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.
Lonza nabs new CEO after snapping up Roche site
Lonza
From one Swiss CDMO to another. That’s the course Wolfgang Wienand is taking, with summer plans to jump from his role at Siegfried’s helm over to lead Lonza.
Lonza’s interim CEO Albert Baehny, who stepped up from his chair position in October after Pierre-Alain Ruffieux abruptly left, is set to retire from the CDMO giant after a transition period. The interim leader is expected to cede his chair title to Heineken Chair Jean-Marc Huët at Lonza’s annual shareholder meeting this May.
Newly tapped Wienand will join Lonza after serving as Siegfried’s CEO for five years. He joined the CDMO in 2010 and held a variety of leadership roles before taking up the top spot, including chief scientific officer, head of global R&D and chief strategy officer.
The CEO announcement follows years of leadership turnover at Lonza and comes a few weeks after the CDMO unveiled a $1.2 billion acquisition of a large biologics manufacturing facility in California from Roche’s Genentech. Fierce Pharma
Amgen R&D leader jumps to Acadia
Acadia Pharmaceuticals
After leading R&D at Horizon Therapeutics, and then Amgen after Horizon’s $27.8 billion acquisition, Elizabeth H. Z. Thompson, Ph.D., is heading over to neuroscience-focused Acadia Pharmaceuticals.
Thompson is taking on the role of EVP and head of R&D at Acadia, which touts the only FDA-approved drug to treat hallucinations and delusions tied to Parkinson’s disease psychosis as well as the only FDA-approved drug for treating Rett syndrome. Thompson will focus on Acardia’s clinical-stage programs, which include a candidate for a genetic disorder called Prader-Willi syndrome and an Alzheimer’s disease psychosis program.
Thompson joins from Amgen, where she was EVP of rare disease R&D after the October acquisition of Horizon, where Thompson led R&D activities. Years ago, from 2003 to 2014, Thompson had started her biopharma career at Amgen before going on to hold roles across AbbVie, Raptor and InterMune. Release
3 C-suite leaders depart I-Mab
I-Mab
I-Mab’s chief business officer Weimin Tang, chief communications officer Gigi Qi Feng and chief legal officer Richard Cheng Li have all chosen to exit the oncology biotech.
The departures aren’t due to any disagreement with the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, with all three leaders leaving to pursue other opportunities.
Lan Kang, a director of I-Mab’s board, has also resigned, citing personal reasons.
Of late, the company has taken steps toward becoming a U.S.-focused biotech, beginning the process of divesting its China operations in February.
I-Mab did not return Fierce Biotech’s request for comment as of the time of publication. Release
> Julie Clauss is joining Odyssey Therapeutics’ adventure as chief operating officer, the company announced this week. Joining her is Christopher Butler, who was named SVP and head of chemistry. Release
> Mosaic is painting an updated R&D future with two new hires. The biotech has named Malavi Madireddi, Ph.D., as SVP of drug discovery and Scott Glaser, Ph.D., as SVP of biologics discovery. Release
> Margaret Garin, M.D., has been named VP of clinical development at Trevi Therapeutics after working on the clinical development team at now-GSK-owned Bellus Health. Former Bellus CEO Roberto Bellini took to LinkedIn last month to advocate for his former employees following layoffs at the bought biotech. Release
> NewAmsterdam Pharma has appointed Juliette Audet to serve as the company’s chief business officer. Audet was most recently a partner at life sciences VC Forbion, where she helped build NewAmsterdam Pharma.
“She was very instrumental in our founding—she and I worked together on the first financing, the series A, and has been very involved in the strategy for the company formation,” NewAmsterdam CEO Michael Davidson, M.D., told Fierce Biotech this week. “So it's exciting to see her with her talent and experience actually join the leadership team now.” Release
> Zura Bio has tapped Robert Lisicki to replace founding CEO Someit Sidhu, M.D., who will stay on as a non-independent board director. Lisicki most recently worked a brief six-month stint as CEO of InCarda Therapeutics. Release
> After overseeing regulatory development at Samsung Bioepis, Luke Oh, Ph.D., is set to join NeoImmuneTech as CEO. Oh worked at the FDA prior to his executive position at Samsung. Release
> Ratio Therapeutics has called on Bill Cupelo to be chief business officer after he led the sales team at Invicro. The company also announced that D. Scott Holbrook would join its board of directors. Release
> Dutch biotech Prilenia Therapeutics has hired Jina Swartz, M.D., Ph.D., as its chief medical officer. She previously held the same role at fellow neurodegenerative-focused company, Exciva. Release
> CDMO KBI Biopharma is bringing aboard Peter Carbone as chief quality officer. He joins from the Center for Breakthrough Medicines, another CDMO where he was chief operating officer. Fierce Pharma
> Former CEO of Seeker Biologics, Rand Sutherland, M.D., has been named the new CEO of Upstream Bio. The company also brought on Mike Gray as CFO and COO in addition to Lisa Fiering as SVP of people and culture. Release
> Addex CEO Tim Dyer will lead a new spinout company, Neurosterix, according to an announcement this week. He has been at Addex for more than 20 years. Release
> Ex-Heron Therapeutics CMO Chris Storgard, M.D., has been named chief medical officer of ADARx. Before that, he was the CMO of Fate Therapeutics. Release
> Merck & Co. has a new head of human resources, naming Betty Larson for the job, according to an emailed press release. She most recently was chief people officer at GE HealthCare.
> It’s difficult to fully understand the human impact of biopharma layoffs, but Fierce Biotech calculated at least 2,398 people laid off from the 25 companies reporting numbers of employees affected for 2024’s first quarter. In total, 58 layoff rounds were recorded for the industry from January through March. Fierce Biotech