44 - Appointments

Dr Nermeen Varawalla has joined Atlantic Healthcare as chief medical officer and head of clinical development. Nermeen is a pharma industry veteran with “deep expertise” in global clinical development, having held senior leadership roles within international Contract Research Organisations, pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Prior to joining Atlantic Healthcare, Nermeen served as senior vice president and head of clinical development at BTG International, where she led clinical development of the speciality pharmaceutical and medical device portfolios, until BTG’s acquisition by Boston Scientific Corporation. “I am excited to join Atlantic Healthcare because of its late stage clinical assets backed by robust safety data, that have a compelling potential to treat unmet medical need in patients with gastrointestinal disorders,” she said.

UDG Healthcare has appointed Anne Whitaker as non-executive director. Anne has more than 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry, including senior leadership roles with large pharmaceutical, biotech and speciality pharma companies. She is currently chief executive of Aerami Therapeutics, a clinical stage pharma and medical device company, having held this role since October 2018. She also served as chief executive at KNOW Bio and Novoclem Therapeutics. Previously, she was executive vice president and company group chairman at Bausch Health, where she was responsible for overseeing its Global Branded Pharmaceutical Business. More recently, Anne served as a non-executive director for London listed plc Vectura.

The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) has named Dr Nick Johnson as its chief strategy and impact officer (CSIO). Nick was previously commercial director at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), which forms part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. The new CSIO position was identified earlier in the year, “to ensure that the work of the CGT Catapult remains at the forefront of driving innovation in the field of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs)”, the group noted. Building on the existing collaborations with academia and industry, Nick will focus on the continued alignment to the government’s goal to grow the UK’s cell and gene therapy industry. Prior to joining CPI, Nick held strategic director roles at Johnson Matthey and Catalent as well as SAFC.

PureTech Health has recruited Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw to its board of directors. According to the firm, Kiran is “an industry trailblazer who has spent her career surpassing societal expectations as the founder and chairperson of India’s largest and a leading global biopharmaceutical company, Biocon Limited.” She brings extensive experience in biotherapeutics, strategic leadership, financial and business development and a dedication to improving patients’ lives. Kiran is “a noted philanthropist who has devoted herself to building a sustainable model for delivering top-quality diabetes and cancer care at affordable prices”. She founded the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Centre in Bangalore, which focuses on delivering affordable care, and is also “the driving force” behind the Biocon Foundation, which runs primary healthcare clinics to reach India’s rural poor.

Evox Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Dr David Lowe as vice president (VP) of research. David will be overseeing the 40-person research group with a view to advancing Evox’ pipeline as well as continuing the development of its exosome platform. David has over 20 years' biotech and large pharma R&D experience in advancing protein and antibody-based therapeutics as well as exploring novel therapeutic modalities such as gene therapy, mRNA therapeutics and exosomes. Prior to his joining Evox, David spent over 12 years at AstraZeneca, most recently as senior director of Biologics Engineering with accountability for the isolation and optimisation of antibodies, proteins and peptides for therapeutic development. He was also global head of In Vivo Expressed Biologics at AZ. Prior to AZ, David spent nearly 10 years at Cambridge Antibody Technology, leading antibody engineering and project teams to develop novel antibody-based drugs.

Dublin, Ireland-based biopharma Ovoca Bio has named Christopher Wiltshire as chief business officer and executive director of the Board. An experienced senior pharma and biotech executive with over 25 years' international experience, Christopher previously served as non-executive director at the firm, and is currently chief executive of Hematherix LLC. He also has a consultancy practice which provides strategic advice to early and mid-stage biotech and pharma companies. As chief business officer, Christopher will have a key role in delivering Ovoca Bio’s long-term vision of becoming a leader in the development and commercial partnering of novel medicines in areas of high unmet need that affect women.

Daniel Vogel has joined Genomics as chief financial officer (CFO). Daniel brings to the firm expertise in areas ranging from strategy and corporate planning, financing and data science, the firm noted. Daniel has held CFO responsibilities across Europe, Asia and Latin America, leading a wide range of teams, and has held several Board-level roles. Daniel joins Genomics from carwow, where he was CFO and responsible for Finance, Legal & Compliance, Data Analytics and OEM relationships. He previously was the global CFO of CompareGlobalGroup and a Board member of several growth stage companies in the tech sector. Prior to this, he was an executive director at Goldman Sachs where he was part of the European Financial Institutions Practice.

In response to new client wins and following a successful year, including winning Agency Team of the Year at the PM Society Digital Awards for the second consecutive year, ARK is expanding its team with the addition of: Jessica Collins as project manager, Alex Love as senior account executive, Tom Roscoe as senior digital designer and Charlie O’Connor, junior digital designer. The company said it has grown significantly since opening its doors in April 2018, winning several global accounts as well as new work in the UK and US.

UK-based international healthcare communications agency Makara Health has expanded its team with eight new hires. Shula Sarner (pictured) joins as director, scientific services, from Lucid, where she held the position of executive scientific director. Shula has over 18 years of med comms experience following a career in academic research and biotech. Neil Padgett joins as Makara’s new creative director. He brings over 20 years' experience in leading multi award-winning creative healthcare campaigns at international levels. Neil will spearhead Makara’s creative team working alongside another recent hire, senior designer Jamie Hickton. The company has also made new hires across several functions to support growth, including two new additions to the account-handling team with Laura Carswell as project director and Louise Bains as project manager. Catherine Tighe joins as senior medical writer, Lee Barnes as junior digital developer and Gina Gough as project coordinator in the client services team.

VCCP Health has further strengthened its client service team with the appointment of Sarah Verhoeff as business director. Sarah's experience in advertising spans 20 years, with a specialisation in the healthcare sector. Originally focused on the strategic alignment of professional and patient communications, Sarah has worked across dozens of therapy areas, via all media channels and on a global scale. While her therapeutic experience is broad – including OTC products, Rx portfolios and medical devices – her main areas of expertise include CNS conditions, respiratory, dermatology, as well as rare disease.

Abzena, a partner research organisation (PRO) for biopharma outsourced solutions, has announced the appointment of Giovanni Escobar as senior vice president (SVP) and site head of its Bristol operations. With over 27 years’ experience in the pharma industry, Giovanni has previously held roles with progressively increasing scope and responsibility at GSK, including site quality head in Brazil and site head in Lincoln, Nebraska. Prior to joining GSK, Giovanni worked for Johnson & Johnson. He brings to the firm extensive end-to-end experience from R&D, new product development, quality, supply chain, contract manufacturing, network strategy, technology transfers, site expansions, site start-ups and remediation improvement programmes. He has also previously achieved manufacturing success through the deployment of several operational excellence initiatives.

The European Laboratory Research & Innovation Group (ELRIG) UK has announced the election of Melanie Leveridge as chair of the not-for-profit organisation, which strives to help drive further collaboration and knowledge exchange between academic and biopharma industry thought leaders, through the provision of scientific meetings and conferences on an open access basis. Melanie succeeds Steve Rees, who will be stepping down after four years as ELRIG Chair. She has 15 years’ experience in drug discovery, laboratory automation, screening and sample management and has been an active member of ELRIG since 2017. Melanie is also head of screening, profiling and mechanistic biology UK, and global compound management at GlaxoSmithKline.

Appointments

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