be natural to assume that this confluence of events could lead to more imminent changes. This week, CEO Bruce Goldsmith followed Salinas and board member Liam Ratcliffe out the door.
Passage Bio and Goldsmith both felt it was in their best interests to move on as the Jim Wilson biotech shifts its focus to GM1 gangliosidosis, Krabbe disease and frontotemporal dementia. General counsel and corporate secretary Edgar “Chip” Cale has been named interim chief as the search gets underway for Goldsmith’s replacement, having leaped to Passage Bio in 2019 after a 21-year career at GSK that concluded as SVP, legal corporate projects. Goldsmith left Deerfield to succeed co-founder Stephen Squinto as Passage Bio’s CEO in early 2020.

→ Back in April, AbbVie exec Michael Severino was one of three people who were named CEO-partners at Flagship Pioneering in rapid succession (Margo Georgiadis and Alltrna’s Michelle Werner were the others). Severino has taken the wheel at gene writing outfit Tessera, which reloaded with a Series C north of $300 million not long after the Amgen and Merck alum joined Flagship. In his eight years at AbbVie, Severino was EVP of R&D, CSO, and eventually vice chairman and president. “The legacy that I think is most important is the drugs that one has brought to market, the unmet need that those therapies have addressed,” he told Endpoints News. “And we’ve been fortunate across all the companies that I’ve been a part of to bring some incredible therapeutics to the market.”
Geoff von Maltzahn, the face of Tessera since its founding, will now become chairman of the board.

→ A couple of promotions have been doled out at Bayer, as Brian Branca moves up to CFO of Bayer US while Marina Hong will replace the retiring Lisa Massa as head of US human resources effective June 6. A Bayer vet since 2006, Branca had previously been US VP and treasurer since November 2018, and for the last year, Hong led human resources for Bayer Pharmaceuticals Americas. The pharma giant backed out of a $670 million CAR-T partnership with Atara Biotherapeutics a couple weeks ago, putting a crimp in the biotech’s pipeline plans.

→ The top brass at Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics is undergoing some changes as CEO Howard Federoff steps down “to focus on building a new venture” and Matt Angel swoops in to take his place. It’s a natural fit for Angel, who co-founded, chaired and was chief executive at Factor Bioscience, the Cambridge, MA biotech that licensed its mRNA-based gene editing technology to Brooklyn last year. Just weeks before that agreement, Federoff joined Brooklyn from Aspen Neuroscience, guiding the Parkinson’s player to its $70 million Series A round in April 2020.
In other Brooklyn news, Andrew Jackson — the finance chief and one-time interim CEO of Ra Medical Systems — has been named CFO.

→ Arcus Biosciences didn’t divulge any specifics, but CEO Terry Rosen did maintain a positive outlook for the ARC-7 study in the company’s Q1 report on May 9. Four days later, CMO Kartik Krishnan told our Kyle LaHucik that he was leaving Arcus, and true to his word — “I’ve never taken a month off,” he said — Krishnan has been named CMO of Texas-based OncoNano Medicine. An Amgen vet, Krishnan is a former senior medical director with BioMarin, Five Prime Therapeutics and Genentech. A Phase II study at OncoNano is in progress for its lead program, a fluorescent nanoprobe known as pegsitacianine.

→ As Sana Biotechnology banks on $100 million in savings as it shifts manufacturing plans to Washington state, the company has also announced the appointments of Snehal Patel as VP and head of manufacturing and Julie Lepin as SVP and head of regulatory, safety and quality. Patel hails from Bristol Myers Squibb, where he served as global head and VP for cell manufacturing. Prior to that, Patel had an 18-year stint at Genentech/Roche, serving in a number of roles including head of quality operations and head of drug product operations.
Meanwhile, Lepin makes her way to the Seattle-based company from Amgen, where she was VP, regulatory affairs for oncology, with an approval for Lumakras in her portfolio. Additionally, Lepin has served as head of regulatory at Juno Therapeutics and head of regulatory, oncology at Merck.

While Patel and Lepin get acquainted at Sana, a Women in Biopharma R&D honoree from 2020 bids farewell. Effective July 22, Stacey Ma will move on to Gilead as EVP, pharmaceutical development and she’ll replace Taiyin Yang, who retires after nearly 30 years with the company. Ma worked for Genentech/Roche from 1996-2019 before joining Sana.

→ Not only is ProQR dismissing 30% of its workforce as its pipeline dwindles, its executive leadership is undergoing a big revamp, as the Dutch biotech brings back René Beukema as chief corporate development officer and general counsel and hands the CSO job to scientific co-founder Gerard Platenburg. Elsewhere at ProQR, chief business and financial officer Smital Shah will leave at the end of the year and the search is on for her replacement. Beukema, a Crucell vet who held these very roles at ProQR from 2013-18, had spent the last three years at Frame Cancer Therapeutics, and Platenburg slides into the CSO post after eight years as chief innovation officer.
And in a small edition of the Maraganore Meter, ex-Alnylam CEO John Maraganore “will extend his commitment as a strategic advisor to the Supervisory Board,” per the release, after throwing his hat in the ring in March.

