Biotech and pharma companies strengthen their leadership teams and boards with new hires and appointments.
Akrevia Therapeutics -- Joseph Farmer has been appointed as chief operating officer of Cambridge, Mass.-based Akrevia Therapeutics, a company that launched last year with backing from Atlas and F-Prime. In this newly-established role at Akrevia, Farmer will lead the company’s business development, finance, administrative and business operations functions. Farmer brings more than 20 years of industry experience working with companies at all stages of development, through commercialization. Prior to Akrevia, he most recently served as senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary at Tesaro, Inc. Before Tesaro, Farmer was chief corporate counsel at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to Cubist, Farmer was the chief administrative officer and general counsel at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Lytix Biopharma – James Allison, head of immunotherapy at MD Anderson Cancer Clinic and a Nobel Prize winner for medicine joined the scientific advisory board of Sweden-based Lytix Biopharma. Allison’s current research is focused on improving the utility of checkpoint blockade and identifying new targets to unleash the immune system to eradicate cancer. In addition to Allison, Padmanee Sharma, co-Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at MD Anderson, also joined the Lytic SAB.
Isofol Medical AB – Sweden-based Isofol added three members to its board of directors, Anna Belfrage, Pär-Ola Mannefred and Robert Marchesani. Anders Rabbe, chief executive officer of Isofol, said, the expertise and experience of the new members will be invaluable as the company progresses arfolitixorin through its global Phase III study in advanced colorectal cancer.
Follicum AB – Follicum AB established its scientific advisory board in the diabetes field. The board includes five internationally reputable experts with extensive experience in research into diabetes and its complications. The members of the SAB are Follicum cofounder Anna Hultgårdh, the Vessel Wall Biology Professor at Lund University and chairman of the SAB; Dame Frances Mary Ashcroft of Oxford University. Her research is focused on small channels in the cell membrane that are important for insulin release; Gunnar Olsson, who has held leadership roles in research and development at AstraZeneca and has extensive experience in product development and life cycle management; Göran K. Hansson, vice chairman of the Nobel Foundation and secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Hansson studies the connection between cardiovascular diseases and the immune system; Jan Nilsson, a cardiovascular research specialist at Lund University. Nilsson’s research focuses on the mechanisms behind the emergence of cardiovascular complications in diabetes. He has also worked on the development of new antibody-based drugs for cardiovascular diseases; and Åke Lernmark, a diabetes researcher at Lund University. His research area encompasses Type I diabetes and genetic factors that lead to autoimmunity against the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The goal is to understand the etiology of the disease by finding out if specific environments can trigger the autoimmune reaction.
eGenesis – Cambridge, Mass.-based eGenesis named Ariel Jasie as chief business officer and general counsel. Jasie brings 15 years of business executive leadership experience and counseling in the biopharmaceutical industry, and joins eGenesis to lead all business development, corporate strategy and legal activities. Jasie most recently worked at Dermavant Sciences where he served as the chief business and strategy officer. Before Dermavant, Jasie was the chief business officer at Codiak Biosciences, Prior to Codiak, he served as the executive director for business development at Celgene Corporation and before that, served as in-house counsel at Reliant Pharmaceuticals.
PMV Pharmaceuticals -- Deepika Jalota was named head of regulatory affairs at New Jersey-based PMV Pharmaceuticals. Jalota will lead the regulatory efforts for PMV Pharma’s mutant p53 restoration drug pipeline. Prior to PMV Pharma, Jalota was Global Regulatory Strategy Head of Oncology I at Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals. Before Bayer, Jalota was employed with Sanofi-Aventis, Forest Laboratories and Procter and Gamble.
SCWorx Corp. -- Tad Schweikert was named COO of New York-based SCWorx Corp. Schweikert will be responsible for leading the company’s continued growth and scaling its operations. Schweikert was most recently a senior principal of enterprise solutions at Vizient where he helped grow the business by working with large integrated delivery systems and academic medical centers to improve their margins and align organizational and operational strategies.
Paradigm – California-based Paradigm tapped Kevin Turner as chief executive officer of the Catastrophic Care Management division and Karen Jones to the newly created role of chief human resources officer. As CEO of Catastrophic Care Management, Turner will oversee Paradigm’s longest standing division, “ensuring that its human-centered, outcomes-driven solution continues to be the vanguard for the worker’s compensation industry.” Turner previously served as head of sales and marketing for Catastrophic Care Management. As CHRO, Karen Jones will spearhead Paradigm’s workforce strategy, operations, and talent acquisition, employee development and total rewards programs.
Payer Compass – Matthew Thompson was named chief financial officer and Slayton Gorman was named chief revenue officer of Texas-based Payer Compass, a provider of healthcare reimbursement technology and price transparency solutions. As CFO, Thompson will oversee accounting and financial reporting, as well as business and financial analysis. He most recently served as CFO of HealthSmart Holdings. Prior to that, he served as CFO of American CareSource Holdings, Inc. As CRO, Gorman will be responsible for all revenue-generation strategy and execution. He most recently served as executive vice president of sales and account management for Equian, LLC. He has also held positions with Trover Solutions, Inc. and Optum, a division of United Healthcare.
