Nadir MahmoodFor new Nkarta president Nadir Mahmood, home is where the heart is.
The five-year veteran of the NK cell therapy biotech is returning after a brief stint as CEO at Rezo Therapeutics. Mahmood spent less than a year at the University of California, San Francisco spinout after joining in July 2023 and departing last month. A spokesperson for Rezo said Mahmood left for personal reasons.
In a LinkedIn message, Mahmood said “the opportunity to join Nkarta was something that I couldn’t pass up.” He’ll now share executive leadership responsibilities with CEO Paul Hastings, who is keeping his title. Mahmood previously was Nkarta’s chief business and chief financial officer for three years. In the newly-created president role, he will be tasked with guiding larger corporate strategy, from pipeline plans to lifecycle management, according to Nkarta’s announcement.
In addition to announcing Mahmood’s return, Nkarta also expanded CMO David Shook’s title to include head of R&D. Both Shook and Mahmood will report to Hastings.
As for Rezo, the CEO duties are now shared by CSO Cristiana Guiducci and COO Krystal Fontaine. It’s a heck of a start for Guiducci, who herself was just announced as chief scientist this week. The biotech launched in November 2022 out of the lab of UCSF scientist Nevan Krogan, equipped with $78 million in early capital. The company’s board counts a few biotech bigwigs, including Vir founder and ex-CEO George Scangos, SR One CEO Simeon George and a16z’s Vineeta Agarwala.
Rezo uses computation based on proteomic and genetic data to map disease networks. The company hopes those networks will help shape a more precise drug development process against disease-causing proteins.
— Max Bayer
Merdad Parsey→ Gilead CEO Daniel O’Day has some time to find a replacement for medical chief Merdad Parsey, and it feels like an enormous decision in the life of a company that hasn’t had the greatest luck with its choice of partnerships. Parsey, who came to Gilead in 2019 from Genentech, will stay on “until the first quarter of 2025,” the California pharma said in a statement.
Although Gilead’s tie-up with Galapagos predated Parsey’s tenure, the cracks started to show in 2020, when their star drug filgotinib got a surprising rejection from the FDA for rheumatoid arthritis. Subsequent clinical failures have also dogged the two companies.
Meanwhile, other partnerships have stumbled. Gilead scrapped development of anti-CD47 antibody magrolimab, the centerpiece of the Forty Seven buyout. Trodelvy, the ADC from the $21 billion deal for Immunomedics, flopped in a lung cancer study and in a confirmatory trial in bladder cancer.
But the next CMO will also inherit a strong HIV pipeline and play a pivotal role in its nascent obesity efforts. And we’ll find out soon whether Gilead can flip the script with its recent acquisition of CymaBay: The decision date for the primary biliary cholangitis drug seladelpar is Aug. 14.
→ Aaron Rosenberg will take over for Julia Wang as CFO of BeiGene on July 22. Rosenberg pivots to the Brukinsa maker after 21 years at Merck, where he has been SVP of finance and corporate treasurer since July 2021. Wang left Alexion to join BeiGene in 2020 as deputy CFO, and she’ll stay “through August to support the transition,” according to the release. BeiGene CEO John Oyler told Endpoints News in May that partnerships were top of mind going forward. “We’d love to find ways to leverage what we have — whether it’s manufacturing capability, platforms, ADCs or degraders or different therapeutic areas — and find smart ways to work together,” Oyler said.
Terry-Ann Burrell→ Beam Therapeutics CFO Terry-Ann Burrell will leave on Aug. 9 and return to JPMorgan Chase as vice chairman of investment banking. Burrell had an 11-year career at JP Morgan and was managing director in the healthcare investment banking group before she joined Beam in August 2019. “Terry-Ann has been an invaluable member of our team over the last five years, and her leadership was instrumental in the success of our IPO, the build-out of our finance and corporate affairs functions, and the development of Beam’s organization and culture,” Beam CEO John Evans said in a statement.
Daniel Janse→ In its second change at the top this year, ORI Capital-backed cell therapy maker AffyImmune has tapped Daniel Janse as CEO. There’s no mention of his predecessor, Matt Britz, in the release; Britz had been promoted to CEO in March after two years as operations chief. Janse held the roles of CBO and COO at Arbor Biotechnologies and then pivoted to Northpond Ventures, where he was managing director for the last six months of his tenure. ORI Capital’s Simone Song told Kyle LaHucik that a Series B financing round is in the works, three years removed from what AffyImmune called a $30 million “Series A+” in October 2021.
