July/August 2024 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 36-37
// YOUR MOVES //
Your Moves
Mover of the Month
Enterprise Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Dr Renu Gupta as Chief Medical Officer and Dr Janet Hammond as a Non-Executive Director.
Renu is a physician-scientist and industry leader, with more than 20 years of experience as a CMO, most recently at Promedior, a member of the Roche Group.
During a career spanning over 30 years in the biopharmaceutical industry, she has held various roles within research and development, executive management, and as a Board member, including at Global Bio-Pharma, Corbus Pharmaceuticals, Breath Therapeutics, Insmed, Novartis and Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Renu has been instrumental in implementing innovative clinical and regulatory strategies and development pathways to advance targets, including for rare disease indications.
Janet has over 20 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, during which time she has overseen the development and successful approval of several drugs.
She is currently Chief Development Officer at Atea Pharmaceuticals, a Boston-based biotech focused on the development of antiviral drugs for life-threatening infectious diseases.
Prior to joining Atea, Janet was Vice President and Head of Infectious Diseases and General Medicine at AbbVie, and Senior Vice President and Global Head of Infectious Diseases at Hoffmann-la Roche.
Exonate has announced the expansion of its Board with the appointment of Dr Rafiq Hasan as Non-Executive Director.
Rafiq brings extensive expertise in ophthalmology, specifically within the diabetic eye disease sector, from his years in global pharmaceutical businesses.
The appointment further strengthens the Board of Directors as the Company continues to develop its lead candidate for diabetic eye disease, EXN407, toward phase IIb clinical trials.
Rafiq has a proven record of success in the global pharmaceutical industry and is currently CEO of Complement Therapeutics, which focuses on developing next-generation complement medicines.
In addition to his role at Complement, Rafiq holds Board and advisory roles at Oxular and BioGeneration Ventures.
Previous leadership roles within the ophthalmology sector have included Senior Vice President and Global Head of Ophthalmology at Bayer, where he oversaw the launch of Eylea for five indications within three years, and from launch to >$2.5 billion in five years.
Exonate’s lead candidate EXN407, small molecule SRPK1 inhibitor, is in development as a world first topical therapy for diabetic eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy. Exonate plans to progress EXN407 to a CLEAR-DE (CLinical Evaluation of a novel eyedrop for Alleviating Retinopathy in Diabetic Eye disease) Phase IIb clinical trial in 2024.
Rafiq commented: “Exonate’s lead candidate is extremely promising, with the potential to transform treatments options for diabetic eye disease by alleviating the need for repeated, invasive injections into the eye. I look forward to working with Catherine and the team to help guide the Company’s continued success.”
Nouscom has announced that Neil Gallagher has been appointed as an Independent Advisor to Nouscom’s Board of Directors and will also Chair the Company’s R&D Committee.
Neil’s leadership will be essential in guiding Nouscom’s clinical development strategy and activities as it advances its wholly owned clinical pipeline through multiple clinical proof-of-concept readouts.
He has over 20 years of experience within large, global pharmaceutical R&D organisations and emerging biopharmaceutical companies.
Throughout his career, he has led end-to-end drug development programmes that have resulted in the approval of multiple innovative medicines, ranging from small molecules to biologics across several therapeutic areas, including oncology and immunology.
Since April 2023, he has served as President of R&D at Syndax Pharmaceuticals, a clinical-stage oncology company developing targeted first-in-class cancer therapies.
Prior to this, he led multiple development programmes through approval globally and oversaw asset strategy and portfolio management across several therapeutic areas as Chief Medical Officer and Head of Development at AbbVie.
Frontier Science Scotland has announced the appointment of Professor Bjoern Schelter as a new Director to its Board of Trustees.
Bjoern brings valuable strategic insights into the Company’s core capabilities across clinical trials including data management, biostatistical analysis and quality assurance.
Bjoern is CEO of GT Diagnostics (UK) Ltd and Chief Analytics Officer of TauRx Therapeutics, and is also affiliated with the University of Aberdeen as Professor for Applied Mathematics.
With over 20 years’ experience in the healthcare sector, Bjoern has led research teams since 2006. The focus of his work is on developing data-science based technologies to advance the understanding of diseases and ultimately help patients around the world.
Professor Chris Robertson, of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Strathclyde, reflected: “I am delighted to welcome Bjoern to the FSS Board of Trustees.
“His extensive leadership experience in healthcare R&D, specifically in data-science based technologies and quality assurance in clinical trials, will be a source of invaluable advice as FSS expands its service offering to global industry partners.”
Bjoern added: “I am deeply interested in FSS and its outstanding services through a not-for-profit model. I look forward to assisting FSS to develop its services and grow as an organisation.”
Kronos Bio has appointed Deborah Knobelman as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.
She will oversee the finance, accounting, business development, investor relations and corporate strategy functions.
Deborah was previously Chief Financial Officer and head of corporate development for Senti Bio, a biotechnology company that utilised a synthetic biology platform to enable programming of next-generation cell therapies.
At Senti, Deborah took the company public in 2022 and was responsible for investor relations, accounting, strategic finance, financial planning and analysis, facilities, legal, portfolio management, and corporate and business development.
“I’m excited to have Deborah join our team. She is a proven life sciences leader, and her strategic vision will play a critical role in shaping the future of Kronos Bio. As we continue to innovate, Deb’s addition to our leadership team will be vital in moving our company forward and achieving our goals,” said Norbert Bischofberger, President and Chief executive officer of Kronos Bio.
“With a discovery platform that has already produced two internally discovered molecules now in development, the company’s innovative approach to targeting druggable cofactors to treat diseases of deregulated transcription is compelling,” enthused Deborah.
myTomorrows, has announced the appointment of Marshall Van Beurden as its new Chief Technology Officer.
Marshall previously led the Enterprise Engineering team at Miro, a leading digital collaboration platform, where he both developed critical enterprise features and spearheaded the company’s first AI applications.
Prior to that, he was the Managing Director for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) development centre in the Netherlands. Marshall also served as a Senior Software Development Manager for AWS for nearly a decade, having built and led teams that launched products to enhance developer productivity worldwide.
myTomorrows uses advanced technologies to broaden physician and patient access to clinical trials and expanded access programmes.
"The myTomorrows platform has recently harnessed the power of AI to unlock new possibilities for building applications that efficiently match qualified patients with clinical trials and expanded access programmes,” said Marshall.
“This innovation has a profound impact, creating a virtuous cycle that improves health outcomes for patients, expands treatment options for physicians and accelerates time-to-market for pharmaceutical companies. I'm excited to lead the technology strategy that drives these innovative outcomes."
The Drug Safety Research Unit (DSRU) has announced Dr Alison Evans as its new Head of Education and Training.
The DSRU runs a variety of courses in the latest developments from the fields of pharmacovigilance, pharmacoepidemiology and risk management, including short courses and a formal postgraduate training programme.
Alison has moved to the role from her research position at the DSRU. She will develop the current programme and conference events, as well as establish a distance learning route for the postgraduate programme next year.
Alison joined the DSRU in 2012 after working as a postdoctoral research fellow at University College London studying the genetic aspects of hereditary heart disease. She studied Toxicology and Pharmacology at the London School of Pharmacy and has a PhD in genetics from St George’s Hospital.
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