→ Specializing in what they call “MasterKey” therapies, Black Diamond has installed Sergey Yurasov as CMO. The biotech couldn’t dodge the slings and arrows of the bear market, laying off almost a third of its employees in late April. Yurasov had held the same position at David Hung’s Nuvation Bio, and he was CMO of Immune Design before Merck forked over $300 million for the company three years ago. Karsten Witt had been interim medical chief since the termination of Rachel Humphrey in August 2021.
→ Luca Scavo is out as CFO of Evelo Biosciences, according to an 8-K filing, leaving president and CEO Simba Gill to take over his responsibilities until the vacancy is filled. Scavo will “pursue another professional opportunity” a year after leaving his CFO post at Roche Diagnostics North America to join Evelo.

→ Not to be confused with the Kansas City Royals’ backup catcher, Zentalis co-founder and board member Cam Gallagher has been promoted to president as new chief executive Kim Blackwell settles in. For the last six years, Gallagher has been CBO of Takeda partner Immusoft, and he’s also the former head of corporate development at Oncternal Therapeutics. Zentalis also boosted its coffers with a $200 million raise as Blackwell replaced Anthony Sun as CEO a couple weeks ago.

→ Trumpeting positive Phase III data for dasiglucagon in children with congenital hyperinsulinism between 7 days and 12 months of age, Zealand Pharma has pegged Eli Lilly alum David Kendall as CMO. Kendall, who had been a senior global medical advisor for Zealand, is formerly the CMO of MannKind and the VP, global medical affairs for Lilly Diabetes. Dasiglucagon was approved for diabetes patients with severe hypoglycemia in March 2021 and is marketed as Zegalogue.
→ Big Pharma alum Neely Mozaffarian has made her way to GentiBio as CMO, with the biotech trying to make some hay in the Treg space with such competitors as Jeff Bluestone’s Sonoma, TRexBio and Abata Therapeutics. Mozaffarian has held senior leadership roles in clinical development at AbbVie, Eli Lilly and Gilead, and she spent the last year as VP, immunology with J&J’s Janssen. After launching in August 2020 with a $20 million seed round, GentiBio raced to a $157 million Series A one year later.

→ At Rezolute, a Silicon Valley biotech that raised $130 million after posting positive Phase II data for its congenital hyperinsulinism drug in early May, Brian Roberts has been promoted from head of clinical development to CMO. Roberts was part of the founding management team at Rezolute and became VP of clinical development in 2017. Earlier, Roberts worked in clinical development at CymaBay and FibroGen.

→ Ankur Dhingra has joined Bob Duggan’s crew at Summit Therapeutics as CFO. After 18 years and numerous posts at Agilent Technologies, including VP of investor relations, Dhingra joins Summit from his first CFO gig at CareDx. Investors didn’t take too kindly to Summit’s Phase III flop with its antibiotic for C. difficile infection in December 2021, and shares have continued to tumble ever since.

→ Kerry Russell has joined Eli Lilly’s NASH partner Terns Pharmaceuticals as CMO. Russell’s most recent role was VP of late clinical development at Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, which was purchased by Novo Nordisk in December 2021 for $3.3 billion. She has also served as VP of clinical development at resTORbio and senior director of translational cardiovascular and metabolic medicine at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research.
→ Watertown, MA-based SQZ Biotechnologies, which showed positive results from its unconventional cell therapy manufacturing tech in a non-clinical study last month, has appointed Marshelle Smith Warren as CMO. Before joining SQZ, Warren was CMO and SVP of R&D at Viracta Therapeutics. She has also held clinical development posts at AlloVir, Atara, Ionis, Gilead, Amgen, and AstraZeneca.

→ Biomolecular condensate player Transition Bio gathered up $50 million in Series A financing this week while also appointing Shilpi Arora as SVP of discovery research. Arora comes to Transition Bio from Exo Therapeutics, where she was VP of discovery and translational biology. Voyager CEO and former Biogen exec Al Sandrock makes another Peer Review appearance as a new member of the board of directors at Transition Bio, which also welcomes Shaan Gandhi of Northpond Ventures to the board.
→ Former Atara president and CEO Isaac Ciechanover is hopping aboard as a new partner at Qiming Venture Partners USA — right as the firm closes its third fund, raising $260 million. Most recently, Ciechanover served as a partner at Polaris Venture Partners and earlier in his career was with Celgene, where he helped drive transactions with companies such as Acceleron, Array and PTC Therapeutics.

→ Texas-based Renibus Therapeutics has saddled on Jamie Donadio as CFO and Bhupinder Singh as CMO. Donadio joins the company from Biotheryx, where he served in the same role of CFO. Prior to that, Donadio was SVP, CFO at Mirati Therapeutics and senior director of finance at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Singh is a clinical professor in the division of nephrology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine and formerly served at ZS Pharma. Singh was also a founder of the Southwest Kidney Institute.
→ Boston cancer biotech Sensei Biotherapeutics, which raised $133 million during an IPO boom that seems like eons ago, has tapped Patrick Gallagher as CBO. Most recently, Gallagher was managing director of Binney Street Partners, and the AbbVie vet has also served as head of corporate development & operations at Nuvation Bio.

