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.
The
Longwood
-backed startup
officially tapped
Grmusa as CEO on Thursday, alongside
Oncorus
vet
Christophe Quéva
, who’s joining as CSO. Quéva’s resume boasts stints at
iTeos
, as well as
AstraZeneca
,
Amgen
and
Gilead
. The team also took the opportunity to introduce
Loise Francisco-Anderson
, who recently joined as VP and head of biology.
“I was amazed how much data the group has generated in such a short period of time and I’m really really impressed by the quality of the scientific team,” Grmusa said.
He’s taking over from founding CEO
David Donabedian
, who will continue to advise the company. Former
Trillium Therapeutics
CEO
Jan Skvarka
is also on board as executive chairman. Upon
launching
with a $70 million Series A, Donabedian predicted that the company might be in the clinic in the next two to three years.
Grmusa confirmed that timeline on Thursday, adding that the company is hoping to get IND-enabling studies under its belt by 2024. The startup’s platform, dubbed Co-culture with Human Myeloid Phagocytes or CHoMP, seeks targets using CRISPR screening.
The team is currently 15-large, though Grmusa added that the company’s looking to grow.
“It’s been a very short period of time, but we’ve recruited the top scientific talent, and I’m amazed,” he said.
Grmusa’s background is in finance and economics, where he graduated from the Brandeis International Business School with his master’s. He later held analyst positions at
Boston Biomedical Consultants
and
Millennium Pharmaceuticals
, before jumping to Takeda in 2012. Most recently, he was SVP of R&D strategy and external innovation, and CFO of R&D. —
Nicole DeFeudis
→
Greg Mayes
has bolted from
Antios Therapeutics
,
taking over from
Joseph del Moral
as president and CEO of Toronto psychedelics biotech
Reunion Neuroscience
. On Mayes’ watch, Antios pulled together a
$96 million raise in April 2021
and
another $75 million in November
to form its Series B, but the biotech ran into trouble a few months ago when the FDA threw down the stop sticks
with a clinical hold
on its HBV drug.
Assembly Biosciences
would pull the plug on its collaboration with Antios as a result.
As del Moral becomes chairman, Mayes now leads a company once known as
Field Trip Health
with its lead program
RE-104
in early-stage trials for treatment resistant depression and a Phase II planned in August 2023 for postpartum depression. “My goal as president and CEO of Reunion is to lead a company that will boldly disrupt the mental health sector with differentiated serotonergic psychedelic therapies,” Mayes said in a statement.
→ The changes are pronounced at
GSK
as the pharma giant consciously brands itself as the “New GSK,”
spinning off its consumer healthcare business
while placing a premium on specialty medicine and vaccine R&D. You can also sense it with the leadership team: R&D chief
Hal Barron
is gone,
landing a CEO gig
at the ambitious anti-aging play
Altos Labs
, and now CFO
Iain Mackay
has decided to retire in May 2023. Mackay will be replaced by
Julie Brown
, the chief operating and financial officer at
Burberry
who spent a quarter-century with AstraZeneca in a number of executive roles, including interim CFO and VP of group finance. Effective immediately, Brown has left the board of directors at
Roche
, and
Patrick Frost
will replace her temporarily as chair of the Swiss pharma’s audit committee. Amber Tong
has more on Brown’s appointment
.
→ Using its Covid-19 jab as a springboard for more potential vaccine launches — cytomegalovirus and the flu among them —
Stéphane Bancel
will give
Juan Andres
a new role on Jan. 1 at
Moderna
,
naming him
president, strategic partnerships and enterprise expansion.
Jerh Collins
, a 30-year
Novartis
vet who has been the Big Pharma’s chief culture officer since September 2020, will replace Andres as chief technical operations and quality officer, and will join the mRNA biotech three months early on Oct. 3. Andres has ties to Novartis himself, serving as global head of technical operations there until he took off for Moderna as SVP of late-stage technical development and manufacturing in August 2017.
→
Fred Kamal
has been promoted
to president and COO of
4D Molecular Therapeutics
, the Emeryville, CA gene therapy biotech with programs that go after wet AMD, Fabry disease and cystic fibrosis. Kamal, the operations chief since February 2020, came to 4DMT in the fall of 2018 as chief technical officer after stints at
InterMune
,
Juno Therapeutics
and
Avexis
. UCSF professor
Noriyuki Kasahara
, principal investigator at the school’s Brain Tumor Center, has claimed a spot on 4DMT’s board of directors.
→ Takeda partner
KSQ Therapeutics
has promoted
head of immunology
Micah Benson
to CSO and has recruited
Tom Leitch
as chief technology officer. Benson was head of tolerance therapeutics for
Pfizer
’s immunology and inflammation research unit, then signed on as KSQ’s head of immuno-oncology in 2016. An 11-year
Merck
vet who held leadership roles at
Alexion
, Leitch is the latest to peel away from
bluebird bio
in the wake of its two gene therapy approvals, moving on to KSQ after two years as bluebird’s head of manufacturing and five years overall. Additionally,
Dunad Therapeutics
chief
Pearl Huang
is leaving the board of directors, while Benson’s predecessor
Frank Stegmeier
steps in to keep it a six-member board.
