42-43 - Appointments

Cambridge-based biopharmaceutical company Mogrify has appointed Louise Modis as its new chief scientific officer. Modis has over 20 years’ experience in both preclinical and clinical therapeutic research. Previously, she worked as vice president of immunology research at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where she led the generation and advancement of a pipeline of assets from target identification through to clinical proof-of-concept studies. Prior to GSK, she led research teams at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals and Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda), where she progressed therapeutic candidates targeted at immunology, oncology and cardiovascular indications with unmet need. Modis also holds a BSc (Biotechnology) from the National University of Ireland, Galway, and earned her PhD in developmental haematology at EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, Boston, US.

OPEN Health has appointed Margot Hannah as its new chief executive officer of OPEN Health Communications. Since joining OPEN Health in 2011, Hannah has held numerous positions, most recently as president of the Medical Communications Center of Excellence. She has previously worked for AstraZeneca, Takeda and Merck before moving to the agency side in 2007. As CEO of communications, she will be responsible for over 500 people with overall accountability for the medical and brand communications services, including publications, medical education, learning and development and creative and digital services.

Independent specialist healthcare communications agency OVID Health has appointed Matthew Silk as associate director. Silk joins OVID from Ketchum, where he led a range of programmes, working with pharmaceutical, medtech and consumer health clients across a range of areas. Prior to this, he spent the majority of his career working for the NHS or national health and care regulators, in and across government departments and arms-length bodies. This includes working as head of communications at the Human Tissue Authority for five years – in this role, Silk led on all external and internal communications and engagement for the Authority.

Bill Burns has joined the AMR Action Fund as board chair. Burns has a lifelong career in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry, having previously served as chief executive officer of the global pharmaceutical division of Roche and on the main Roche board. He has also previously held roles at Genentech and Chugai, and also served as a non-executive director of Shire Pharmaceuticals and smaller biotechnology companies Crucell, Biotie and Okairos. More recently, Burns was a board member of the Wellcome Trust until 2020, and is currently a member of the Novo Holdings advisory group, chair of Molecular Partners, Vestergaard Holdings and vice chair of Mesoblast.

Fishawack Health has appointed Jonathan Koch as its new chief executive officer. Koch has spent his entire career working in the healthcare sector, including almost 12 years at Covance – now Labcorp Drug Development – last serving as group president of clinical development and commercialisation services. Most recently, Koch served as senior vice president and chief executive officer of Global Dental at the publicly listed organisation Henry Schein. In this role, he was responsible for the strategic direction and business performance of its largest healthcare division and also its technology business.

LovedBy has appointed Arup Paul as its new clinical director. Paul joins the company from AXA Health, where he was deputy chief medical officer. He brings extensive experience from across hospital medicine, general practice and senior leadership roles within the healthcare industry. Previously, he has chaired the Locality Commissioning Group for NHS professionals and also sat on the Primary Care Transformation Board of NHS England, and served as chief operating officer and chief medical officer simultaneously at HCML Rehabilitation Solutions. In his new role at LoveBy, Paul will be responsible for leading the company’s clinical direction and focus on developing innovative strategies, collaborations and partnerships.

UK pharmaceutical industry group the European Medicines Group (EMG) has elected Uday Bose as the new chair of the group. Bose is country managing director and head of human pharma of Boehringer Ingelheim, having been appointed to this role in December 2018 following previous roles within the organisation. Previously, Bose has worked for Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Sanofi, in a career spanning general management, health economics, sales and marketing roles, with national (UK/Ireland), regional (EMEA) and global accountability. Bose will be supported by vice-chairs Pinder Sahota, general manager, Novo Nordisk UK and Dan Coombes, general manager, Grünenthal UK.

Ashley Smalley has joined Brighton, UK-based health-tech company HexTransforma as VP, strategy. Smalley joins with a track record of more than 20 years’ experience in strategy and consulting within the global healthcare sector. Before joining HexTransforma, he served as senior director, global strategy at Walgreens Boots Alliance, where he most recently helped to build the group’s COVID-19 strategic response and Boots’ healthcare market entry strategy. Prior to this, he had a significant role in the company’s expansion into the US healthcare market with Walgreens. Smalley has also held senior positions at Aviva, BUPA and Age UK.

Mike Knowland, commercial lead for the UK & Ireland business at Bayer, has joined the PAGB as a board member. PAGB is the consumer healthcare association representing the manufacturers of branded over-the-counter medicines, self-care medical devices and food supplements in the UK. Knowland has held various senior commercial, marketing and supply chain directorship roles at large multinational organisations including Unilever, Philips and Coty prior to joining Bayer as sales director in September 2019. Speaking on his appointment, Knowland said: “I am looking forward to working with the PAGB on pressing topics to support positive industry changes, especially on our post-EU exit strategy, environmental sustainability and self care. During the global pandemic we saw how essential it was to have the right self-care solutions at home and that a practical approach to self-care can help mitigate overburdened healthcare systems today and make them more sustainable in the future.”

London-headquartered MiNA Therapeutics has appointed Troels Koch as senior vice president, chemistry. In this role, Koch will lead MiNA’s chemistry research and strategy. He brings over 20 years of leadership in RNA therapeutics research, drug discovery and company building to the role, having most recently worked as an independent consultant. Koch also led RNA therapeutics research at Roche as chief technology officer and VP, research at Roche Innovation Center Copenhagen. Prior to its acquisition by Roche, Koch held the same role at Santaris where he worked for 11 years. He was also a founder of Santaris’ predecessor companies Cureon and Exiqon, which were formed around his inventions of LNA chemistry.

British pharma company Maxwellia has appointed Sara Al-Attbi to the newly created role of medical affairs pharmacist. Al-Attbi graduated with a first-class honours in Master’s in Pharmacy and has extensive clinical experience working in NHS hospitals, general practice surgery and most recently in the community pharmacy setting. She has also been recognised for her research in medicines management and awarded the PRIMM science award. Al-Attbi is also a NICE guideline’s ambassador, meaning she is knowledgeable in preventing ill health and promoting and protecting good health. Maxwellia founder and CEO, Anna Maxwell said: “The role of the pharmacist is central to our switch strategy. Sara shares our vision for widening access to medicines and her experience and pharmacy expertise will be vital for our pharmacy engagement and training programmes as we bring new products to this sector.”

Nick Johnston has joined Alantra's healthcare team as a senior advisor. Johnston’s 25-year career spans both investment banking advisory and industry positions in the UK and US. Previously, he has held senior positions in the healthcare investment banking teams at Perella Weinberg and JP Morgan. In these roles, he advised companies across multiple sub-sectors with a focus in biotechnology, medical technology, diagnostics and digital health. On top of that, Johnston has also served as the chief operating officer of a specialist medical device developer and co-founded a development-stage drug discovery company focused on respiratory health and other indications.

Richard Turkington has joined Almac Diagnostics Services’ management team as UK medical director. Turkington has over ten years’ experience in personalised medicines and leads an academic research group focused on improving outcomes for patients with oesophageal and gastric cancer through biomarker-led clinical trials. Currently, Turkington is currently clinical senior lecturer in Medical Oncology at the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research, Queen’s University Belfast and an honorary consultant at the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre. During his tenure at Almac, he will be integral to the validation of new biomarkers and their implementation in international clinical trials in collaboration with Almac’s pharmaceutical industrial clients.

Appointments

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