CEO John Johnson jumps ship as Dendreon sinks lower

Chutes and Ladders

Welcome to this week's Chutes and Ladders, our roundup of hirings and firings throughout the industry. Please send the good word--or the bad--from your shop to Michael Gibney (email | Twitter) or Emily Mullin (email | Twitter) and we will feature it here at the end of each week.

CEO John Johnson jumps ship as Dendreon sinks lower

As Dendreon ($DNDN) suffers through $620 million in debt payments and maintains only a skeleton crew, CEO John Johnson has decided to step down. Johnson has been in the position since 2012 as the company's prostate cancer drug Provenge failed to meet expectations among a list of competitors including Medivation ($MDVN) and Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ). But Dendreon is looking for Johnson's successor, and Douglas Watson is the flailing company's new chairman. The survivors are optimistic that the company will still succeed. Story

Dendreon
John Johnson
stepped down from the CEO position.


Bristol-Myers Squibb
Dr. Giovanni Caforio joined as chief operating officer.

Pharma

Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY) appointed Dr. Giovanni Caforio as its chief operating officer and elected him to the board of directors. Release

> Eli Lilly ($LLY) has appointed Dr. Ora Pescovitz as vice president. Pescovitz was formerly CEO of the University of Michigan Health System. Release

AMAG Pharmaceuticals ($AMAG) has appointed Melissa Bradford Klug as senior vice president of business development and strategy. Release

Pharmagen has appointed Russell Skibsted as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Release

> Bioprocess Technology Consultants has appointed Frank Riske as senior consultant and Arthur Ley as consultant, and promoted Julia Adam to director of sales and marketing. Release

Biotech

Aerie Pharmaceuticals ($AERI) has elected James Mazzo to the company's board of directors. Release

Foamix has appointed Dave Domzalski as president, Dr. Herman Ellman as vice president of clinical affairs and Alvin Howard as vice president of regulatory affairs. Release

C4X Discovery has appointed Piers Morgan as chief executive officer. Release

Dave Jobes has joined Carmot Therapeutics as the company's vice president of business development. Release

Will Lewis has joined UniQure's ($QURE) supervisory board. Release

Bioanalytical Systems ($BASI) has appointed Jeffrey Potrzebowski as chief financial officer and James Bourdage as vice president of bioanalytical operations. Release

Cytori Therapeutics ($CYTX) has appointed Ruud Jona to serve as director of the company. Release

Dyadic International has appointed Michael Tarnok to the company's board of directors. Tarnok is the chairman of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals ($KERX) and a former senior vice president of Pfizer ($PFE). Release

Asterias Biotherapeutics has appointed former Pfizer ($PFE) senior executive Pedro Lichtinger as president and chief executive officer. Release

Scioderm has elected Ronald Nardi as the company's first chief scientific officer. Release

Aerocrine AB announced that Marshall Woodworth will be appointed as chief financial officer, and Anders Murman will be promoted to chief technology officer. Release

Solstice Biologics in San Diego has appointed Lou Tartaglia as its new president and CEO and John Borgeson as its CFO. Release

Amgen ($AMGN) has appointed David Meline as its executive vice president and chief financial officer. Release

> U.K.-based DNA Electronics has appointed Nick McCooke as its chief business officer. Release

Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics, a stem cell developer out of Israel, appointed Dr. Tony Fiorino as its CEO. Release

Elizabeth Reed joined Celladon as vice president and general counsel. Release

Coherus Biosciences named Vince Anicetti as senior vice president of global quality. Release

Robert Conway joined the ARCA ($ABIO) board of directors as chairman. Release

CRO

Chiltern International and the Society for Applied Pharmacological Sciences have appointed Dr. Marco Romano as president of SSFA for a three-year term. Release

Clinipace Worldwide has added Dr. Roger Morgan as executive vice president of global medical affairs. Release