Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Gabrielle Masson and it will be featured here at the end of each week.
Metabolic disorder biotech taps former Pfizer vet to serve as CMO
MBX Biosciences
Longtime biopharma leader Salomon (Sam) Azoulay, M.D., has joined endocrine and metabolic disorder-focused MBX Biosciences, where he’ll serve as chief medical officer.
Azoulay most recently served as CMO at Roivant spinout Sumitovant Biopharma. Before that, he had held the same title at the parent company for almost two years.
Prior to Roivant, the physician-scientist spent 19 years serving in various leadership roles at Pfizer, including CMO of Pfizer Essential Health.
At MBx, Azoulay will guide global clinical development of the company’s precision peptide therapy pipeline. Release
Microbiome-based MaaT welcomes ex-Autolus leader on as CMO
MaaT Pharma
Microbiome-based biotech MaaT Pharma is welcoming Gianfranco Pittari, M.D., Ph.D., aboard as chief medical officer.
Pittari joins MaaT from CAR-T company Autolus, where he was EVP of clinical development. Before that, Pittari served as director and senior clinical trial physician at Celgene-Bristol Myers Squibb and played a key role in the development of Abecma, a CAR-T approved to treat multiple myeloma.
He’s also previously worked as a senior consultant for hematology and bone marrow transplant at the National Center for Cancer Care and Research in the State of Qatar. Release
Former Seagen execs take Shape
Shape Therapeutics
David Epstein and Todd Simpson, Seagen’s former chief executive and chief financial officer, respectively, have both taken board roles at Shape Therapeutics.
Shape is developing artificial intelligence and RNA editing technologies that’ll eventually be used to create potential treatments for a wide range of diseases.
Epstein and Simpson together boast several decades of experience across the life sciences industry. Before being named CEO of Seagen in 2022—a posting that lasted until the biotech’s acquisition by Pfizer late last year—Epstein served as an executive partner at Flagship Pioneering. He also spent time at Novartis, a tenure that included helping to establish its oncology and molecular diagnostic units and serving as CEO of the pharmaceuticals division.
This is Epstein’s second recent appointment to the board of an AI-focused company: Earlier this year, he joined Tempus, which is developing algorithms to be used in therapeutic R&D.
Simpson, meanwhile, has held financial leadership roles at Integra LifeSciences, Telios Pharmaceuticals, Targeted Genetics and Vericel, then known as Aastrom Biosciences.
Though Epstein and Simpson moved on after the Pfizer buy was complete, some Seagen execs did stay aboard the combined company, including Megan O'Meara, M.D., senior VP and head of clinical development, who took on the same role in Pfizer’s oncology division, and Roger Dansey, M.D., formerly Seagen’s president of R&D and now Pfizer’s chief development officer of oncology. Release
> Moma Therapeutics has a pair of new execs. Marc Ballas, M.D., previously the global head of clinical development and operations at Novocure and a former leader at GSK, AstraZeneca and Bristol Myers Squibb, has been named head of clinical development. Meanwhile, Adam Thomas, whose own career includes stops at Synlogic, Shire, Pfizer and SC Johnson, will now serve as Moma’s chief people and experience officer. Release
> It’s the end of eFFECTOR Therapeutics, with CEO Stephen Worland, Ph.D., Chief Financial Officer Michael Byrnes and Chief Medical Officer Douglas Warner, M.D., all out the door as the company winds down. The board of directors has tapped Craig Jalbert—a principal at Verdolino & Lowey—to lead the shuttering as CEO, president, treasurer, secretary and sole board member. Fierce Biotech
> Peter Flynn, Ph.D., is the new CEO and president of autoimmune neuropsychiatry biotech Arialys Therapeutics. Flynn arrives at Arialys after spending about half a decade as co-founder and chief operating officer of Artiva Biotherapeutics, where he’s stayed on as a strategic adviser since April 2023. Prior to that, he held leadership roles in R&D at Fate Therapeutics, Ren Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals. Release
> Not long after spinning out of Paragon Therapeutics as a standalone public company, Oruka Therapeutics is bulking up its C-suite. Paul Quinlan, former general counsel for CymaBay Therapeutics, has taken on the same role at Oruka, while Alan Lada has been appointed VP of investor relations at the chronic skin disease drug maker, following a stint as VP of equity capital markets at Guggenheim Partners. Release
> Ahead of the release of pivotal study results for its synthetic psilocybin treatment in treatment-resistant depression, Compass Pathways has found a new chief commercial officer. Lori Englebert, who will take on the role as of July 8, hails from Axsome Therapeutics, where she most recently served as executive VP of product strategy. Before that, she spent more than a decade at Amgen, culminating in a role as global marketing lead for the Big Pharma’s hematology/oncology unit. Release
> Ari Gesher has been named head of technology for Parallel Bio, which is using AI to discover new disease targets and potential treatments. Gesher has spent much of his career in Silicon Valley, most recently serving as CTO of aerospace company Insight M and, before that, putting in more than a decade at Palantir Technologies. Release
> After a pivot from anti-cancer vaccines to gene therapy alternative tech, Release Therapeutics (formerly MaxiVax) has appointed Thomas Mehrling, M.D., Ph.D., to lead as CEO. Mehrling has more than 25 years of industry experience, previously clocking in time at Takeda, Mundipharma International and Hoffmann-La Roche. Release
> Erik Ostrowski has joined Akebia Therapeutics to take on the wide-ranging title of SVP, chief financial officer, chief business officer, treasurer and principal financial officer. The expansive role is nothing new for the leader; Ostrowski most recently served as president, interim CEO, chief financial officer and treasurer at Avrobio, a gene therapy biotech that just completed a merger with Tectonic Therapeutic. Release
> Along with closing a $900 million fund, Foresite Capital has promoted Hyung Chun, M.D., and Cindy Xiong, Ph.D., to partners, according to an emailed press release from a Foresite spokesperson. Chun joined the life sciences investment firm in 2021 from Yale School of Medicine, where he was a tenured professor, while Xiong joined Foresite in 2019 as a member of the investment team after serving as Agenovir’s first scientist.