Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Darren Incorvaia or Zoey Becker and it will be featured here at the end of each week.
RFK Jr. continues overhaul of CDC vaccine panel
CDC
After last year’s upheaval at the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is not done filling out the panel. The secretary this week added two OB-GYNs to the panel in Adam Urato, M.D., and Kimberly Biss, M.D. During a 2022 podcast interview, Biss said she’s “anti-vaccine” and that the vaccine industry is “disgusting,” The Washington Post reported this week. In addition to the ACIP changes, Endpoints News and Stat News this week reported about less-publicized happenings at the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines, where two members were reportedly dismissed. Release
BioMarin names Arpit Davé its chief digital and information officer
BioMarin
BioMarin CEO Alexander Hardy’s transformation of the rare disease drugmaker continues with the appointment of a new chief digital and information officer. Arpit Davé joins from Amgen, where he’s coming off a 7-year stint as a tech exec. At BioMarin, Davé will be tasked with “reimagining and executing BioMarin's enterprise technology strategy, data science and digital transformation,” the company said. Davé’s role will include using tech, including artificial intelligence, to “further differentiate and improve BioMarin's business operations,” spanning R&D to manufacturing, Hardy said in a statement. Release
> After serving as acting deputy director for program coordination, planning and strategic initiatives at the NIH since April, Nicole Kleinstreuer, Ph.D., has been given the job permanently to continue leading the agency’s efforts to develop animal testing alternatives. Release
> Zymeworks announced a host of executive appointments, including Mark Hollywood as chief operating officer and Sabeen Mekan, M.D., as chief medical officer. In addition, the company is searching for a new finance chief and a new general counsel as its current leaders in those positions plan to leave the company. Release
> Global CRO Veristat is set to enter a new era with Kim McLean Boericke taking up the CEO mantle, succeeding Patrick Flanagan. Release
> Guangzhou, China- and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech Vibrant Therapeutics revealed $61 million in new funding and named Han Lee, Ph.D., as co-CEO. Release
> Biomarker specialist intoDNA is growing its C-suite by appointing Maggie Rougier-Chapman as its chief business officer. Release
> Praxis Precision Medicines, busy advancing several clinical candidates in neuroscience, has tapped Orrin Devinsky, M.D., to serve as its head of clinical strategy. Release
> Boston-based molecular glue biotech Magnet Biomedicine appointed Nick Vlahakis as its chief medical officer. Release
> San Diego-based cancer immunotherapy specialist ViroMissle has a new chief business officer in industry veteran Michael Wood, who founded OncoMyx Therapeutics and previously worked at Crinetics, Orexigen and AbbVie. Release
> Achieve Life Sciences, which is working on the development and commercialization of cytisinicline for treatment of nicotine dependence for smoking cessation, named Mark Rubinstein, M.D., as its chief medical officer. Release
> Illinois-based structural nanomedicines biotech Flashpoint Therapeutics has named 15-year RNA therapeutic R&D veteran Venkat Krishnamurthy, Ph.D., as its chief scientific officer. Release