→
Dave Anderson
has been named
CSO of Philadelphia’s
Code Biotherapeutics
, the gene therapy outfit led by former GSK exec
Brian McVeigh
that made Takeda stand up and take notice
with a $2 billion AAV deal
in February. Anderson once led preclinical research for neurological diseases at
Spark
and had just been promoted to SVP of research at
SwanBio
in June. Code has competition with the non-viral approach, as biotechs like
Xalud Therapeutics
and
Versant
-backed
Vector BioPharma
jockey for position.
→ New
Zentalis
CEO
Kim Blackwell
is continuing to tinker
with the leadership around her, promoting co-founder
Kevin Bunker
to CSO after swinging the door open
for medical chief
Carrie Brownstein
last week and elevating
another co-founder
,
Cam Gallagher
, to president in her first couple weeks on the job. A former senior scientist in Pfizer’s drug discovery research group, Bunker — heretofore the COO at Zentalis — co-founded and was CSO of
Kalyra Pharmaceuticals
.
→ What about Brownstein’s successor at her former employer?
Cellectis
is looking inward for that, as
Mark Frattini
moves into the CMO slot
. Frattini pivoted to Cellectis in August 2020 as SVP of clinical sciences after his turn as executive medical director, program lead, global clinical R&D in the hematology therapeutic area for
Celgene
and
Bristol Myers Squibb
. “Mark already had an impressive track record before joining Cellectis,” CEO
André Choulika
said in a statement. “He has continued to lead our clinical teams successfully over the last two years and I am thrilled to continue working with him in this expanded role.”
→ Vancouver-based
Gandeeva Therapeutics
, a cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) biotech that
notched a $40 million Series A
in January from the likes of
Leaps by Bayer
and Amgen,
has selected
Matthew Lucas
as CSO and
David Poon
as CBO. Lucas, the ex-senior director of chemistry at
Yumanity
, closed out his three years at
Black Diamond
as SVP of drug discovery, while Poon is a 15-year
Zymeworks
vet who was recently the heavily restructured company’s VP, business development and alliance management.
→ After
eFFECTOR Therapeutics
plucked new CMO
Douglas Warner
from Amgen in August,
Mayank Gandhi
has replaced
Alana McNulty
as CBO of the California cancer biotech. In 2020, Gandhi jumped on the now-rickety SPAC bandwagon as VP of corporate development & strategy at
Jiya Acquisition Corp
, the
blank check company set up
by
Srini Akkaraju
. Earlier, he concluded a seven-year run at
Genentech
as business development & licensing director.
→
Rick Klausner
’s T cell therapy shop
Lyell Immunopharma
has appointed
Rahsaan Thompson
as chief legal officer. Thompson is an
Actelion
legal vet who moves on to Lyell following his two years as
Gritstone bio
’s general counsel, and it’s the second big C-suite pickup for Lyell this year:
Gary Lee
jumped on board as CSO in late January
. Klausner sold 11,100 shares of Lyell’s stock last Friday, with an uptick in the stock price
$LYEL
most of this week.
→ Led by former
Seagen
exec
Nancy Whiting
and
Blueprint Medicines
alums, San Diego’s
Recludix Pharma
has entrusted
Matthew Caldemeyer
with CBO duties. Caldemeyer just spent four years in business development at
Everest Medicines
—
now under new management
— and the
Eli Lilly
vet has also built his BD résumé with Amgen,
Array BioPharma
and
Ambrx
. Recludix pulled off the tarp in November 2021
with a $60 million Series A
as the crew takes aim at STAT3 and STAT6.
→ RNA editing upstart
ADARx Pharmaceuticals
has tapped
Christopher Prentiss
as CFO. The former finance chief at
Adamas Pharmaceuticals
comes to a biotech that made a splash a year ago
with a $75 million Series B
in a space that also includes
Shape Therapeutics
and
ProQR
. Prentiss has prior finance experience in the industry with InterMune,
Dynavax
and
MannKind
.
→ Fresh off its
£48.3 million ($56.57 million) acquisition
of
Diurnal Group
a month ago,
Neurocrine
has promoted
Ingrid Delaet
to chief regulatory officer. Delaet had been VP of regulatory affairs since January 2021, and she was SVP, regulatory affairs at
Intercept
before her move to Neurocrine. In 19 years with Bristol Myers, she worked in clinical R&D and was therapeutic area lead for immunology within global regulatory affairs.
→ Cambridge, UK-based
Mursla
has welcomed
Karin Schmitt
to its leadership team as COO. Schmitt brings with her a wealth of experience from previous stints at
Exelixis
, Millennium Pharmaceuticals,
Thermo Fisher Scientific
,
Horizon Discovery Group
,
PredictImmune
and
Mogrify
.
