Zai Lab gives Josh Smi­ley a sec­ond chance in a prime role; De­nali gets ready to re­arrange staff as clin­i­cal hold con­tin­ues

→ Rais­ing more than a few eye­brows across the in­dus­try, Josh Smi­ley has turned up as Zai Lab’s choice for COO ef­fec­tive Aug. 1, re­set­ting his ca­reer in short or­der af­ter get­ting canned at Eli Lil­ly last Feb­ru­ary. The ex-CFO, who spent more than 25 years at Lil­ly, had en­gaged in an “in­ap­pro­pri­ate per­son­al re­la­tion­ship” with an em­ploy­ee and “con­sen­su­al though in­ap­pro­pri­ate per­son­al com­mu­ni­ca­tions” with oth­er staffers, ac­cord­ing to an in­ves­ti­ga­tion. Lil­ly sum­mar­i­ly ap­point­ed Anat Ashke­nazi, who’s been with the com­pa­ny since 2001, as Smi­ley’s re­place­ment.

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