→ The p27-focused biotech Concarlo out of Brooklyn makes its Peer Review debut with Krishna Allamneni as chief development officer. An ex-scientist at Genentech/Roche and a former executive director, global nonclinical R&D with Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Allamneni was previously VP, development sciences for Turning Point Therapeutics.

→ Richard Sainson is starting up a brand new day as CSO of STipe Therapeutics, a Danish biotech focused on the STING pathway. Sainson most recently served as VP in translational development at F-star Therapeutics, and prior to that, he was senior director, translational medicine at Kymab.
→ The Center of Breakthrough Medicines is bringing in Joseph Lingle as chief people officer. Prior to making his way over to CBM, Lingle had a stint at Bristol Myers, supporting the commercialization and supply for CAR-T assets Abecma and Breyanzi. Prior to that, Lingle had a nearly 7-year run at Novartis and a nearly 9-year gig at GSK.

→ Tom Pulles has signed on to be CMO of Dutch mitochondrial disease outfit Khondrion. Pulles had a series of roles at Shire before pivoting to Ultragenyx in 2016 as head of patient advocacy, Europe, eventually working his way up to head of medical affairs, EMEA.

→ Hoping to push one of its lead candidates for retinitis pigmentosa into the clinic this year, RA Capital-backed DTx Pharma has brought on Michael Huang as CMO. Huang is the ex-medical chief of AmMax Bio and Spruce Biosciences, and he’s been the VP, clinical development for Regulus Therapeutics.
→ While we’ve got Regulus on our mind, the microRNA outfit has selected Amin Kamel as VP, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK). A one-time principal investigator at Biogen, Kamel was Takeda’s scientific director of global DMPK.

→ Canadian Tetra Bio-Pharma, which specializes in cannabinoid-derived drug discovery and development, is reeling in Leslie Auld as CFO. Auld previously served as SVP and CFO of Aeterna Zentaris and has had stints at GeneNews, Atwell Capital, Luminex Diagnostics and Helix Biopharma.
→ Boston-based Erbi Biosystems has plucked up Brad Hamilton as CSO. Hamilton joins with experience from GoodCell (CSO) and ReproCELL (chief technology officer) under his belt. Prior to those roles, Hamilton was with Stemgent, RheoGene and Upstate Biotech.

→ Now leading Aadi Bioscience after helping invent Abraxane, Neil Desai has poached Marcy Graham from Poseida as Aadi names her SVP, investor relations and corporate communications. Graham spent the last four years at Poseida and was the CAR-T biotech’s VP of corporate affairs. She’s also been SVP, IR and corporate communications with Mirati and aTyr Pharma.

→ China’s Innovent Biologics, which struck a deal with Tillman Gerngross’ latest company Amagma Therapeutics in January, is tapping Gary Zieziula as independent non-executive director of the company’s board of directors. Zieziula currently serves as president of Kyowa Kirin USA and previously served as CCO and president of EMD Serono. Additionally, Zieziula has had stints at AMAG, Roche, Bristol Myers and Merck.

→ Christopher Wright has joined the board of directors at Alkermes as Nancy Wysenski becomes lead independent director after the Irish biotech’s annual meeting. Wright, the ex-development chief at Ironwood, is the CMO for Bo Cumbo’s squad at AavantiBio. The reshuffling of the Alkermes board continues with the retirements of David Anstice and Wendy Dixon “as part of the Board’s continued refreshment process,” according to the release.
→ Ex-Boehringer Ingelheim CEO Marty Carroll has been elected to the board of directors at Esperion, which appointed Stephen Rocamboli to the board last month. After 25 years with Merck, Carroll helmed Boehringer Ingelheim from 2003-11.

→ ChemoCentryx has added David Wheadon to its board of directors as Henry McKinnell retires. In 2019, Wheadon retired from AstraZeneca as SVP, global regulatory affairs, patient safety and quality assurance. He also sits on the boards of Vaxart, Karuna Therapeutics and Sotera Health.
→ Michael Samar has a seat reserved on the board of directors at anti-aging player Unity Biotechnology, which sliced its workforce in half earlier this year with 34 jobs affected. Samar was promoted from SVP of finance and business operations to CFO of Assembly Biosciences in August 2021.

→ A week after Precision BioSciences named Juli Blanche chief people officer, they’re at it again in Peer Review, making room for Melinda Brown on the board of directors. Brown, who retired from Tapestry in 2019 as SVP and controller, devoted 30 years to PepsiCo, leaving the megabrand as SVP, global financial shared services and productivity.
→ French vaccine company Valneva is adding Thomas Decker and Michael Pfleiderer to its scientific advisory board. Decker is a professor of immunobiology at the Max Perutz Labs of the University of Vienna and is the current president of the European Macrophage and Dendritic Cell Society. Meanwhile, Pfleiderer has served as the head of the human viral vaccines section at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, German Federal Institut for Vaccines and Biomedicines since 1998.