Biotech and pharma companies strengthen their leadership teams with these appointments. Who made power moves in the industry this past week?
Life Biosciences, Inc. – Boston-based Life Biosciences, Inc. named Bracken Darrell, chief executive officer of Logitech International, a provider of cloud and mobile peripherals, to its board of directors.
TransMed Systems – Carla Balch has assumed the reins at Memphis, Tenn.-based TransMed Systems. She is the second CEO in the company’s history. Balch replaces Nick Berens, who remains a member of the company board of directors. Prior to TransMed, Balch served as president of NantCare, an oncology company that is a division of NantWorks. She also served as president and CEO of Altos Solutions, a web-based oncology electronic medical record company until it was acquired by Flatiron Health.
In addition to Balch, TransMed also named Jeff Edenfield as its first chief medical officer. An oncologist, Edenfield serves as an associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.
Sinclair Pharma – Doug Abel has resigned his position as head of North America and president of Silhouette Lift, Inc., a division of Sinclair Pharma. Amber Edwards was appointed president of Silhouette Lift, Inc., and head of North America for Sinclair Pharma. Edwards most recently served as vice president of international strategic marketing, at Allergan. Prior to that role with Allergan, Edwards was head of marketing for Allergan’s blockbuster dry eye treatment Restasis.
DalCor -- Peter Schuepbach was named vice president of technical operations at DalCor. Schuepbach will lead product development and supply chain management of the Phase III asset, dalcetrapib. The dal-GenE study is evaluating the efficacy of the CETP inhibitor dalcetrapib to reduce clinical cardiovascular events in patients with the AA ADCY9 genotype who have had a recent acute coronary event. Prior to DalCor, he served as executive vice president for technical operations at Finox Biotech, an innovative Swiss start-up company.
Shuwen Biotech – Irina Buhimshci was tapped as an advisor to China-based Shuwen Biotech. Buhimshci is the director of the Center for Perinatal Research in the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and also a professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynecology at The Ohio State. Buhimschi’s laboratory was the first to identify misfolding of proteins and proteostasis derangements in preeclampsia similar to those in Alzheimer’s disease. The lab also developed the Congo Red test for diagnosis of preeclampsia. Shuwen Biotech licensed the patented technologies and developed a low cost non-invasive point-of-care detection device for preeclampsia which is expected to be launched in the coming months.
Glympse Bio – Cambridge, Mass.-based Glympse Bio named Caroline Loew as its president and CEO. Loew joined Glympse from Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she most recently served as vice president and head of R&D Strategy and Planning. In addition to Loew taking over the reins at Glympse, the company also expanded its board with several appointments. Glympse’s co-founder, Sangeeta Bhatia will lead the Scientific Advisory Board The company also appointed Stanley Lapidus as chairman, and Robert Langer was also named to the board of directors.
eGenesis -- William “Wes” Westlin was named head of research and development at Cambridge, Mass.-based eGenesis. Prior to eGenesis, Westlin served as vice president of research and early development at Nimbus Therapeutics and Avila Therapeutics. Before that, he served as the senior vice president for Preclinical Research at Praecis Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for preclinical research and early development in oncology, immunology, inflammation biology, and Alzheimer’s disease programs.
Concept Life Sciences – Concept Life Sciences formed its scientific advisory board for the drug discovery and development side of the business. The SAB will provide Concept with advice to in basic research and medicine to guide the company’s strategy. The SAB will be chaired by Trevor Jones, CBE FMedSci, along with Stephen Anderton, group head of Translational Biology and Paul Doyle, Concept’s chief scientific officer. They will be joined by three external members, Christian Ottensmeier, professor of experimental medicine at the University of Southampton; Janet Lord, director of the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham; and Ian Cox, CEO of Zebra Therapeutics.
Orchard Therapeutics –Alicia Secor, the former president and CEO of Juniper Pharmaceuticals, was named to the board of directors of U.K.-based Orchard Therapeutics. Secor brings more than 25 years of life sciences leadership with a particular focus in rare disease to Orchard. Prior to her tenure at Juniper, Secor held numerous leadership roles at Zafden, Inc., including chief commercial officer. She also held leadership roles at Synageva BioPharma and Genzyme.
LifeMax – Kirk Johnson was named vice president of preclinical development at California-based LifeMax. Johnson will be responsible for and provide strategic leadership to all aspects of nonclinical development for the entire pipeline.
Confo Therapeutics – Belgium-based Confo Therapeutics named Frank Landolt as its chief counsel of legal and intellectual property. Landolt joined Confo from Ablynx, which is now a subsidiary of Sanofi. At Ablynx he was vice president of legal and IP. Prior to Ablynx he was head of IP and legal at Devgen, another Belgian biotech company.
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