Eric Adam→ Long non-coding RNA startup Haya Therapeutics has poached an exec from Roche to fill its COO post. Eric Adam had worked at the Swiss pharma since 2019 as global head of operations within neuroscience and rare diseases on the pharma research and early development (pRED) team. He’s also the ex-director of strategic alliances for Otsuka. Based in Lausanne, Switzerland and chaired by Metagenomi CEO Brian Thomas, Haya has kept a low profile in the three years since its $20 million seed funding.
Sheldon Sloan→ There’s a stack of comings and goings to sift through from Abivax, the French inflammatory disease biotech led by ex-Ipsen CEO Marc de Garidel. First, J&J and Pfizer vet Sheldon Sloan is retiring as CMO, and commercial chief Michael Ferguson is also out after a year on the job. Next, Abivax has lined up ex-Landos Biopharma CMO Fabio Cataldi for the same position and David Zhang as chief strategy officer. Cataldi is a Pfizer and Arena alum who worked for AbbVie — the company that bought Landos — as team lead for gastroenterology and immunology in global pharmaceutical R&D from 2017-19. Zhang had been chief information officer and SVP, biometrics and data management for Alumis, which just went public in a $250 million downsized IPO last month. And Sylvie Grégoire will replace de Garidel as chair of a board that will be down to seven members with the resignation of Carol Brosgart.
Raj Kannan→ The dominoes continue to fall at I-Mab after changing its game plan in February by becoming a US-based biotech and divesting its China operations into a new company, I-Mab Biopharma (Hangzhou). CEO Raj Kannan is out, along with interim chair Pamela Klein, who will no longer be on the board of directors. Sean Xi-Yong Fu is filling in as interim CEO, while CBC Group CEO Wei Fu has stepped up as interim chairman. Ruyi He and Rong Shao have also resigned from I-Mab’s board. In April, the company told Endpoints News that three other resignations were “all related to the divestiture of China operations”: CBO Weimin Tang, communications chief Gigi Qi Feng and chief legal officer Richard Cheng Li. Joseph Skelton took over from Richard Yeh as CFO, and R&D leader Andrew Zhu resigned on Feb. 10.
→ Oxford, UK-based Nucleome Therapeutics has picked up Mark Bodmer as its new CEO. Bodmer had been CSO and president of R&D at Evelo Biosciences since 2016. Prior to that, he was VP of new medicines at UCB and SVP of immune-inflammation at GSK. He’s also served in the top post at Hexagen, Lorantis and Biotica.
Mittie Doyle→ Mittie Doyle has left Aro Biotherapeutics to take the CMO job at immune dysregulation specialist Avalo Therapeutics. Doyle had been medical chief for Sue Dillon and Karyn O’Neil’s crew at Aro since September 2021 and is the former global therapeutic area head, immunology with CSL Behring. Avalo got the go-ahead last week to begin the Phase 2 LOTUS study of its monoclonal antibody AVTX-009 for hidradenitis suppurativa.
Lucinda Crabtree→ Lucinda Crabtree will succeed Stuart Paynter as CFO of cell and gene therapy CDMO Oxford Biomedica on Sept. 2. Crabtree took over from Sung Lee last August at MorphoSys, the German cancer biotech that Novartis is acquiring for $2.9 billion. She also had several roles at CAR-T cell therapy maker Autolus, where she was elevated to CFO in April 2022.
→ Staying in the UK, Mogrify has named Jonathan Appleby as CSO after six years of holding this title at the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult. Previously, in his eight years with GSK, Appleby served as CSO for cell and gene therapy in the pharma giant’s rare diseases unit. Mogrify’s pipeline includes preclinical candidates in sensorineural hearing loss, retinal degeneration and type 1 diabetes.
Jeremy Gowler→ Jeremy Gowler has succeeded the retiring Nancy Koch as CEO of Ophirex, which is developing the ex-Eli Lilly drug varespladib for the treatment of venomous snakebites. Gowler was COO and chief commercial officer at Invivyd, and he stepped in as interim CEO when David Hering left on May 11. Invivyd has yet to fill the position.
