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.
Amid C-suite shake-up, Gilead nabs Genentech exec as new CMO
Gilead Sciences
Merdad Parsey, M.D., Ph.D., will take over as CMO.
Parsey will assume the role at the start of next month, coming from his stint as senior vice president of early clinical development in the Genentech Research and Early Development group. The Parsey pickup comes after a series of major exits from Gilead's C-suite last year and this year, including the exit of CMO Andrew Cheng last fall. Parsey also held the CEO role at 3-V Biosciences with previous stints at Sepracor, Regeneron and Merck, as well as at academic centers. Cheng left Gilead just six months after being appointed CMO. Cheng’s swift exit kept the revolving door spinning at the top of Gilead, which lost its CEO, CMO, CSO and executive chairman over a nine-month window. FierceBiotech
Ex-Shire CEO Flemming Ornskov emerges as Galderma CEO after $10B Nestlé spinout
Galderma
Flemming Ornskov has been tapped as Galderma's new CEO.
Ornskov, Shire’s most recent CEO before the Takeda buyout, will take the reins at Galderma, Nestlé's healthcare spinoff. Shire’s former finance overseer, Thomas Dittrich, will work alongside him as CFO of Galderma, a company that now holds the title of the world’s largest independent dermatology-focused drugmaker. Prior to Shire, Ornskov had plenty of experience from his work at Bayer, Bausch + Lomb and Novartis. Dittrich was only Shire’s CFO for a year, but he’s not so new to pharma, either, having previously served a stint at Amgen. FiercePharma
Greenwood to step down as CEO of BIO after 2020 election
BIO
CEO Jim Greenwood will step down after the 2020 election.
Greenwood has helmed lobbyist BIO for more than half of its history but will now make way for a new leader who will work to “defend innovation from domestic political attacks.” Under Greenwood’s leadership, BIO tripled in size, growing from a relatively small player in 2005 to a 176-employee organization with an $85 million operating budget. BIO has almost doubled its annual outlay on lobbying under Greenwood, going from spending a little more than $5 million in 2004 to just shy of $10 million last year, according to data tracked by the Center for Responsive Politics. FierceBiotech
> John Ratliff is leaving his former post as CEO of Covance and moving up to lead the CRO’s parent company LabCorp Diagnostics amid a change at the very top.This has led to Paul Kirchgraber, currently senior VP and head of Covance’s clinical trial testing solutions, to step up to become its new chief; both roles are effective Nov. 1. All these moves come as Adam Schechter becomes president and CEO of LabCorp next month, coming off a major 31-year stint at Big Pharma Merck, where he worked most recently as EVP and president of global human health. FierceBiotech
> Peer Schatz, longtime CEO of Netherlands-based Qiagen, will step down as chief and chairman of the company’s management board. The news comes as Qiagen said it would miss its third-quarter revenue forecasts and plans to reprioritize and reallocate in order to “free up resources” to better focus on its new partnership, including suspending its in-house work on developing NGS-related hardware, though it will continue supporting customers of its GeneReader next-gen system. FierceBiotech
> Johnson & Johnson's Janssen has had biopharma operations in Ringaskiddy, Ireland, for nearly 15 years. Now it has a new $350 million facility and added 200 jobs. The official opening, which was announced by IDA Ireland, boosted the site’s size by 19,100 square meters (205,590 square feet). “Our Ringaskiddy facility is an important part of our global manufacturing network and expanding our capabilities here will allow us to pursue innovative solutionsm” Kathy Wengel, J&J’s chief global supply chain officer, said in a statement. FiercePharmaManufacturing
> BeiGene this week said it has opened the 100,000-square-meter initial phase of its RMB 2.3 billion Guangzhou Bio-manufacturing Base, which it will use for commercial manufacturing of the oncology drugs it is developing. A spokesperson said in an email that about 180 people currently work on-site but that the company expects to have more than 200 employed there by early 2020. FiercePharmaManufacturing
> German biotech iOmx Therapeutics is shaking its C-suite with the appointments of Apollon Papadimitriou, Ph.D., as CEO and Marcus Irsfeld as CFO. Co-founder Nisit Khandelwal continues to serve as head of research and member of the executive management team. Prior to being named CEO, Papadimitriou was the company’s CDO. Release (PDF)
> Belgrade, Montana-based Xtant Medical Holdings has appointed Sean Browne as president and CEO. Browne most recently served as chief revenue officer at CCS Medical. Before that, he worked as COO of The Kini Group and president, CEO and director at Neuro Resource Group, among other positions. Release
> Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Cue Biopharma has promoted Anish Suri, Ph.D., to the role of president in addition to his current role as CSO. As president, Suri will assume operational and management oversight of corporate functions, as well as research and development activities. Prior to joining Cue Biopharma as CSO in July 2018, Suri held roles of increasing responsibility at Johnson & Johnson's Janssen. Release
> Santa Clara, California-based Ontera has named Mark Rose as VP of product management and Raparti Swayambhu as VP of software. Most recently, Rose was product lead at Google, where he launched the company’s popular Nest brand products. Swayambhu has held several software technical lead and senior engineering leadership roles at Sema4, Equinix, eProcrates, Cryptography and Genentech. Release