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.
Gilead gains Arcus Biosciences CMO to lead the Big Pharma's pact with the biotech
Gilead
Bill Grossman, M.D., Ph.D., is leaving Arcus Biosciences to join Gilead as SVP of oncology clinical research.
And, in an odd twist, Grossman will be running the Big Pharma's collaboration with, you guessed it, Arcus. Grossman is leaving his post as chief medical officer effective July 26 to take up the Gilead role, in which he'll lead co-development and co-commercialization of a 10-year agreement between the companies. The agreement, entered into about 14 months ago, gives Gilead access to multiple investigational assets from Arcus, including a TIGIT program. Grossman began consulting for Gilead around December, while still helming the chief medical position.
Kartik Krishnan, M.D., Ph.D., will fill the clinical development gap left by Grossman. Krishnan is currently senior vice president of clinical development at the biotech. The two will continue working together through Arcus' pact with Gilead. Fierce Biotech
Merck loses oncology executive to cell therapy biotech ArsenalBio
ArsenalBio
Nicholas Haining is joining ArsenalBio, the biotech that he co-founded, as chief scientific officer.
He's leaving a brief stint in Big Pharma, where he led discovery oncology and immunology at Merck, to work on cell therapies at ArsenalBio. Prior to Merck, Haining was an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. The co-founder joins the biotech in a C-suite role just four months after ArsenalBio added a chief financial officer and chief technical operations officer, and half a year after the company inked a discovery deal with Bristol Myers Squibb. Fierce Biotech
Regeneron's program manager for Dupixent leaves to be CMO at Tectonic Therapeutic
Tectonic Therapeutic
Marcella Ruddy, M.D., joins Tectonic Therapeutic as chief medical officer.
Ruddy's appointment is a seismic hire for the pre-clinical biotech. She was program manager of Regeneron's blockbuster asthma and eczema drug Dupixent, which raked in about $4 billion in sales last year for Regeneron and partner Sanofi. Ruddy also led the immunology and inflammation development pipeline at Regeneron as vice president for the global program.
Ruddy joins a few months after the biotech raised $80 million in series A funds and two months after the hiring of Novartis' Peter McNamara, Ph.D., as head of research. Fierce Biotech
> Rome Therapeutics made three hires for its scientific leadership team: David Proia, Ph.D., as VP of Oncology; Menachem Fromer, Ph.D., as head of data science; and Sarah Knutson, Ph.D., as senior director of early discovery. Proia comes from C4 Therapeutics; Fromer joins from Google's research unit Verily Life Sciences; and Knutson previously led the biology team at RNA startup Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics. Fierce Biotech
> Dominik Hartl, M.D., joined Quell Therapeutics as chief medical officer. Hartl joined the T-regulatory cell therapy biotech from the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, where he was therapeutic area head of translational medicine for autoimmunity, transplantation and inflammation. Release
> GlaxoSmithKline's board appointed Brian McNamara CEO Designate of GSK Consumer Healthcare, which will be listed on the London Stock Exchange under a proposed demerger from GSK in 2022. The company is a joint venture between GSK and Pfizer. Release
> Arena Pharmaceuticals hired former Kleo Pharmaceuticals CEO Douglas J. Manion, M.D., as executive vice president of R&D. Prior to leading Kleo, which was acquired by Biohaven in January, Manion was head of R&D for Japan and China at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Release
> DNA sequencing platform biotech Element Biosciences hired former BridgeBio Chief Operating Officer Brian Stolz as chief people officer. Alongside Stolz, Element said it added Diana King as vice president of customer support and Jordan Neysmith as vice president of engineering. Release
> Cellarity, with drug discovery programs across metabolic disease, hematology, immuno-oncology and respiratory disease, hired David Risinger as chief financial officer. Risinger is leaving Morgan Stanley, where he was managing director and head of equity research of U.S. major and specialty pharmaceuticals. Release
> Compass Pathways, focused on mental health care, hired Danielle Schlosser, Ph.D., as senior vice president of clinical innovation. Schlosser joins from Verily Life Sciences, where she was a behavioral health lead at the Google sister company. Release
> Glympse Bio named Matthew T. Navarro its first chief financial officer. Navarro joins the biotech from Perella Weinberg Partners, where he was a managing director leading East Coast biopharma coverage and previously held stints at Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital and Pfizer. Release
> Decentralized clinical trials-focused company Hawthorne Effect named Abhishek Sengupta as chief commercial officer and Rick Stewart as chief financial officer. Sengupta joins from Change Healthcare, where he was senior vice president of go-to-market strategy and sales, and Stewart comes from stints as CFO at Wealth-X, Webcollage and others. Release
> LightDeck Diagnostics rearranged its leadership team with Nick Traggis moving up to CEO from executive vice president of corporate development. Chris Myatt transitioned from CEO to chief innovation officer, and Robert J. Silverman was named executive chair of the board. Release
> Early‑stage gene therapy biotech Renovacor named Elizabeth White, Ph.D., as chief business officer and senior vice president of operations. White previously was chief business and strategy officer for NeuExcell Therapeutics, another gene therapy startup. Release
> Recro Pharma, a contract development and manufacturing organization, hired Erica Raether as the company’s first vice president of people, culture and ESG. Raether comes from Ajinomoto Bio Pharma Services, where she was vice president of human resources in the U.S. Release
> Heart failure medtech company Axon Therapies named former Abbott heart failure therapies division lead Chad Hoskins as CEO. Hoskins comes from Outset Medical, where he was general manager of home and vice president of strategy for the dialysis company that went public in September. Release
> Kimberley Warren, Ph.D., joined GreenLight Biosciences, maker of a COVID-19 vaccine hopeful, as senior vice president of business development for human health. Warren joins from Epizyme, where she was vice president of business development. Release
> Teva Pharmaceutical Industries shook up its leadership team with Brendan O’Grady, executive vice president of North America Commercial leaving to pursue another career path. Sven Dethlefs, a current EVP, will fill O'Grady's spot. Teva also promoted Mark Sabag to EVP of International Markets Commercial; Galia Inbar moved up to EVP and chief human resources officer; and Eli Shani steps up to EVP of global marketing and portfolio. Release
> Timothy Zheng, Ph.D., joined Cygnal Therapeutics as senior vice president of biology. He joins from Boehringer Ingelheim, where he was executive director of Immune Modulation, and previously was at Biogen for 17 years across immunology and neuroimmunology.