Memo Therapeutics AG

None  Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Max Bayer or Gabrielle Masson, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.  Ex-CRISPR Tx CMO lands at Takeda Takeda Well, that didn’t take long! Three days after Phuong Khanh Morrow, M.D., formally departed from CRISPR Therapeutics, the ex-chief medical officer landed at Takeda as the new head of the oncology therapeutic area. Her exit was announced shortly after CRISPR’s landmark FDA approval of sickle cell treatment Casgevy. The label was expanded shortly after to tack on beta thalassemia, months before the FDA’s deadline to decide on the indication.   Morrow replaces Chris Arendt, Ph.D., in the role after he was promoted to chief scientific officer. Prior to joining CRISPR, she spent more than 10 years at Amgen, rising to vice president and therapeutic area head for hematology, GI/GU, oncology and bone. Her career began as an assistant professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.  News of Morrow’s appointment came a day after Takeda shaved its early oncology pipeline, particularly in cell therapy. The Japanese pharma also axed a midphase immunocytokine. Fierce Biotech  Lexeo adds Pfizer rare disease leader as development chief Lexeo Therapeutics Lexeo Therapeutics is making a number of executive changes, including tapping a former Pfizer executive to a top role. Sandi See Tai, M.D., previously head of development for Pfizer’s rare disease unit, will be Lexeo’s new chief of development. Her prior position was responsible for guiding internal portfolio strategy for rare diseases, including late-stage development of ATTR cardiomyopathy med tafamidis.  But she’s not the only one taking on a new role. Lexeo is also moving its chief scientific officer, Eric Adler, M.D., to chief medical officer and head of research. He joined Lexeo in 2022 after working as a professor and lauded cardiologist at the University of California, San Diego. The former head of R&D at Reata Pharmaceuticals, Rajiv Patni, M.D., is also joining as a senior adviser to CEO Nolan Townsend and the board of directors. Reata was acquired by Biogen last year for $7.3 billion. Last but certainly not least, Jenny Robertson is adding chief business officer duties on top of her legal oversight. She previously was the chief legal and administrative officer but will now be chief business and legal officer. Release Merck’s pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism leader set to join Cartography  Cartography Biosciences  Dan Rock’s career has been built over time on different molecular foundations, helping design and optimize more than 16 clinical-stage molecules. He’ll take that experience—sharpened at two large pharmas—to Cartography, where he’s set to oversee all early research as chief scientific officer.  Rock, Ph.D., was most recently vice president of pharmacokinetics, dynamics, metabolism and bioanalytics as Merck, in addition to the interim head of the cardiometabolic therapeutic area. All told, he spent four years at the New Jersey pharma. Before that, Rock spent 11 years at Amgen, ascending to a similar role as global head of pharmacokinetics and drug metabolism. Cartography’s full pipeline has yet to be unveiled, but CEO Kevin Parker, Ph.D., said in a release announcing Rock’s hiring that he looks forward to working with him on a “differentiated pipeline of T-cell engagers and ADCs, with an initial focus on our lead CB21 program targeting colorectal cancer.” Release > Alphabet’s health tech company Verily has appointed Myoung Cha to serve as chief product officer. Cha joins the alphabet company from Carbon Health, where he was president and chief strategy officer, and was Apple’s head of health strategic initiatives before that. Release > Astellas Pharma is shaking things up a bit, tapping Nick Eshkenazi to take on the role of chief digital and transformation officer starting April 1. Eshkenazi joined the pharma in November as chief digital officer. Release > Moderna’s SVP of international manufacturing Nicolas Chornetas will serve as site head of the Moderna Innovation and Technology Centre in the U.K. In the role, Chornetas will oversee Moderna’s manufacturing facility that is currently being built as part of a 10-year collaboration with the U.K. government. LinkedIn > Iambic Therapeutics has tapped Neil Josephson, M.D., to serve as the biotech's chief medical officer, taking the reins from interim CMO Jackie Walling, Ph.D. Josephson joins Iambic from Zymeworks, where he was also CMO, and before that was vice president of clinical development at Seagen. Release > SpringWorks Therapeutics’ chief development officer L. Mary Smith, Ph.D., has resigned, citing demands of her caretaker role for an ill family member. Smith will stay on as a