BioSpace Movers & Shakers, Dec. 20
Pfizer – Ian read and James Kilts will join the board of directors of Viatris, the company formed from the merger of Mylan NV and Upjohn, which is expected to be completed in mid-2020. The Viatris board will oversee a company with a combined global presence and a mission to serve the health needs of people around the world. Read currently serves as Pfizer’s executive chairman. In his previous role, he served as Pfizer's chairman and chief executive officer. During his tenure as CEO, Pfizer generated a total shareholder return of 250%, achieved 32 FDA approvals, invested significantly in R&D, and completed several transformational transactions to help strengthen Pfizer’s pipeline. Ian is the lead director of the Kimberly Clark Corporation. Kilts, a Pfizer director since 2007, has held numerous leadership roles in a wide range of companies. He has previously served as vice chairman of The Proctor and Gamble Company; chairman and CEO of The Gillette Company; president and CEO of Nabisco Group Holdings Corporation; and more. As previously announced, upon the completion of the transaction, Robert J. Coury will serve as the executive chairman of the Viatris board and Michael Goettler, current group president of Upjohn, will serve as CEO. Also, as previously announced, Read has chosen to retire from Pfizer’s board on Dec. 31, 2019. Kilts will cease being a member of Pfizer’s board immediately upon the closing of the transaction.
Mammoth Biosciences – Peter Nell and Ted Tisch joined San Francisco-based Mammoth Biosciences. Nell joined the company as its new chief business officer and head of therapeutics. In this role, he’ll leverage his business development and corporate strategy experience from Casebia Therapeutics and Bayer HealthCare to scale Mammoth’s CRISPR offering. Tisch joins as chief operations officer after four years at Synthego Corporation where he grew the company from 18 to 250 employees. At Synthego, he established the product development, manufacturing operations, and commercial program for two CRISPR-based product lines, CRISPRevolution and Engineered Cells. Previously, Tisch served as general manager for the $200 million Protein Function Division at Bio-Rad Laboratories with responsibilities spanning bioprocessing, multiplex immunoassay, imaging, and life science education programs.
Science 37 – Los Angeles-based Science 37 tapped Steven Geffon as its chief commercial officer. He will lead commercial operations and strategic partnerships. Geffon joins Science 37 from Medrio, a SaaS data capture platform, where he was responsible for sales and marketing as chief commercial officer. Prior to Medrio, Geffon spent nearly 15 years leading a period of explosive growth and profitability at ERT, a global data and technology company.
Guerbet – France-based Guerbet announced David Hale will become the company’s next CEO effective Jan. 1, 2020. Hale has served as CCO and a group executive committee member since February 2018. Hale takes over the position from Yves L'Epine, who has been CEO since end of 2011. Prior to Guerbet, Hale was with the Boston Consulting Group and then with GE Healthcare, where he spent most of his career in areas such as Service, Software and Medical Devices.
Sartorius – Germany-based Sartorius established a Scientific Advisory Board for its corporate research activities. The members of Sartorius’ Scientific Advisory Board are: Michael J. Betenbaugh, chairman of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University; Shana O. Kelley, a professor at the University of Toronto and a member of the Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Biomedical Engineering; Christine Mummery, head of the Department of Anatomy and Embryology at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands; Yoav Shechtman, assistant professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Lokey Interdisciplinary Center for Life Sciences & Engineering at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology; and Nigel Titchener-Hooker, Dean of Engineering at the University College London.
Immuneering Corporation – Scott Barrett takes over as chief medical officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based Immuneering Corporation. Prior to Immuneering, Barrett was the global medical affairs lead for Targeted Therapeutics at Incyte Pharmaceuticals, where he oversaw the strategic development of the company’s pipeline of targeted anti-cancer agents across both early and registrational-stage clinical trials. Before Incyte, Barrett served as senior director of clinical development for Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. Before his time at Infinisty, Barrett was director of clinical development of the Oncology Product Creations Unit for Eisai Pharmaceuticals Inc., and also served as the medical director of Oncology for Janssen Division of Johnson & Johnson Inc.
Cygnal Therapeutics – Elaine Caughey was tapped to serve as chief business officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based Cygnal Therapeutics. In this role, Caughey will drive the company's business development and corporate strategy, alliance management, and operations. Caughey joins Cygnal after serving as a consultant to The Blackstone Group, where she worked on late-stage life sciences investments. Previously, Caughey spent a number of years at Biogen as a senior director of business development, where she executed partnerships in oncology and led several in-licensing partnerships and acquisitions to expand Biogen's immunology pipeline. Prior to Biogen, she worked in business development and corporate venture at CYTYC Corporation, which was acquired by Hologic.
Muscular Dystrophy Association – The Muscular Dystrophy Association added two new members to its board of directors. Steven J. Farella will now serve as chairman of the board of MDA and Donald S. Wood will serve as the board vice chairman. Farella is transitioning from the head of the Governance Committee to the chairman role and has served on the board for several years. Farella has deep business experience and serves as the chairman of MDC Media Partners Board of Directors. Wood has served MDA since 1980, when he launched and managed their Task Force on Genetics that led to the discovery of the genetic cause of muscular dystrophy.
Millendo Therapeutics –Geoff Nichol was appointed to the board of directors of Michigan-based Millendo Therapeutics. Nichol currently serves as CMO at BioMarin where he oversees an active portfolio of clinical development programs and has led multiple programs through late-stage clinical studies and regulatory approval. Prior to joining the leadership team at BioMarin, Nichol led pre-clinical development of several IND candidates as the head of R&D at Sangamo. He previously held senior positions at Medarex Inc., Novartis and SmithKline Beecham.