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 LaHucik, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Former FDA Commissioner Hahn joins Flagship-incubated YourBio Health as interim CMO
YourBio Health
Stephen Hahn, M.D., will be YourBio Health's interim chief medical officer.
The former FDA Commissioner, who gave emergency use authorization to COVID-19 vaccines last year, will be the interim CMO for the Flagship Pioneering-incubated COVID-19 diagnostics and blood collection company. Formerly known as Seventh Sense Biosystems, the company was founded in 2011 and offers postvaccine antibody testing for COVID-19 that can be used after a jab from Moderna, another Flagship venture. Hahn joined the life sciences incubator Flagship earlier this summer. Fierce MedTech
Glympse Bio selects Gilead's liver disease leader as its first chief medical officer
Glympse Bio
Tram Tran, M.D., will be the first chief medical officer at Glympse Bio.
After leading the global liver diseases unit for Gilead Sciences, Tran will oversee the injectable biosensor technology at Glympse. Tran will help move the technology through clinical development and across the FDA approval finish line. She is a practicing liver and viral specialist. Glympse's lead indication for the biosensors is the detection of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, the fatty liver disease commonly known as NASH. Fierce MedTech
Orchard Therapeutics snags Novartis cell and gene leader, Smart Immune CSO and promote CMO
Orchard Therapeutics
Nicoletta Loggia, Ph.D., is leaving Novartis to be chief technical officer of Orchard.
Loggia lead the global cell and gene therapies unit at Novartis and was a 17-year veteran of the Swiss Big Pharma. She takes over the role from Ran Zheng, who left for Landmark Bio in July.
Loggia is joined by new Chief Scientific Officer Fulvio Mavilio, Ph.D., who held the same role at Smart Immune. He was previously senior vice president of translational science at Audentes Therapeutics. Orchard also promoted Leslie Meltzer, Ph.D., to chief medical officer. She joined Orchard in 2018 after working on medical affairs at Keryx and Biogen before that. Fierce Biotech
> Decentralized clinical trials software company Medable hired MaryAnne Rizk, Ph.D., as chief strategy officer. Rizk is the seventh executive to join the company this year and comes from leadership roles at Oracle and Medidata Solutions. Fierce Biotech
> XNK Therapeutics selected Markus Thor as chief business officer. He joins the clinical-stage immunotherapy biotech from North Venture Partners, where he was a managing partner. Release
> Immunitas Therapeutics named Seng-Lai "Thomas" Tan, Ph.D., as chief scientific officer. Tan joined the single cell genomics biotech from Bicara Therapeutics, where he was also CSO. Release
> Elizabeth Eagling-Vose will be senior vice president of operations at Enesi Pharma. She joins the next-generation vaccines biotech from Vaccitech, where Eagling-Vose was senior director and head of clinical operations. Release
> Seelos Therapeutics promoted Michael Golembiewski to chief financial officer and Anthony Marciano to chief communications officer. Golembiewski joined as vice president of finance in January 2019, and Marciano joined as head of corporate communications in January 2019. Release
> Cell and gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization Genezen named Ray Kaczmarek as CEO. Kaczmarek joins from TriLink Biotechnologies, where he was senior vice president of GMP Operations. Release
> Discovery Life Sciences made two executive appointments this week: Shawn Levy, Ph.D., to chief scientific officer, and Mike Musgnug as chief revenue officer. Levy joined the biospecimen and biomarker specialist in 2019, and Musgnug was previously vice president and general manager of Beckman Coulter Life Sciences' biotech unit. Release and Release
> Jay Saoud is retiring from Minerva Neurosciences. Ramana Kuchibhatla, Ph.D., will replace him as senior vice president and head of research and development. Kuchibhatla joins from PRA Health Sciences, where he was executive director of global drug development. Release
> Isabel Carmona will be Rocket Pharmaceuticals' chief human resources officer. Carmona joins the clinical-stage rare childhood disorders biotech from Ichnos Sciences, where she held the same title. Release
> Tom Stocky becomes vice president of product at machine learning drug discovery and development company insitro. Stocky was previously a technology fellow at Denali Therapeutics and prior to that was VP of search and profile at Facebook. Release
> Protagonist Therapeutics named Scott Plevy, M.D., is executive vice president and therapeutic head for gastroenterology. Plevy joined the biopharma from Senda Biosciences, where he was chief scientific officer. Release
> LocanaBio's new chief financial officer is Kat Lange. Lange joins the RNA gene therapy biotech from J.P. Morgan, where she was executive director in the healthcare investment banking group. Release
> Patrick J. Fowler becomes senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at Vericel, a sports medicine and severe burn company. Fowler comes from Sanofi, where he was head of North America strategy for operations and new product development. Release
> X4 Pharmaceuticals promoted Mary DiBiase, Ph.D., to become its first chief operating officer. DiBiase joined the immune system biotech in 2017 after serving as vice president of technical operations at Epirus Biopharmaceuticals. Release
> Marc Blaustein will be chief operating officer of clinical-stage microbiome biotech Finch Therapeutics. Blaustein was previously head of business development for Guide Therapeutics, acquired by Beam Therapeutics this year, and prior to that was CEO of NED Biosystems and Akashi Therapeutics. Release
> Eloxx Pharmaceuticals selected Ali Hariri, M.D., as chief medical officer. He joined the rare diseases biotech from Sanofi, where he was senior global project head for rare disease clinical development. Release
> Intrommune Therapeutics named Stuart Loesch chief commercial officer. Loesch joined the clinical-stage food allergy biotech from ALK, where he was vice president of marketing and commercial strategy for North America. Release
> LightDeck Diagnostics chose Russ Peloquin as its new chief commercial officer and Frank Gill as its chief product officer. Peloquin joined from SQI Diagnostics, where he was vice president of global commercial operations. Gill joined LightDeck in August 2020 as vice president of manufacturing after serving as vice president of operations at iCarbonX. Release
> RNA therapies biotech Flamingo Therapeutics named Rob MacLeod, Ph.D., its chief scientific officer as part of a collaboration with Ionis. MacLeod is currently vice president of oncology research and development at Ionis. Release
> Eric Groen joins Rani Therapeutics as general counsel. Groen comes to the clinical-stage biologics biotech from Amgen, where he spent nearly 20 years, including most recently as regional general counsel for Amgen's commercial businesses across Canada, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Release
> Jonathan I. Lieber is the new chief financial officer of Applied Genetic Technologies. Lieber joins the gene therapy biotech from Danforth Advisors, where he was a managing director. Release
> Verseau Therapeutics named Karen Tubridy as chief development officer. Tubridy joined from Akebia Therapeutics, where she was senior vice president of global programs and chief development officer. Release
> Tim Smith will be senior vice president and head of corporate development at PMV Pharmaceuticals. He joins the precision oncology company from Verseau Therapeutics, where he was chief business officer. Release
> Neoleukin Therapeutics named Bill Arthur, Ph.D., its vice president and head of research. Arthur previously spent a decade at Seagen, most recently as senior director and head of cancer biology. Release
> Frank J. Hsu, M.D., is the new chief medical officer at Apexigen. Hsu joins the oncology antibody biopharma from Oncternal Therapeutics, where he held the same role. Release
> Zoran Zdraveski, Ph.D., is now chief legal officer of T-cell therapies biopharma TScan Therapeutics. Zdraveski was previously chief legal and technology operations officer at Magenta Therapeutics. Release
> Clinical-stage age-related diseases biotech Biophytis named Rob van Maanen, M.D., its chief medical officer. He was previously CMO at Dutch biotech Khondrion and prior to that senior medical director at Astellas. Release