senior strategic adviser for the company. Release > TScan Therapeutics has tapped Dawn Pinchasik, M.D., to serve as the cell therapy biotech’s VP of clinical development. Pinchasik joins TScan from ElevateBio, where she was senior director of early development, and has previously worked at Rubius Therapeutics, Aileron Therapeutics, Onyx Pharmaceuticals and later at Amgen following its 2014 acquisition of Onyx. Release > Memo Therapeutics is adding two new characters to its story, bringing on Kristie Clemmer as VP of clinical operations and Maartje Verschuur, Ph.D., as VP of CMC and supply chain management. Clemmer most recently served as AM-Pharma’s VP of clinical operations. Verschuur also joins from AM-Pharma with previous experience across Venn Life Sciences, Batavia Biosciences and AbbVie. Release > Longtime Teva leader Jeffrey Arcara is headed over to Corvus Pharmaceuticals, where he will serve as chief business officer. Arcara previously worked at Teva Pharmaceuticals for 11 years, most recently serving as SVP, head of global marketing and portfolio and strategy for the innovative medicines and biosimilars business. Release > Flagship’s Sail Biomedicines is bringing Kerry Benenato, Ph.D., on deck to serve as chief platform officer and replace Stuart Milstein, Ph.D., who has walked the plank in pursuit of other opportunities. Benenato most recently served as chief scientific officer of 76Bio and before that held roles at Moderna and AstraZeneca. Release > Terns Pharmaceuticals has tapped Amy Burroughs to serve as CEO, effective immediately. Most recently, Burroughs held the top spot at Cleave Therapeutics, and she has previously worked at 5AM Ventures and Roche’s Genentech. Release   > Disc Medicine’s chief business officer Jonathan Yu is swapping titles for chief operating officer as the biotech catches Jean Franchi to serve as chief financial officer. Franchi succeeds Joanne Bryce and most recently served as Replimune’s CFO, with previous experience across Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, Dimension Therapeutics (acquired by Ultragenyx), Good Start Genetics and Genzyme. Release > PreludeDx has picked Chris Emery to serve in the newly created position of VP of strategic marketing and business development. Emery joins PreludeDx from HALO Precision Diagnostics, where he served as chief business officer of molecular diagnostics, and has past experience at Menarini, Abbott, Novartis and Labcorp. Release > The nonprofit Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute has tapped Andrew Gardner, Ph.D., as the organization’s inaugural chief scientific officer and Christopher Taron, Ph.D., as senior director of protein science and innovation. Both leaders have more than two decades of experience at New England Biolabs. Release

PRESS RELEASE Memo Therapeutics AG Strengthens Management Team Appoints Kristie B. Clemmer as VP Clinical Operations and Dr. Maartje Verschuur as VP CMC and Supply Chain Management Schlieren / Zurich, Switzerland, February 5, 2024 – Memo Therapeutics AG (or “MTx”), a late-stage biotech company developing best-in-class therapeutic antibodies for viral infections and oncology, announced today that it has strengthened its senior team with the appointments of Kristie B. Clemmer and Dr. Maartje Verschuur as VP Clinical Operations and VP CMC and Supply Chain Management, respectively, effective today. Ms. Clemmer is an accomplished global clinical research leader with over 20 years of experience directing international clinical operations. She most recently served as VP, Clinical Operations at AM-Pharma where she led teams across North America, Europe, and Japan for a Phase III critical care trial in sepsis-associated acute kidney injury. Ms. Clemmer previously held senior leadership positions at the Contract Research Organizations PRA Health Sciences and PPD. Prior to her career in clinical research, Ms. Clemmer was an intensive care unit/emergency room nurse. She holds a BSc degree in Nursing with a Minor in Biology from Barton College, US. Dr. Verschuur has more than 19 years of experience in biologics drug development and manufacturing, with a focus on Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls (CMC). She has broad knowledge in the late-stage development and commercialization of biologics, and was a key contributor to five product candidates that have successfully gained market approvals. She joins MTx from AM-Pharma, where she was responsible for all drug substance activities including Phase III clinical manufacturing. Dr. Verschuur previously held a variety of senior CMC roles including at Venn Life Sciences BV, Batavia Biosciences BV and AbbVie Inc. Dr. Verschuur completed her PhD in Molecular/Cell Biology from Leiden University, The Netherlands and has an MSc in