Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Kyle Blankenship, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Biogen unexpectedly replaces CFO Capello with IQVIA vet, sparking M&A speculation
Biogen
CFO Jeffrey Capello will step down.
Capello will step down in August and be replaced by Michael McDonnell, CFO of contract research organization IQVIA. During Biogen’s second-quarter earnings call Monday, neither Capello nor CEO Michel Vounatsos addressed the reason for the CFO switch-out, but it was clear the need for the company to change its business development strategy was on the minds of both executives and analysts. Biogen has been under pressure to bulk up its pipeline for quite some time. Yes, the company is completing an FDA filing for approval of aducanumab, the Alzheimer’s disease candidate it unexpectedly revived last year. But Biogen is facing questions about whether the drug is truly effective enough to drive a significant amount of prescriptions. FiercePharma
Ex-Genzyme boss Meeker hops from KSQ to Rhythm Pharmaceuticals
Rhythm Pharmaceuticals
David Meeker, M.D., has taken over as CEO.
Meeker takes over from Hunter Smith, the biotech’s chief financial officer who had been filling in as president and CEO since March after former chief Keith Gottesdiener stepped down. Meeker, who has chaired Rhythm’s board since 2017, framed Gottesdiener’s exit as part of a transitional moment for the company. Rhythm is developing its lead asset, setmelanotide, for multiple rare genetic disorders of obesity, including Alström syndrome and Bardet-Biedl syndrome as well as obesity caused be deficiencies in the proopiomelanocortin protein and Leptin receptor protein. FierceBiotech
Triplet Therapeutics nabs Scholar Rock R&D exec as new CSO
Triplet Therapeutics
Alan Buckler, Ph.D., joins as CSO.
Buckler will move over to Triplet, picking up the CSO role there, and comes off a distinguished career that has seen him serve as vice president, cell and protein sciences at Biogen and a nine-year stint as leading drug discovery programs at Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research. His new home launched late last year with $59 million and a mission to develop drugs for repeat expansion disorders such as Huntington disease and fragile X syndrome. The company is taking aim at disorders caused by too many repeats of certain DNA sequences. These include triplet repeat disorders, or repeat expansion disorders, so called because they result from repeats of three nucleotide bases, or letters. FierceBiotech
> Six months after departing Abeona, Tim Miller, Ph.D., is on his next chapter: Forge Biologics, a gene therapy biotech that’s providing manufacturing and development services to other companies while working on its own pipeline. To fuel this dual mission, Forge picked up $40 million from the Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Fund and Drive Capital. FierceBiotech
> Viroclinics Biosciences B.V. has named Davide Molho as its new CEO, effective Aug. 1. Molho succeeds Bob van Gemen, Ph.D., who has served as the company’s CEO since 2011. Molho joins Viroclinics from Evolution Research Group, where he served as CEO. Release
> Bethesda, Maryland-based Gain Therapeutics has appointed Eric I. Richman as its CEO. Richman is a former venture partner at Brace Pharma Capital and previously served as president and CEO at PharmAthene.
> Woburn, Massachusetts-based Replimune Group will bring on Andrea Pirzkall, M.D., as chief medical officer, effective Aug. 31. Pirzkall most recently served as executive director of clinical development at BeiGene. Release
> San Diego-based Cradle Genomics has tapped Tanya Moreno, Ph.D., as VP of development and Sue Gross, M.D., as chief medical officer.
> Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Generation Bio has tapped Matthew Norkunas, M.D., as CFO. Norkunas most recently served as CFO at SomaLogic. Release
> Boston-based Gamida Cell has appointed Michele Korfin as chief operating and chief commercial officer. Most recently, Korfin served as COO at TYME Technologies. Before that, she was VP of market access at Kite Pharma. Release
> Warrington, Pennsylvania-based Windtree Therapeutics has tapped John Hamill as senior VP and CFO. Hamill is replacing Windtree's former CFO, John Tattory, who is "leaving to pursue other opportunities," Windtree said. Release
> Kronos Bio has named Barbara Kosacz as chief operating officer and general counsel. Release
> Houston-based Salarius Pharmaceuticals has named Nadeem Q. Mirza, M.D., as senior VP of clinical development. Mirza was most recently chief medical adviser at TRIGR Therapeutics and previously served as senior VP of corporate medical affairs at Verastem Oncology.
> Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based Asklepios BioPharmaceutical has named Libbie Mansell, Ph.D., as senior VP to lead its regulatory affairs operations, and Joe Tetzlaff joins as VP of information technology.
> Redwood City, California-based Adverum Biotechnologies has added Thomas Kochy as the first VP of commercial and program strategy. Prior to joining Adverum, Kochy served as a strategy consultant in ocular disease areas and previously worked as as regional sales director for Actemra and Rituxan Immunology at Roche's Genentech. Release
> South San Francisco, California-based Twist Bioscience has named Erin Smith as senior VP of government affairs and public policy.