The pharma and biotech worlds have been a revolving door for Alessandro Riva, M.D., since 2017. Now, he's been poached by a relatively under-the-wraps biotech as its next CEO.
After 12 years at Novartis, Riva left in 2017 for a two-year stint as global head of oncology at Gilead Sciences and then departed in 2019 for a two-year stint at Glenmark spinoff Ichnos as CEO. Now, Riva takes the helm at Intima Bioscience.
During his brief tenure at Gilead, Riva helped in the $12 billion consummation of Kite Pharma and managed the U.S. and EU approvals of CAR-T cell therapy Yescarta, a B-cell lymphoma treatment. The treatment drove in $513 million in worldwide sales in the first nine months of this year compared to $434 million over the same period last year.
Riva is now tasked with leading a relatively unknown startup through the clinic. The biotech is in a phase 1/2 trial with its lead asset, a gene editing cell therapy that inhibits CISH, a gene that controls T-cell receptor signaling.
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The study is using CRISPR gene editing in patients with gastrointestinal and colon cancers. Intima began the trial in May 2020 and is enrolling about 20 patients with an estimated completion date of October 2022, according to ClinicalTrials.gov.
"By combining advances in the development of cell therapies with the targeting of the novel intracellular immune checkpoint CISH, Intima’s scientific approach is exceptionally promising for the treatment of a variety of cancers," Riva said in a statement.
Intima is also led by President and Chief Operating Officer Campbell Murray and Chief Scientific Officer Tom Henley, Ph.D. Murray was previously a Novartis Venture Fund managing director for the past 16 years. Henley joined Intima in August 2018 from Horizon Discovery, where he was head of innovation.