Bharat Reddy→ Bharat Reddy has moved on to Atlas-backed ABC transporter biotech Rectify Pharmaceuticals as CBO. Reddy helped orchestrate a deal with Astellas for $40 million upfront that could be worth almost $800 million when he was VP, strategy and business development for Kelonia Therapeutics. He also led BD operations at the now-shuttered Catamaran Bio and spent close to four years with bluebird bio.
→ South Korea-based HanAll Biopharma has recruited Chris Slavinsky as chief business development and legal officer. Slavinsky recently had a yearlong stint as chief business and legal officer of Coherus BioSciences, lining up a deal with Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs and the purchase of Surface Oncology. The 17-year Pfizer vet also had a quick cup of coffee with Prometheus Biosciences as general counsel and head of business development.
Tiffany Muller→ Swiss cancer vaccine biotech Nouscom, which picked up a $72 million Series C last year, has promoted Tiffany Muller to CFO and Loredana Siani to SVP, technical and CMC development. Muller joined Nouscom back in 2019 as VP of finance, and later in 2023, she moved up to SVP. Before Nouscom, Muller was with Aramark. Siani, meanwhile, hopped aboard in 2020 as technical director from Reithera. Earlier in her career, Siani was GMP manufacturing head at Advent GMP Facility (now Advaxia Biologics).
Mike Zaranek→ Elsewhere, Velocity Clinical Research has brought on Mike Zaranek as CFO. Zaranek previously held roles at IQVIA as VP of finance and at Science 37, where he was also finance chief.
→ SFA Therapeutics has named James Kirwin as COO. Kirwin joins the Pennsylvania-based team from Arvinas, where he was executive director, global head of clinical operations. Before that, Kirwin had stints at Iterum Therapeutics, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Taiho Oncology, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
Tamara Dillon→ Now under the leadership of CEO Michel Dahan, Alkeus Pharmaceuticals has brought in Tamara Dillon as chief human resources officer. The Genzyme and NIBR vet worked with Dahan for years at Akebia, where he vaulted to COO and Dillon led human resources. She recently spent a year as chief people officer for ultrasound device maker Butterfly Network.
Dieter Weinand→ Here’s yet another company that ex-Bayer boss Dieter Weinand currently chairs: He’ll be joined on the board at San Francisco-based Meliora Therapeutics by JJ Bienaimé, the new chairman of Owkin who picked up board seats at Keros Therapeutics and Immunome after announcing his retirement from BioMarin. Weinand also chairs the boards of Fore Biotherapeutics, Confo Therapeutics, Replimune and Umoja Biopharma, among others.
Nancy Simonian→ Flagship Pioneering growth partner Chris Schade has replaced Noubar Afeyan as chairman of Alltrna, the tRNA startup that loaded up on cash last summer with a $109 million Series B. Longtime Ionis exec Lynne Parshall, Bristol Myers Squibb’s chief research officer Robert Plenge and ex-Syros Pharmaceuticals CEO Nancy Simonian have also punched their tickets on the board.
→ Ultragenyx CEO Emil Kakkis is the second addition to the board of directors this year at Actio Biosciences, which scored a $55 million Series A last September to advance its Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2C program. Actio appointed The Scripps Research Institute’s Ben Cravatt to the board in May.
Mark McKenna→ NewAmsterdam Pharma has expanded its board of directors by appointing ex-Prometheus Biosciences chief Mark McKenna and Forbion general partner Wouter Joustra. McKenna now leads Mirador Therapeutics, which made a splashy $400 million debut in March, and Joustra has board seats at VectorY, Beacon Therapeutics and enGene.
Andrew Saik→ Heart disease biotech Milestone Pharmaceuticals has elected former Guggenheim Securities senior managing director Stuart Duty and new Arvinas CFO Andrew Saik to the board of directors. Debra Liebert and Richard Pasternak are not seeking reelection.
→ Ex-Amarin CEO Joe Zakrzewski has been named chairman of Atsena Therapeutics. The North Carolina gene therapy developer laid off an undisclosed number of employees last fall and said it was “exploring options to partner or out-license” its GUCY2D-associated Leber congenital amaurosis candidate ATSN-101.
→ Humacyte has welcomed John Bamforth and Tony Jones to its board of directors. Bamforth retired from Lilly in 2018 as chief marketing officer for Lilly Bio-Medicines, and Jones is the chief physician executive of the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System.