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.
Moderna mixes up board as co-founder Robert Langer leaves, philanthropist David Rubenstein joins
Moderna
Moderna’s board is undergoing major movement, including the departure of co-founder Robert Langer.
Langer, a chemical engineer, helped found the vaccine creator back in 2010. The scientist is one of nine Institute Professors at MIT—the highest title a faculty member can achieve at the university. He’s also the most cited engineer in history, according to his lab’s website. In 2015, Langer received the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering “for his revolutionary advances and leadership in engineering at the interface with chemistry and medicine.”
Meanwhile, Stephen Berenson, a managing partner at Flagship Pioneering, will also step down from the board. VC Flagship is the creator and incubator of Moderna.
Alternatively, co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group David Rubenstein will join the mRNA company’s board Aug. 5. The lawyer and philanthropist is a trustee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Institute for Advanced Study, among others. Fierce Biotech
Charles Baum takes over Terremoto
Terremoto Biosciences
Charles Baum, M.D., Ph.D., who oversaw Mirati Therapeutics' $5.8 billion sale to Bristol Myers Squibb last year, is taking the helm of young biotech Terremoto Biosciences.
He is replacing Peter Thompson, M.D., who will retain his seat as board chairperson.
Baum, a trained physician-scientist, was the founder, president and CEO of oncology-focused Mirati. Before that, he helped develop cancer drugs at Pfizer and Schering-Plough.
Terremoto is developing small molecules to target disease-causing proteins—like those found in cancerous tumor cells—using covalent bonds. The biotech raised $75 million in series A funding in 2022. A little more than a year later, the company more than doubled that number in a $175 million series B. Fierce Biotech
MEI Pharma says goodbye to CEO, CMO amid strategic review
MEI Pharma
As MEI Pharma seeks strategic alternatives, CEO David Urso and Chief Medical Officer Richard Ghalie, M.D., are set to step down Aug. 1.
Urso will depart from the board of directors, and both executives are slated to enter consulting agreements with the company. Board Chair Charles Baltic is also expected to step down. CFO Justin File will serve as acting CEO after Urso departs, while Frederick Driscoll will serve as chair of the board during the transition.
The company is undergoing a workforce reduction and terminating all clinical activities related to voruciclib, an oral CDK9 inhibitor that had been in development for acute myeloid leukemia and B-cell malignancies. Fierce Biotech
> Ron Cooper is the new leader of enGene Holdings, taking over the CEO role from Jason Hanson, who will remain as a strategic adviser. Raj Pruthi, M.D., has also been promoted to chief medical officer, taking over from Richard Bryce. Cooper most recently served as president and CEO of Albireo Pharma, which was acquired by Ipsen in 2023, and before that spent almost 30 years at BMS. Release
> Zymeworks has tapped Leone Patterson to serve as the biotech's EVP and chief business and financial officer starting Sept. 1. Patterson previously served as Tenaya Therapeutics' chief business and financial officer, and has worked in various roles across Adverum Biotechnologies, Diadexus, Transcept, Exelixis, Novartis and Chiron. Release
> Latigo Biotherapeutics has landed Nima Farzan as the biotech’s new leader. Farzan, who previously led Kinnate Biopharma through its $270 million IPO and April sale to Xoma, takes the reins from interim CEO Desmond Padhi, operating partner at Westlake Village BioPartners. Release
> Thomas Trimarchi, Ph.D., is the new president and chief operating officer of BridgeBio Pharma. Trimarchi was previously a chief product officer at the biotech, and, before that, he spent time at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Goldman Sachs. Release
> Beacon Therapeutics has appointed Lance Baldo, M.D., as CEO and Thomas Biancardi as chief financial officer. Baldo was most recently chief medical officer at Freenome, while Biancardi held roles at Ophthotech Corporation and Eyetech Pharmaceuticals. Release
> Geron’s chief commercial officer Anil Kapur is hitting the exit less than 50 days after the biotech won FDA approval for its first drug. Andrew Grethlein, Ph.D., Geron’s chief operating officer, will lead the commercial organization in the interim. Fierce Pharma
> SFA Therapeutics is appointing James Kirwin as chief operating officer. Kirwin comes to SFA from Arvinas, where he was executive director and global head of clinical operations. He has held leadership positions at Iterum Therapeutics, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Taiho Oncology, Medtronic Spine and Biologics, Intrexon Corporation, Pfizer, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and AstraZeneca. Release
> Off-the-shelf cancer vaccine company Epitopea has selected Alan Rigby, Ph.D., as CEO, while the company’s former leader Jon Moore transitions to the spot of chief scientific officer. Rigby was the previous CEO at U.S. biotech HiberCell, while Moore is an operating partner with Advent Life Sciences—one of Epitopea’s founding investors. Release
> Barely six months after Jay Carter announced his retirement, he’s back in the saddle as executive vice president of business development at CG Life. Carter spent more than 35 years at health-focused advertising agency AbelsonTaylor after getting his start in the mid-1980s at William Douglas McAdams. Fierce Pharma
> U.K.-based Metrion Biosciences is bringing on Chris Mathes, Ph.D., to serve as the CRO’s chief commercial officer. Mathes has more than 25 years of biopharma experience and has held executive titles at Sophion Bioscience, ChanTest (acquired by Charles River Laboratories), Icagen and AnaBios. Release
> CRO Allucent has tapped Paula Brown Stafford to take over as CEO, succeeding Mark Goldberg, M.D. Stafford previously helped grow CRO services at Quintiles (now IQVIA) and was the former CEO of Novan, a clinical biotech. Release