June 2023 • PharmaTimes Magazine • 36-37
// YOUR MOVES //
Your Moves
Movers of the Month
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has appointed Jessamy Baird as its Vice-President Elect.
Jessamy will join and support ABPI President Elect Susan Rienow, UK Managing Director and Country President of Pfizer, in delivering her presidential priorities and support the ABPI in its mission to make the UK the best place in the world to research, develop and use the medicines and vaccines of the future.
Jessamy is Managing Director/Country Lead, Sanofi UK & Ireland. At Sanofi, Jessamy leads the UK organisation to chase the miracles of science to improve people's lives and transform the practice of medicine.
Jessamy Baird, ABPI Vice-President Elect and Sanofi UK & Ireland’s Managing Director/Country Lead, reflected: “The pharmaceutical industry is vital to the continued health and wealth of the UK, delivering innovative, life-saving medicines to the NHS and adding £37billon to the UK economy each year.
She added: “I am proud to have been elected Vice-President by my peers during this crucial period and I look forward to working with the ABPI President to ensure the UK remains a competitive and innovative global life science leader.”
Engimmune has announced the appointment of Dr Annalisa D’Andrea as Non-Executive Director of its Board. Dr D’Andrea is a Venture Partner at Longwood Fund and is the former President and Chief Scientific Officer of ImmuneID.
Annalisa has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry including immunology research, drug discovery and development, and strategic leadership in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Prior to her stint at ImmuneID she was the Chief Scientific Officer of Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals and was previously Vice President and Global Head of Discovery for Immunology and Inflammation at Roche, where she oversaw the discovery pipeline of drug candidates from inception to the clinic.
ONA Therapeutics has appointed Dr Pamela Klein to its Board of Directors as an independent member. Dr Klein is a medical oncologist and seasoned biotechnology executive and amongst multiple roles, she is a member of the Board of Argenx, Patrys and I-Mab Biopharma.
Pamela is a medical oncologist and seasoned biotechnology executive with 20 years of experience in drug development. She was previously Chief Medical Officer at Olema Oncology and also served in that role for several other companies including Intellikine. Pamela has also been Research Director for the National Cancer Institute-Navy Breast Care Center which she co-founded.
Discovery Park has appointed Renos Savva as its new Head of Innovation. He joins the team in order to identify entrepreneurially minded scientists to thrive at Discovery Park’s tailored facilities in Sandwich, Kent.
As an entrepreneur, he co-founded Domainex, recognised by the Financial Times in 2018 as the ‘fastest-growing drug discovery contract research organisation in Europe’.
With this experience, he as a Senior Lecturer, he developed the postgraduate Bio-business programme at Birkbeck University playing a key role in mentoring many CEOs and companies, including the founders of BoobyBiome, a biotech creating microbiome supplements for infants without access to breast milk.
Aspire Pharma has announced the appointment of Ben Walmsley as Chief Technology Officer. Ben has joined Aspire to lead the digital strategy, technology and data use during a period of significant growth for the company.
Digital transformation has been identified as a key lever in achieving Aspire’s mission to make a difference in the lives of patients through the development and supply of innovative products and medicines throughout the world.
Ben has previously worked across various sectors such as life sciences, manufacturing and engineering conglomerates. He has successfully delivered complex projects in multinational environments, which have helped to improve supply chain efficiency, customer engagement and manufacturing processes.
Veranova has announced the appointment of Mike Riley as the company’s Chief Executive Officer and, in the role, Mike will assume responsibility for Veranova’s global business.
He is an executive with over 25 years of professional experience, of which nearly 19 years have been spent in pharmaceutical contract development, manufacturing operations and growing global businesses. Most recently, he served at Catalent, as President of the Biotherapeutics business – a multi-site business unit with 6,500 employees.
Charnwood Molecular has named Dr Francesca Sadler as its new Chief Commercial Officer. Francesca will lead all commercial activities across business development, sales and marketing for the preclinical CRO which specialises in enhancing the experience and success of complex drug discovery for clients globally.
Francesca joins Charnwood Molecular from Eurofins Discovery where she most recently served as Senior Vice President Commercial with responsibilities across Europe, North America and Asia. This follows a career in senior roles at companies such as Cyprotex, Aptuit and Charles River Discovery.
The European Laboratory Research & Innovation Group (ELRIG) UK has announced the appointment of Nick Clare to the ELRIG board.
He will chair the Vendor Strategy Work Group to help ensure that vendors’ perspectives and interests are represented within the ELRIG board.
Nick has two decades of industrial life sciences experience across a variety of scientific and commercial roles in large pharma and start-ups. He is currently Regional Sales Manager at Synthego and in recent years, has supported scientists in selecting tools in stem cell applications to help drive the discovery of new treatments.
Curve Therapeutics has appointed Dr Monica Ermann as Vice President Drug Discovery. Monika has more than two decades of experience in drug discovery and a record of delivering innovative drug discovery programmes from early stage through lead optimisation up to preclinical development.
She joins Curve from Exscientia where she held the position of Director Chemical Biology. Prior to this Monika spent 20 years at Evotec where she led lead projects in a broad range of disease areas, including cancer, while also working with both significant pharma partners and academic collaborators.
AlzeCure has announced that Janet Hoogstraate has been newly elected to the company’s board.
Janet has many years’ of experience in the life sciences, with leading roles at Astra Zeneca, among others. She has a PhD in Biopharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and an eMBA from Hult International Business School.
She has a great interest and knowledge in neuroscience research and has been, among other things, chairman of the board of the Stockholm Brain Institute. Janet is also CEO of Valneva Sweden.
Epro has appointed Dr Chandu Wickramarachchi as its Chief Clinical Informatics Officer in a new position that supports the organisation’s mission to enable clinicians to increase productivity and improve patient outcomes.
As a highly experienced clinician in multiple specialities, Chandu has spent the last four years specialising in Emergency Medicine and is currently a doctor at the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Breye Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Peter Adamson as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) and Gabriela Burian as a new member of its Board of Directors.
Peter has over 20 years of experience in ophthalmology drug development. He has previously held senior leadership positions at various biopharmaceutical companies including Vice President and Head of Ophthalmology Research at GlaxoSmithKline. He previously also worked at ProQR and Tenpoint Therapeutics, where he was involved in building pipelines and securing successful financing.
Gabriela is a physician-scientist with over 25 years of experience in clinical research and drug development in ophthalmology. She has held various global leadership positions at leading biopharmaceutical companies including Roche and Novartis.
She is developing novel, oral ophthalmology drugs to address the needs of millions of patients suffering with deteriorating vision due to diabetic retinopathy or age-related macular degeneration (AMD), for which there are no broadly available treatments.
Inizio has appointed Matt Lewis as Global Chief Artificial and Augmented Intelligence Officer and Paul Hatton as President, Medical Analytics and Innovation.
The two new senior appointments at Inizio Medical have been made in recognition of the rapidly increasing role artificial intelligence (AI) and technological innovation will play in driving change now and in the future.
Prior to taking up this new role Matt worked for Inizio and its parent companies for eight years, holding a number of senior positions including Global Chief Data and Analytics Officer at MEDiSTRAVA and, most recently, Global Chief Medical Analytics and Innovation Officer at Inizio Medical.
Paul will lead the Medical Analytics Practice vision, with responsibility for continuing to embed the latest digital innovations and advanced analytics practices across the business.
He brings significant leadership and innovation expertise to the team from his recent roles as Managing Director of both Synaptik and Medical Expressions.
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