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.
Madrigal snags Sanofi's Bill Sibold as CEO
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals
Sanofi’s Bill Sibold has left after a 12-year run, departing for Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, where he is taking the top spot.
Sibold most recently served as Sanofi’s executive vice president of specialty care and president of North American operations. In those roles, he oversaw 10,000 staffers and grew his operations into the pharma’s largest global business unit. The Big Pharma’s current head of specialty care in North America, Brian Foard, has assumed Sibold’s post while the company searches for a permanent successor.
At Madrigal, Sibold takes the reins from Paul Friedman, M.D., who has helmed the organization for seven years. The CEO change-up comes as the organization gears up for a potential FDA green light for lead candidate resmetirom, which would be the first nonalcoholic steatohepatitis treatment to make it to market if approved. The FDA has given resmetirom priority review and expects to make a decision by March 14, 2024. Fierce Biotech
Jazz changes octaves with COO swap
Jazz Pharmaceuticals
Jazz Pharmaceuticals is singing a new executive tune, after President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Swisher decided to move on from the company. Taking his place is Chief Financial Officer Renée Galá, who’s being fully promoted after joining the company in 2020. She’s previously worked at Theravance, Grail and Lilly.
The changing of the guards comes as Jazz’s pipeline is in the midst of its own transition. Sales of narcolepsy drug Xyrem are being crunched as generics enter the fold, but low-sodium alternative Xywav raked in $327 million in sales in the second quarter. Additional marketed meds Epidiolex and Rylaze each had double-digit growth in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2022.
Beyond just betting on its existing portfolio, Jazz is hunting for additional deals, according to CEO Bruce Cozadd. He told Fierce Biotech in June that the company was on the hunt for deals involving neurology and oncology treatments. Fierce Pharma
Amanda Kay to oversee business development at Flagship
Flagship Pioneering
Some four months ago, Amanda Kay was hired as president of new Flagship spinout Metaphore Biotechnologies. Now, she’s taking on a significantly larger role, leading business development for the whole firm as chief business development partner. She’s also being promoted from operating partner to senior partner. A spokesperson confirmed that she’s relinquished her role at Metaphore as part of move.
Before joining the Flagship ecosystem, Kay was the chief business officer and head of finance at Deep Genomics. She was also the head of corporate development at Synlogic and was the chief operating officer for Pfizer’s inflammation and immunology research units. The CEO of Metaphore, Lovisa Afzelius, Ph.D., overlapped with Kay at Pfizer.
Needless to say, business development is a crucial staple of drug development across the industry but especially at Flagship. Companies like Generate Biomedicines, Moderna and Foghorn, to name a few, all have made considerable licensing and/or research pacts since launching. Release
> Sling Therapeutics has tapped Raymond Douglas, M.D., Ph.D., to serve as chief scientific officer. Douglas' research contributed to the development of Horizon Therapeutics' Tepezza, the first and only FDA-approved treatment for thyroid eye disease. Release
> Mitchell Jones, M.D., Ph.D., is joining Palisade Bio as chief medical officer. He previously was the VP of corporate development and strategy at Chemomab Therapeutics. Release
> LIB Therapeutics co-founder and CEO Evan Stein, M.D., Ph.D., is transitioning out of the top leadership role but taking on CSO and COO duties. Replacing him as CEO is David Cory, former CEO of Eiger BioPharmaceuticals. Release
> SpringWorks Therapeutics hopes a new scientific chief can help propel forward the company’s research ambitions, naming Tai-An Lin, Ph.D., for the role. Lin previously oversaw translational research and discovery biology at Black Diamond Therapeutics. Release
> Philip Vickers, Ph.D., has been tapped as the new CEO and president of Solu Therapeutics. He most recently was the CEO of Faze Medicines and also sits on the board of AVROBIO. Release
> Pliant Therapeutics is welcoming on Minnie Kuo as chief development officer. Before Pliant, Kuo held roles of increasing responsibilities at Vir Biotechnology, most recently serving as SVP of translational and clinical development operations. Release
> German biotech Repairon has chosen executive chair and co-founder Lothar Germeroth, Ph.D., to helm the company. Germeroth, also a major shareholder of Repairon, is a biochemist and serial biotech entrepreneur. Release
> Confo Therapeutics has chosen Stephen Dowd, Ph.D., as its chief business officer. Dowd joins the GPCR company from Rallybio, where he served as head of business development for European operations, and also has past experience at Kymab (acquired by Sanofi), SNIPR Biome and GSK. Release
> Jacob Jacobsen, Ph.D., is succeeding Joseph Patti, Ph.D., as Evecxia Therapeutics’ president and CEO. Patti has stepped down to pursue other interests, while Jacobsen joins from Duke University and Duke-National University Singapore, where he conducted research. Release
> Innate Pharma is bringing on Sonia Quaratino, M.D., Ph.D., as EVP and chief medical officer starting in October. Quaratino succeeds Joyson Karakunnel, M.D., and has previously held positions at Georgiamune, Kymab (acquired by Sanofi), Novartis and Merck Serono (Merck KGaA). Release
> Belgium biotech Augustine Therapeutics is growing its team with three new additions: Marie Trad, M.D., as chief medical officer; Jonathan van Eyll, Ph.D., as head of pharmacology; and Cédric Szyndralewiez as head of nonclinical and early development. Trad is a neurologist and founder of Neuraltra, while von Eyll helped establish UCB Pharma’s translational bioinformatics unit and Szyndralewiez has more than 25 years of drug research and development, most recently from Pherecydes Pharma. Release
> Myricx Bio has tapped Dr. Robert McLeod as VP of clinical development. McLeod joins the U.K. biotech having previously served as Daiichi Sankyo’s senior director and global clinical lead, a research physician at Cancer Research UK's Center for Drug Development and various roles at Emergent BioSolutions, Novartis and Chiron. Release
> Biostax’s Immune Therapeutics CEO Kelly Wilson and President and Director Robert Wilson both resigned July 25, departures that were not due to any dispute or disagreement relating to the company, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents. The board immediately appointed Immune Therapeutics’ VP Noreen Griffin to serve as CEO. Release
> Spine and orthopedics company Orthofix has ousted its President and CEO Keith Valentine, Chief Financial Officer John Bostjancic and Chief Legal Officer Patrick Keran after the board of directors “determined that each of these executives engaged in repeated inappropriate and offensive conduct that violated multiple code of conduct requirements and was inconsistent with the company’s values and culture.” Effective immediately, Orthofix’s board chair Catherine Burzik is taking on the CEO spot. Fierce Medtech
> 4D Molecular Therapeutics has appointed Uneek Mehra as chief financial and business officer, succeeding August Moretti in his retirement. Mehra joins from Myovant Sciences (acquired by Sumitovant Biopharma), where he also served as CFO and CBO, and also held a senior leadership role at Novartis among other companies. Release
> Oculis is welcoming Rebecca Weil, Ph.D., to serve as the eye care company’s chief commercial officer. Before Oculis, Weil was Idorsia’s VP and head of global marketing. Release