Biotechnology from Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Eric van den Berg, CEO of MTx, commented: “It is a pleasure to welcome Kristie and Maartje to MTx. They bring a wealth of experience successfully directing global clinical operations and biologics drug development and manufacturing. Their insights and expertise will be instrumental as we progress our Phase II trial and prepare for Phase III of our lead program, AntiBKV, and develop our promising pipeline of best-in-class therapeutic antibodies.” -Ends- About Memo Therapeutics AGMemo Therapeutics AG (“MTx”) is a late-stage biotech company developing best-in-class therapeutic antibodies to transform the lives of patients with viral infections and cancer. MTx’s lead program, AntiBKV, is a highly effective and safe neutralizing antibody to treat BK virus infection in kidney transplant recipients. This infection can lead to nephropathy, loss of kidney function, as well as organ failure and rejection. MTx’s pipeline consists of additional candidate therapeutic antibodies focusing on infectious diseases, such as cytomegalovirus (“CMV”), immuno-oncology targets as well as a partnership with Ono Pharmaceutical. MTx is a private company located in Schlieren / Zurich, Switzerland. Contacts Memo Therapeutics AG info@memo-therapeutics.com ICR ConsiliumAmber Fennell, Ashley Tappmemotx@consilium-comms.com+44 (0)20 3709 5700

None  Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Max Bayer or Gabrielle Masson, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.  Editor’s note: We won’t be publishing Chutes & Ladders next week on Nov. 25 due to the Thanksgiving holiday, but will be back to our regular schedule the following week. FDA pillar Janet Woodcock set to retire in early 2024 Food and Drug Administration The FDA has long been plagued by turnover, given the lucrative industry salaries that can lure career regulators away from Washington. But Janet Woodcock, M.D., has been an outlier, a stalwart leader of the organization who’s worn almost every hat in the drug development arm of the agency. That nearly 40-year career is coming to an end, however, with Commissioner Robert Califf, M.D., confirming her plans in an all-staff email posted by the agency’s spokesperson. Califf said Woodcock will depart early next year, though an exact timeline wasn’t mentioned. His message came after reports of her retirement broke.  “While no one can fill Janet’s shoes, I’ll share news about her successor in the future,” Califf wrote.  Woodcock’s career began in 1986 as director of the Division of Biological Investigational New Drugs at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) before leading the center’s Office of Therapeutics Research and Review. In 1994, Woodcock was named the director of CBER’s sibling, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. She also at one point served as interim commissioner of the agency, from January 2021 to February 2022. The list of her accomplishments and contributions could be kept in a scroll. Califf called her a “legend in every sense of the word.” Tweet Madrigal swiftly names new CCO with potential launch imminent Madrigal  New Madrigal CEO Bill Sibold has landed on a commercial chief, bringing on a former colleague at Sanofi who helped lead the launch of blockbuster Dupixent. Carole Huntsman has taken the gig a little more than a month after Remy Sukhija departed shortly after Sibold’s arrival. Her arrival gives Sibold a critical executive partner with the FDA set to decide on the company’s nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) drug, resmetirom, by the middle of March 2024. And Huntsman is a familiar face, having worked with Sibold at Sanofi as SVP and head of speciality care, U.S. and North America lead. She directed some 2,600 employees on the rollout of numerous drugs, including Dupixent. The unit she led was responsible for more than $10 billion in net sales in 2022, just what Madrigal wants to hear and see as it plans to debut the first approved NASH treatment. Before joining Sanofi in 2012, Huntsman was SVP of U.S. neurology and rheumatology at EMD Serono and VP of U.S. marketing for the neurology unit at Serono. Source Alkeremes cancer spinout launches with $275M and a couple seasoned development execs Mural Oncology Alkermes has formally unveiled its new cancer spinout, Mural Oncology, equipped with $275 million in committed capital and interleukin-2 (IL-2) candidate aimed at solid tumors. The move has been in the works for about a year. Leading Mural will be a couple of veteran clinical artists, with Caroline Loew, Ph.D., set to take the CEO mantle and Vicki Goodman, M.D., hired as chief medical officer. Loew was previously the CEO of Glympse Bio and before that was head of R&D strategy and planning at