→
Larry Green
is seizing the reins once again
at
AlivaMab Discovery
Services
, taking over from
Justin
Mika
. Green was the founding CEO of the San Diego-based company and has served as AlivaMab’s executive chair since May 2020. Earlier in his career, Green served in roles at Amgen and
Abgenix
among others. Green also wears the CEO hat at
Ablexis
and will continue to serve in his role there.
→ California VC
Section 32
has plugged in
Nick Smith
as chief investor relations officer. Smith had led investor relations at
Foresite Capital
since 2018, and in another recent stop, he was director and regional head of client advisory for
Winton Group
.
→ Just as we were publishing last week’s Peer Review, T cell engager player
Janux Therapeutics
welcomed
Brenda Van Vreeswyk
as head of human resources. Van Vreeswyk was director of HR during a six-year stay at Neurocrine before moving on to the Merck partner, which also added
Winston Kung
to its board of directors last week.
→
Insmed
CEO and
Aegerion
co-founder
Will Lewis
has been named
chairman of
Adrestia Therapeutics
, a
GSK-backed
“synthetic rescue” biotech out of Cambridge, UK. Adrestia also has a pair of new execs:
Jennifer Millian
(VP of US operations) had a nearly 16-year association with
Sanofi Genzyme
before joining uniQure as director, program management, and she was recently VP of program and alliance management for
Affinia Therapeutics
. And
Phil Coxon
(VP of business development) ascended to senior director of transactions in global oncology business development and licensing at AstraZeneca last year, after joining the Big Pharma from
Teva
in 2018.
→ Inflammation-focused
RAPT Therapeutics
has brought in
Jennifer Nicholson
as SVP of regulatory affairs and quality assurance, and
Adnan Rahman
as VP of commercial. Nicholson makes her way to RAPT from
Kronos Bio
, where she was VP of regulatory affairs, and she’s held regulatory positions at Roche/Genentech,
Jazz Pharmaceuticals
,
Bavarian Nordic
and
Acerta Pharma
. Rahman, meanwhile, steps away from his gig as global commercial lead of dermatology at Pfizer sub
Arena Pharmaceuticals
. Earlier, he wrapped up a 16-year career at Amgen as US commercial director of the bone drug
Xgeva
.
→ In Phase II trials with its MK2 inhibitor
zunsemetinib
for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and hidradenitis suppurativa,
Aclarus Therapeutics
has enlisted
Robert Doody
as VP, investor relations. He just held the same title at
Provention Bio
and is the former SVP of investor relations & corporate communications at
Idera Pharmaceuticals
.
→ Swiss-based
Pureos Partners
has tapped
Veronica Gambillara Fonck
as a new partner. Fonck has served in roles at
GlycoVaxyn
, was CEO and co-founder of
LimmaTech
and CEO and founder of
GlycoEra
.
→
Affinivax’s
former CBO
Stuart Chaffee
is making his way
to the board of directors at
Olaris
to become executive chairman. Chaffee’s prior experience includes gigs at
Praxis Precision
Medicines
(CBO and CFO),
Atlas Venture
(entrepreneur in residence),
Kymera Therapeutics
(head of business operations), Amgen and Biogen.
→ Ex-
Santen
chief
Adrienne Graves
is headed to
the board of directors at retinal disease biotech
Opus Genetics
, joining its scientific founder
Jean Bennett
, Opus CEO
Ben Yerxa
and
Russell Kelley
from the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Graves chairs the FFB’s Retinal Degeneration Fund and is a board member at
Iveric Bio
.
→ Princeton, NJ-based cancer player
Sonnet BioTherapeutics
has elected
Lori McNeill
to the board of directors. During her career at Pfizer from 2001-14, McNeill was chief of staff of global operations in the integrated health business unit.
→ Grappling
with its Phase III fail
with
lenabasum
and turning its attention to preclinical solid tumor candidate
CRB-601
,
Corbus Pharmaceuticals
has reserved a seat
for
Anne Altmeyer
on the board of directors. The ex-CBO of
Sigilon Therapeutics
and
Adicet Bio
is the president and CEO of
TigaTx
.
→ US-Danish biotech
Allarity Therapeutics
has pulled out a seat
on its board for
Jerry McLaughlin
. McLaughlin currently serves as CEO and board member of
Life Biosciences
. McLaughlin’s previous stints include roles at
Neos Therapeutics
(CEO and president),
NuPathe
,
Endo Pharmaceuticals
and Merck. McLaughlin’s appointment comes on the heels of the company
dropping its cancer drug
dovitinib
from development after the FDA requested a new trial.
→
Frazier Life Sciences
managing director
James Topper
is back on the board of directors
at
Phathom Pharmaceuticals
, the Takeda spinout and
vonoprazan
developer co-created by Frazier. Topper, the chairman and CEO of
Frazier Lifesciences Acquisition Corporation
, was a board member at Phathom from 2018-21.
Special thanks to artist Kim Ryu for giving Peer Review a new look starting this week!