Welcome to this week’s Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Darren Incorvaia or Zoey Becker and it will be featured here at the end of each week.
Sarepta CEO to step down as DM1 hits close to home
Sarepta Therapeutics
A “fairly shocking and certainly ironic twist of fate” is ending Sarepta Therapeutics CEO Doug Ingram’s nearly decade-long tenure at the helm of the gene therapy maker, he said on an investor call. The executive will retire by the end of 2026 to spend time with his family in the wake of two close family members being diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). DM1 is one of the genetic diseases Sarepta is looking to develop treatments for through a recent collaboration with Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals.
Sarepta is now left to search for a new CEO to fill the big shoes left by Ingram, who recently anchored the company through a turbulent period marred by a regulatory back-and-forth concerning Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene therapy Elevidys. The FDA eventually limited the therapy to a certain subset of patients following two patient deaths, putting Elevidys’ commercial future on shaky ground.
Ingram came to Sarepta in 2017 after spending two decades at Allergan. The CEO will remain with the company until the end of 2026 or when his successor is found. Story
Pops descends from Alkermes CEO seat
Alkermes
Dublin-based Alkermes announced Blair Jackson will be the new CEO of the neuroscience biopharma after previously serving as its executive vice president and COO. Effective Aug. 1, Jackson will fill the shoes of Richard Pops, who served as CEO since 1991 and will transition to chairman of the board and advisor to Alkermes’ executive team. Jackson has been with Alkermes since 1999 and played a key role in the company’s recent transformation as it divested from its oncology business, sold its Athlone manufacturing facility and acquired sleep disorder specialist Avadel Pharmaceuticals for $2.4 billion. Departing CEO Pops grew Alkermes from a 20-employee enterprise to a pharmaceutical company with $1.5 billion in annual revenue and 2,000-plus employees, the company said. Release
Former Novartis CMO John Tsai saunters to Daiichi
Daiichi Sankyo
Four years after he resigned as chief medical officer at Novartis in the wake of a restructuring, John Tsai, M.D., has taken up a similar role at Daiichi Sankyo. Tsai has been appointed global head of R&D at the Japanese pharma, where he will take over from Ken Takeshita, M.D., who is stepping down April 1. Tsai previously held senior R&D positions at Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb and Amgen before taking up the CMO position at Novartis in 2018. During his four-year stint at Novartis, Tsai led the development of 160 projects and 500 clinical trials that resulted in global approvals for 15 new medicines, Daiichi said when announcing his new role. Story
> Otsuka’s head of global medical strategy Jay Elliott is off to Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he will head up U.S. medical affairs for the company’s nephrology sector. LinkedIn
> Industry vet Jorge Bartolome will steer the ship at Rivus Pharmaceuticals as CEO, replacing co-founder Allen Cunningham as he pivots to the chief operating officer role. Release
> Precision oncology outfit Ideaya Biosciences has tapped AbbVie cancer vet Theodora (Theo) Ross, M.D., Ph.D., to the newly minted role of chief development officer. Release
> RNA-focused N4 Pharma is changing its name to Thalia Therapeutics and its CEO to David Solomon, Ph.D., replacing retiring company founder Nigel Theobald. Release
> Greg Crescenzi will be the vice president of global commercial strategy and partnerships for nonprofit plasmid repository Addgene, driving business development for the organization as it focuses on advancing innovation through sharing research materials. Release