Bristol Myers Squibb. Goodman was the chief medical officer at Exelixis after working at Merck for almost two years. Goodman and Loew overlapped at BMS for about three years, during which Goodman was a vice president. The two’s top priority will be nemvaleukin alfa, the asset atop Mural’s pipeline. The company says registrational trials are ongoing with initial readouts slated for the first quarter of 2025. Source > Two former Amgen scientists are joining Halia Therapeutics’ leadership team, with Lisa Shamon, Ph.D., taking on the role of VP of regulatory affairs and Xianne Penny, Ph.D., as senior medical director. Before joining Halia, Shamon held various roles across Alza Corporation, Exelixis, Aeglea BioTherapeutics, FivePrime Therapeutics and Amgen, while Penny served as Amgen’s senior principal clinical immunologist for more than five years. Release > Nereid Therapeutics has named Michael Kauffman, M.D., Ph.D., to serve as president and CEO, taking the reins from Apple Tree Partners venture partner and acting CEO Spiros Liras, Ph.D. Most recently, new Nereid leader Kauffman served as longtime CEO and co-founder of Karyopharm. Release > Wendye Robbins, M.D., will be taking the top spot at Incendia Therapeutics. With more than 20 years of industry experience under her belt, Robbins continues to also serve as an independent director for Rapt Therapeutics. Release > Memo Therapeutics has tapped Erik van den Berg to helm the antibody-focused biotech. Van den Berg joins from AM-Pharma, where he was CEO for 12 years, and succeeds Karsten Fischer, who led Memo for five years. Release > Nucleome Therapeutics has nabbed Stephen Harrison, Ph.D., to serve as chief scientific officer. Before joining Nucleome, Harrison held executive leadership positions at Engine Biosciences, Relypsa (divested to Galencia), Nektar Therapeutics and KAI Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Amgen). Release > Theseus Pharmaceuticals is shrinking its head count by 72%, including R&D head William Shakespeare, Ph.D., although he will continue to support the biotech in a consulting role until the end of June 2024. Fierce Biotech > Melissa Faris has departed GSK to take up a spot as OMass Therapeutics’ chief business officer. Faris spent years with the Big Pharma, most recently serving as VP and head of immunology business development. Release > 1910 Genetics has promoted SVP and Head of Chemistry Bridget Cole, Ph.D., to chief scientific officer. Before 1910, she served as Nocion Therapeutics’ SVP of drug discovery, and has held past roles at Axial Biotherapeutics, Flatley Discovery Lab, Surface Logix and Pfizer. Release > Noema Pharma has chosen Robert Lasser, M.D., to serve as the company’s chief medical officer. Most recently, Lasser served as an executive leader for Sage Therapeutics and has held past leadership roles across Medday Pharmaceuticals, Roche, Shire Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Takeda), Johnson & Johnson and Novartis. Release > IMIDomics is building out its leadership team, tapping Eric Perakslis, Ph.D., to serve as SVP and chief technology officer, and Ramon Felciano, Ph.D., to serve as strategic adviser in biomedical artificial intelligence and data science. Perakslis has held leadership roles at the FDA, Datavant, Takeda and Johnson & Johnson, while Felciano is the founder and CEO of Digital Alchemy. Release > Affini-T Therapeutics, an immunotherapy company planning an IPO in 2024, has appointed Kathy Bergsteinsson as chief financial officer. Bergsteinsson most recently served as managing director and head of healthcare equity capital markets for Morgan Stanley. Release > Attorney Graham Owens has been tapped to serve as executive director of the Rare Disease Company Coalition. Owens also serves as regulatory and oversight counsel for the Senate Small Business Committee. LinkedIn > Former venture partner at Versant Ventures and CEO of Inception Therapeutics Jeremy Caldwell, Ph.D., has joined Red Tree Venture Capital as a partner. Release > Ori Biotech is preparing for the commercial launch of its cell therapy manufacturing platform, tapping Gillian Bonthron to be chief financial officer and John Machulski to be chief operating officer as well as promoting Thomas Heathman, Ph.D., from VP of commercial operations to chief commercial officer. Bonthron joins with experience at Healx and Perspectum under her belt, while Machulski joins from Catalent and has past experience at Lonza, GE Life Sciences (now Cytiva), Sanofi, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. Release > Sofinnova Partners is bolstering its medtech leadership team, bringing on Mano Iyer as a partner and promoting Cécile Dupont to partner. Iyer is the founder of ReCor Medical, and Dupont has been with Sofinnova since 2019. Release