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 Fraiser Kansteiner, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Pfizer's CMO Rothenberg hits the exit, handing over the reins to Stanford's Habtezion
Pfizer
Chief Medical Officer Mace Rothenberg, M.D., is passing the mantle to Aida Habtezion, M.D.
Rothenberg is hitting the exit after 12 years at Pfizer, where he moved up the company’s oncology research division to become CMO in early 2019. In Rothenberg’s second year as chief scientist, Pfizer became one of the driving forces in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The company in March tapped Rothenberg to appear in a series of social media videos as part of Pfizer’s #KnowtheFacts about COVID-19 campaign. Assuming the CMO role is Habtezion, a physician-scientist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, who also boasts six years experience as a clinical, integrative and molecular gastroenterology study section member at the National Institutes of Health. She’ll also serve as head of worldwide medical and safety within Worldwide Research, Development and Medicine at Pfizer. Fierce Biotech
Nabel to leave Brigham to join ex-Sanofi CSO husband at biotech startup
Brigham and Women's Hospital
President Betsy Nabel, M.D., is stepping down.
After more than a decade as president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Nabel is stepping down on March 1, reportedly to join her husband Gary Nabel, former CSO of Sanofi, at a stealthy biotech startup. During her stint at Brigham, Nabel tried to increase the hospital’s role in developing health technologies, helping set up a Translational Accelerator to support researchers plotting new inventions. Brigham’s revenues grew from $2.9 billion to $4.3 billion during Nabel’s 11-year tenure. She recently told The Boston Globe she would start working with her husband at a startup focused on immune therapies for cancer and infectious diseases once she hits the exit. Meanwhile, Nabel’s post on Moderna’s board drew fire last year after she penned an op-ed arguing the “innovation ecosystem is now under assault” from politicians who want to impose price controls. Nabel resigned from Moderna’s board in July. Fierce Biotech
Ex-Myovant chief Seely makes way for Amgen alum Marek as company gears up for Orgovyx launch
Myovant Sciences
CEO Lynn Seely, M.D., hands the baton to Dave Marek.
Marek joins Myovant just two weeks after the company’s drug Orgovyx (relugolix) was approved for adults with advanced prostate cancer and one week after it penned a development and commercialization partnership with Big Pharma Pfizer. He comes on board from Axsome Therapeutics, where he was chief commercial officer, helping lay the groundwork for the expected launches of multiple CNS disorder drugs. Prior to his time there, Marek spearheaded the launch of Amgen’s migraine drug Aimovig and co-led the company’s U.S. commercial partnership with Novartis. Marek had stints at Saatchi and Saatchi Healthcare Advertising before that. He’s taking the reins from Lynn Seely, M.D., Myovant’s CEO since June 2016. Fierce Biotech
> U.K.-based Abzena has promoted chief operating officer Kimball Hall as president. Hall will continue to hold her COO role and has also been added to the company board. Release
> Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech Amylyx named Erin Whitney as head of global clinical operations and Keith White as head of global market access and has also appointed brand strategy consultant Shauna Horvath to head of global marketing. Whitney joins the team from bluebird bio, while Merck and Genentech veteran White was most recently VP, global market access and pricing at Corbus Pharmaceuticals. Horvath joined Amylyx as a consultant in 2019. Release
> Culver City, California’s ImmunityBio tapped Fabio M. Benedetti, M.D., as chief strategy officer, effective Jan. 4. Should ImmunityBio’s NantKwest merger close, Benedetti is expected to assume the role of CSO at the combined company, ImmunityBio said. Benedetti joins from combination therapy specialist Apollomics, where he was chief medical officer. Release
> Pliant Therapeutics named Gregory Cosgrove, M.D., as vice president of clinical development. Cosgrove joins Pliant from the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, where he was chief medical officer. At Pliant, Cosgrove will lead the strategic execution of the company’s idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis clinical development program. Release
> PureTech Health has hired on George Farmer, Ph.D., as chief financial officer. Farmer was most recently a senior biotechnology equity analyst at BMO Capital Markets, where he worked for 15 years. Before that, Farmer was CEO of Cortice Biosciences, a privately held biotech focused on therapies for brain malignancies and neurodegenerative diseases. Release
> Clinical diagnostics specialist Novacyt named James McCarthy as chief financial officer, while former CFO Anthony Dyer shifted into the role of chief corporate development officer. McCarthy joins after a stint as CFO of Flint Group. Release
> Health information firm SomaLogic tapped a trio of new leaders. The company named Angela Bakker Lee, Ph.D., as executive vice president for healthcare markets, Tracy Hervey as EVP for life sciences markets and David McGovern as senior vice president of marketing. Bakker Lee previously served as chief strategy officer for AI text analytics platform provider Quid. Hervey was most recently chief commercial officer at Amplity Health, while McGovern signs on from Big Pharma Pfizer, where he led U.S. payer strategic marketing for a specialty portfolio. Release
> Connect Biopharma has set up a scientific advisory board of leaders well versed in the development and approval of novel therapies for inflammatory conditions. Inaugural members include John Fahy, M.D.; Brian Feagan, M.D.; Emma Guttman-Yassky, M.D., Ph.D.; Edward Kerwin, M.D.; David Rubin, M.D.; Bruce Strober, M.D., Ph.D.; and Stuart Swiedler, M.D., Ph.D. Release
> Seattle’s Sana Biotechnology named Ke Liu, M.D., Ph.D., as head of regulatory affairs and strategy. Liu was previously at the U.S. FDA for more than 17 years. Most recently, he was associate director for cell and gene therapy at the agency’s Oncology Center of Excellence and chief of the oncology branch in the Office of Tissues and Advanced Therapies at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Release
> San Diego’s Viking Therapeutics has promoted Greg Zante, senior vice president of finance, to chief financial officer. The company also promoted Marianne Mancini, senior vice president of clinical operations, to chief operating officer. Zante was chief financial officer at Dance Biopharm before joining Viking, while Mancini served as senior director of clinical operations at Ambit Biosciences. Release
> MorphoSys has tapped Sung Lee as chief financial officer, effective Feb. 2. Lee will replace Jens Holstein, who stepped down in December. Before joining MorphoSys, Lee was chief financial officer at Sangamo Therapeutics. Release
> Erasca hired on Wei Lin, M.D., as chief medical officer, while David Chacko, M.D., chief business officer at the company, is taking up the mantle of chief financial officer from Gary Yeung, who’s moved onto pastures new. Lin joins from Nektar Therapeutics, where he was senior vice president and head of development as well as a member of the executive committee. Release
Editor's note: This story was updated to correct an error.