Biopharma companies name new members of their leadership teams. Who made big moves this week?
Mirum Pharmaceuticals – San Diego-based Mirum Pharmaceuticals launched with $120 million, assets from Shire and a new leadership team helmed by Mike Grey. In addition to Grey at the helm of the company, Mirum’s leadership team also includes Chris Peetz, who will serve as president; Pamela Vig the named chief scientific officer; Lara Longpre serves as the company’s chief development officer, and Shelly Xiong will be head of regulatory.
Alkahest, Inc. California biotech Alkahest, Inc. named Genentech veteran Elizabeth Jeffords as chief commercial and strategy officer. Jeffords was named during a time the company is moving into a new phase of clinical development. Jeffords joins Alkahest from Genentech and Roche Pharmaceuticals where she was most recently the vice president of Genentech’s U.S. ophthalmology portfolio. At Roche, Jeffords was the global head of business insights and operations and the established products business unit.
Sutro Biopharma, Inc. -- Shalini Sharp, chief financial officer of Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical, was appointed to Sutro Biopharma’s Board of Directors. Sharp has served as CFO of Ultragenyx since 2012. Prior to that, she was CFO at Agenus Inc. Sharp is also a member of the board of directors of Array BioPharma, as well as the TB Alliance, a non-profit organization advancing the development and distribution of tuberculosis treatments in the developing world.
Orchard Therapeutics – London-based Orchard Therapeutics made two leadership appointments this week. The company named Robin Kenselaar as senior vice president and general manager, EMEA commercial operations, and Brad Mathis as vice president of its U.S. commercial operations. The two appointments will serve to build Orchard’s initial commercial infrastructure across North America and EMEA prior to the company’s first three potential product launches over the next few years. Kenselaar joins Orchard after almost 15 years at Sanofi Genzyme, where he built and led commercial operations for therapies addressing unmet needs in rare genetic diseases, oncology and immunology. Mathis was most recently vice president, head of U.S. commercial operations at Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, where he helped to prepare for the launch of a therapeutic for Niemann-Pick Type C (NPC) disease. Prior to Sucampo, he spent a decade with Alexion Pharmaceuticals serving in various global and domestic commercial leadership positions.
Global Coalition for Adaptive Research – The Global Coalition for Adaptive Research, with a special focus on glioblastoma research, named Gary Gordon as Interim Chief Executive Officer. Gordon is expected to take over in the first quarter of 2019.
Proteintech – Illinois-based Proteintech, a manufacturer of antibodies, named Jeff Lee as the head of the operations and sales teams. Prior to Proteintech, Lee served as senior director of operations for Thermo Fisher Scientific’s clinical diagnostic division’s contract & OEM business unit. He also served as general manager in the Immunoassay Systems SBS and Global Operations Director for Thermo Fisher’s Protein Biology business.
Jnana Therapeutics -- Joanne Kotz was named chief executive officer of Boston-based Jnana Therapeutics. Kotz, a co-founder of the company, has served as Jnana’s president since the company launched in December 2017. Prior to founding Jnana, she held a leadership position in the F-Prime Biomedical Research Initiative. Prior to F-Prime, Kotz was a director at the Broad Institute, where she played a leadership role in creating and guiding partnerships to advance drug discovery efforts.
Sparrho –London-based Sparrho named Basil Moftah as chairman of its board of directors. A former executive at Thomson Reuters, Moftah has been an investor in Sparrho since 2016.
