September 2024 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 36-37
// YOUR MOVES //
Your Moves
Mover of the Month
AbbVie has appointed Steve Hopkinson as Vice President and General Manager, UK.
Steve will succeed Todd Manning, who retires from AbbVie after 28 years, the last five of which have been in the UK Vice President and General Manager role.
Steve joined AbbVie in 2014 as UK Specialty Business Unit Director. He went on to lead AbbVie’s Immunology franchise in the UK and across Western Europe and Canada before taking on a General Manager role in the company’s Global Marketing and Commercial operations team.
He was promoted to his most recent position of European Area Commercial Head in 2022.
Commenting on his appointment, Steve said: “It is a privilege to take on this role at such a pivotal time for AbbVie. Thanks to Todd’s leadership our UK business and culture are strong, and we are well placed to bring the innovations from our robust pipeline to UK patients.
"I look forward to building on Todd’s achievements and working with stakeholders across the UK life sciences community, Govt and NHS to ensure the value of innovative medicines can be realised by the wider healthcare system.”
Prior to joining AbbVie, Steve worked at Otsuka Pharmaceuticals as European Digital Health and Access Director and at Lundbeck, where he was Head of Psychiatry.
Optibrium has announced the appointment of James Halle as Chief Commercial Officer.
James brings extensive software experience in the pharma industry and will guide the commercial success of the company.
With 20 years’ experience in business leadership, James will be responsible for driving global sales, marketing and customer success activities.
In his new role, he will manage Optibrium’s commercial team while working closely with senior leadership to develop and deliver the company’s product commercialisation strategy.
James joins Optibrium from Cytel, a clinical trials services and software business, where as the Global Head of Product Growth, he led the software division’s global commercial team, delivering innovative products to market and driving customer adoption.
His experience moving from individual software sales to enterprise solutions at Cytel will help drive the growth of Optibrium’s new cloud-based StarDrop, Cerella and Semeta discovery platforms.
Prior to Cytel, James held a range of leadership positions at IQVIA spending the final three years as Director of Global Technology Sales heading a large team across EMEA/APAC/LATAM and the US. James’ wealth of experience in software account management at companies including IBM and LexisNexis brings a fresh perspective to achieve Optibrium’s growth targets.
James reflected: “I am delighted to be joining Optibrium and to be part of such a talented team. The potential to increase the speed, efficiency and productivity of chemistry discovery programmes is vast.”
Curve Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Simon Jones as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer.
Simon has over 20 years of experience in the biotech and pharma sector.
He joins from SpyBiotech, where he headed the Finance and Operations functions, during which time the company successfully took its lead vaccine candidate into the clinic.
This followed almost a decade as CFO at Karus Therapeutics where he managed the financial operations as the company secured a sizeable funding round from US and EU investors, as well as investment through the UK Government’s Future Fund Scheme.
Prior to this, Simon was CFO at various early-stage life sciences companies, including Eykona Technologies and Glide Pharmaceutical Technologies, which transitioned from development to commercialisation.
Simon Kerry, Chief Executive Officer at Curve Therapeutics, explained: “Simon brings extensive financial experience at the leadership level from multiple clinical stage biotech companies. His appointment comes at a pivotal time as we look to expand our team, advance our proprietary Microcycle discovery platform, and progress our pipeline of potential first-in-class assets.”
Simon said: “Curve’s revolutionary Microcycle discovery platform and rich pipeline of assets means that it is a company primed to disrupt the drug discovery space. I am excited to be joining as the company expands and transitions to become a clinical stage company.”
Cellular Origins has announced the appointment of Geoffrey Hodge to its board as Non-Executive Director.
Leveraging extensive expertise, knowledge and experience in cell therapy and biomanufacturing, Geoff’s appointment will strengthen the company’s strategic vision and technical capability to deliver accelerated growth and continued commercial success.
Geoffrey was most recently CEO of SOTIO Biotech US and CTO of Unum Therapeutics, both autologous cell therapy companies.
Prior to entering the cell therapy sector, Geoff co-founded Xcellerex, where he was the primary inventor of the XDR single-use bioreactor and head of the CDMO biomanufacturing services business, which helped the company grow to $50m in revenue prior to its acquisition by GE Healthcare.
In addition to his role on the Board of Cellular Origins, Geoffrey will remain part of the company’s Scientific Advisory Board, where his extensive experience in developing biomanufacturing technology and proven commercial success has already helped to shape the company’s strategic direction.
He will work closely alongside the board and leadership team to accelerate growth and ensure continued development of the company’s robotic platform for cost- and space-efficient manufacture of cell therapies, Constellation.
Dr Edwin Stone, CEO at Cellular Origins, said: “Geoff has unique experience having built businesses that have transformed bioprocess manufacturing. There are very few individuals who have been through this journey.”
Geoffrey added: “Cellular Origins offers a transformative, industry-ready solution that addresses the challenges of manufacturing cell therapies at scale. I look forward to joining the Board and further deepening my involvement in the company at this exciting time in its development and growth.”
Mogrify has announced the appointment of Dr Jonathan Appleby as Chief Scientific Officer.
With decades of industry experience in translating both conventional and advanced therapeutic medicines, Jonathan will lead advancement of the Company’s therapeutic programmes in areas including otology, ophthalmology and diabetes toward and into clinical development.
Jonathan is an accomplished medicines developer, having operated in all phases of therapeutic development from discovery to commercial launch.
He joins Mogrify from the Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, where he was Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer and led the R&D group focused on ATMP manufacturing processes and analytical development for five years.
Prior to this, Jon was CSO for Cell and Gene Therapy in GSK’s Rare Diseases Unit, where he led the team that developed Strimvelis, the first autologous paediatric CD34+ stem cell gene therapy to be approved for commercial use.
Jonathan previously held the position of Director and Portfolio Manager at the GSK Centre of Excellence for External Drug Development, where he discovered, in-licensed, and developed new technologies and assets across a broad range of therapeutic areas.
Jon enthused: “Mogrify’s proprietary platform for identifying and optimising transcription factor combinations capable of directly reprogramming cell function in vivo has the potential to address many diseases.”
VectorY Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Adam Rosenberg as the new Chair of the Board.
Adam brings over 20 years of experience in building and leading life sciences companies, primarily in the neuroscience space.
He replaces Dr Carlo Incerti who is stepping down from the company’s board.
The appointment comes at a pivotal time for VectorY as the company advances towards clinical development with a pipeline of strongly differentiated vectorised antibody treatments for neurodegenerative disorders.
Sander van Deventer, CEO of VectorY, commented: “Adam is a seasoned biotech and independent executive with a proven track record in building successful businesses and teams. I am excited to be working with Adam and our board as VectorY advances to its next phase of growth, from a preclinical to clinical stage company, and as we expand our footprint in the US.”
Adam enthused: “I am delighted to join VectorY at such a pivotal moment in the company’s development. The team has already made significant strides in researching and developing novel treatments with disease-modifying potential for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases.”
Previously Adam was the founding CEO of Aliada Therapeutics, Athenen Therapeutics and Sionna Therapeutics.
Prior to that, he was President, CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Rodin Therapeutics.
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