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 Conor Hale, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Intellia’s clinical head moves to CRISPR-focused Casebia to be its first CMO
Casebia Therapeutics
Adel Nada, M.D., was named the first chief medical officer.
A joint venture launched in 2016 by Bayer and CRISPR Therapeutics, Casebia is headquartered down the street from Intellia in Cambridge, Massachusetts’ Kendall Square. There, Nada will also serve as head of translational science and clinical development, help guide the company’s overall R&D strategy, and hold a seat on Casebia’s executive leadership team. At Intellia, he served as head of clinical development. FierceBiotech
Ferring CSO to take over for retiring executive board president
Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Chief Operating Officer and Executive Board President Michel Pettigrew will retire Dec. 31.
Chief Science Officer Per Falk, M.D., Ph.D., who oversees the company’s R&D and regulatory activities, will take over the additional role of president of the executive committee starting Jan. 1, 2019. Pettigrew first joined Ferring in 2001, helping it grow its annual revenues from about $390 million to about $2.28 billion today. Falk joined Ferring in 2015 and has helped accelerate its focus on the microbiome, as well as its work in a number of external collaborations and its acquisition of Rebiotix. FierceBiotech
Harpoon Therapeutics names new CFO and CSO
Harpoon Therapeutics
Georgia Erbez was brought on as chief financial officer, while Holger Wesche, Ph.D., was promoted to chief scientific officer. The South San Francisco-based T cell engager company hired Erbez from Zosano Pharma, where she served as CFO and chief business officer. Before that, she was CFO and executive VP at Asterias Biotherapeutics, and CFO, secretary and treasurer of Raptor Pharmaceuticals as it went through its first drug approval and commercial launch. Wesche, a previous scientific director at Amgen, joined Harpoon in 2015 as VP of research. At Amgen he was responsible for the company’s next-generation T cell engager efforts and the development of multiple clinical candidates. Release
> Genentech staff funneled secrets to a Taiwan biosimilar firm, according to prosecutors, who indicted senior scientist Xanthe Lam, her husband Allen Lam and another worker named James Quach. They were charged with transferring trade secrets to Taiwanese biosimilar specialist JHL Biotech with the help of JHL's John Chan. FierceBiotech
> Former Valeant executive Gary Tanner and ex-Philidor CEO Andrew Davenport were found guilty of a multimillion-dollar kickback scheme and were both sentenced to a year-plus-one-day in prison. They were each ordered to give back about $9.7 million. FiercePharma
> HotSpot Therapeutics brought on Stephanie Krebs to be its VP of business development. Krebs was formerly VP of corporate development for Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi), and before that spent 10 years at Biogen where she supported its Avonex and Tysabri commercial teams. HotSpot also named Victoria Richon, Ph.D., president and CEO of Ribon Therapeutics, and Samantha Truex, CEO of Quench Bio, to its board of directors. Release
> Healthcare AI company Komodo Health promoted Richard Kho, Ph.D., to chief revenue officer and Saiba Sabherwal to CFO. It also brought on Julie Rogers as VP of people and experience. Kho was previously Komodo's head of life sciences, while Sabherwal served as head of operations. Rogers previously held HR leadership positions at Culture Amp, Atlassian and AdRoll. Release
> Lark Health appointed Rosemary Ku, M.D., as its chief medical officer. Ku joins from Restore Health, where she was CMO before it was acquired by Zillion. Release
> electroCore named Ardelle Ferris as the company's first VP of managed care, to help the devicemaker shape relationships with pharmacy benefit managers and commercial payers. Ferris was previously head of national accounts at Intarcia Therapeutics. Release
> BioIVT brought on Alan Findlater to serve in its newly created role of chief commercial officer. He will be responsible for all of BioIVT’s commercial activities, including global sales, marketing and customer service. Previously, he served as CCO of WIL Research Laboratories before it was acquired by Charles River Laboratories in April 2016. Release
> Vivus named Karen Ferrell and Edward Kangas to its board of directors. Ferrell is currently executive chairman and CEO of Glenridge HealthCare Solutions, while Kangas served as global chairman and CEO of Deloitte, until his retirement in 2000. He also serves on the board of Tenet Healthcare. Release
> Glenmark opened a $100 million plant in North Carolina, its first in the U.S., with plans to increase employment there well beyond its current staff of 168. FiercePharmaManufacturing
> Aspen Pharmacare is planning a $235 million expansion to its production facility in South Africa, adding hundreds of jobs to manufacture sterile anesthetics. FiercePharmaManufacturing