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.
Cardurion Pharma appoints Takeda vet Morabito to CMO post
Cardurion Pharma
Chris Morabito, M.D., has joined as chief medical officer.
Morabito joins Cardurion from Takeda, where he most recently served as senior VP and head of R&D for plasma-derived therapies and where he previously served as VP and global program leader of specialty cardiovascular disease. Morabito was instrumental in the acquisition and integration of Shire that occurred in 2019, Cardurion said. Morabito has extensive experience in cardiovascular disease drug development and led numerous programs in heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, atrial fibrillation, hypertension and diabetes mellitus at Merck, Sanofi and Takeda. FierceBiotech story
Oncology startup Notable appoints first CSO in Wagner
Notable
Joseph Wagner, Ph.D., will join as chief scientific officer.
Wagner was previously executive director at the University of California Drug Discovery Consortium. A pharmacologist, Wagner has spent the majority of his biotechnology industry career focused on building teams and organizations primarily focused on developing small-molecule and biologic therapeutics from bench studies through to phase 2 clinical trials. He has led programs in a variety of indications, including oncology, and has led bioinformatic efforts to develop novel targets, biomarkers and companion diagnostics. Wagner has served in CEO and CTO roles at BriaCell Therapeutics Corporation, OncoCyte Corporation and Cell Targeting Inc. and has also consulted for leading biotech companies. Release
Kronos Bio names Nicholson as regulatory affairs VP
Kronos Bio
Jennifer Nicholson will join as senior VP of regulatory affairs.
Nicholson joins the company with nearly 20 years of experience in regulatory affairs, with a focus on oncology across all stages of development. Prior to Kronos, Nicholson served as head of regulatory at Acerta Pharma, a member of the AstraZeneca group. Before Acerta, she was senior director of regulatory affairs at Bavarian Nordic and previously worked at at Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Onyx Pharmaceuticals. She began her career in regulatory affairs at Genentech, where she worked for 11 years. Release