People on the Move: Biotech/Biopharma Companies
David A. Spiegel, M.D., Ph.D., is now CEO of Kleo Pharmaceuticals Inc. He is a co-founder of Kleo Pharmaceuticals and the scientist who discovered and developed Antibody Recruiting Molecules (ARMs) and Synthetic Antibody Mimics (SyAMs) in his laboratory at Yale University. Dr. Spiegel is a professor of Chemistry and Pharmacology at Yale University where he heads the Spiegel Research Group.
Cyrus D. Mozayeni, M.D., was appointed president and CEO of Oncorus Inc. Prior to joining Oncorus, Mozayeni served as VP and global head of business development and alliance management at bluebird bio Inc.
Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. has appointed Alexander Santini as chief commercial officer, Kiernan Seth, Ph.D., as VP of marketing, and Gary Branch as VP of sales. Santini has responsibility for all commercial activities in the United States for telotristat ethyl, Lexicon’s investigational oral drug for the treatment of carcinoid syndrome, with Dr. Seth and Branch reporting directly to him. Santini joined Lexicon in April 2015 and was previously responsible for developing the market access and channel management strategy for telotristat ethyl. Before joining Lexicon, Santini served as executive member and VP of market access for the Bayer U.S. Pharmaceutical organization. Dr. Seth joined Lexicon in November 2014 as executive director of oncology marketing. Branch joined Lexicon in March 2016. He has more than 24 years of commercial experience in the pharmaceutical industry in both oncology and general pharmaceuticals including key roles as VP of sales at GlaxoSmithKline Oncology, VP of sales at Novartis Canada, and global brand director at Novartis Oncology.
Dr. Alvin Shih has been made CEO of Enzyvant Sciences. Dr. Shih previously served as executive VP and head of Research and Development at Retrophin Inc. Before joining Retrophin, he was the chief operating officer of the Rare Disease Research Unit at Pfizer Inc.
Pascal Besman has joined PharmaMar Inc. in the newly created role of chief operating officer. Besman came to PharmaMar from Maxim Group, a New York-based global investment bank, where he served as head of Healthcare Equity Sales since 2014.
Timothy M. Wright, M.D., is now chief research and development officer of Regulus Therapeutics Inc. Dr. Wright joins Regulus from California Institute for Biomedical Research.
Craig Millian is now senior VP, Neurology and Immunology, at EMD Serono, the biopharmaceutical business of Merck KGaA in the United States and Canada. Millian most recently served as senior VP, head of U.S. Fertility and Endocrinology, at EMD Serono. Millian joined EMD Serono in 2010 to lead the Fertility and Endocrinology marketing team. Drew Young, who previously served as senior VP, Neurology and Immunology for EMD Serono, was made general manager and managing director, Merck KGaA Biopharma, Australia & New Zealand. Young joined EMD Serono in June 2014.
James Gorman
James Gorman, M.D., Ph.D., has become Agenus Inc.’s VP of Strategic Planning and Portfolio Management. Dr. Gorman joins Agenus with almost 20 years of experience in portfolio management. More recently he was the co-founder, CEO, and chief medical officer of BioAssets Development Corporation, an antibody therapeutics business.
Pierre Kemula has become chief financial officer of CureVac AG. Kemula joins CureVac after serving as chief financial officer of Pixium Vision.
David J. King, Ph.D., has joined aTyr Pharma Inc. as senior VP, Research. Most recently, he served as senior VP of Research at Tunitas Therapeutics.
Jeremy Barton, M.D., has joined eFFECTOR Therapeutics as chief medical officer. He comes to the company from Pfizer Inc., where he served as the VP and head of oncology early development and clinical research. eFFECTOR Therapeutics is pioneering the discovery and development of selective translation regulators as a new class of small molecule therapeutics for cancer.
Ann E. Weber, Ph.D., is now senior VP, Drug Discovery, at Kallyope Inc. Dr. Weber was most recently VP, Lead Optimization Chemistry, at Merck & Co.
Jonathan Eckard, Ph.D., is now chief business and strategy officer at Sellas Life Sciences. Dr. Eckard join Sellas from Barclays, where he was a director and senior biotechnology analyst.
Lori Johnston is now senior VP, Human Resources, at Amgen Inc. Johnston joins from Celanese Corp. where she led the human resources function, most recently as executive VP and chief administrative officer.
Miranda Toledano has been appointed executive VP of corporate development of Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. and president of LA Cell, Sorrento’s joint venture with City of Hope. Miranda served as head of Healthcare Investment Banking at MLV & Co.
