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.
AC Immune CEO bids adieu
AC Immune
AC Immune CEO Andrea Pfeifer
Andrea Pfeifer, Ph.D., the co-founder and longtime leader of Swiss neurodegeneration outfit AC Immune, is retiring from the C-suite to spend more time with her family. Pfeifer will be replaced in the interim by board chair Martin Zügel, M.D., while the company hunts for a permanent new chief. Pfeifer has led the biotech through a series of ups and downs, with recent troughs of layoffs and halted trials and a series of highs sparked by new deals and promising preclinical data. The company, a former Fierce 15 honoree, boasts partnerships with Eli Lilly, Takeda and Johnson & Johnson, with several clinical candidates.
Pfeifer “leaves behind a highly capable organization, well-positioned to deliver transformative therapies for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases,” Zügel said. “The company is entering its next phase from a position of real strength.” Release
Bicara picks up commercial head from Replimune
Bicara Therapeutics
A month after mass layoffs at embattled oncology biotech Replimune, Bicara Therapeutics has plucked out a chief commercial officer in Chris Sarchi. Sarchi had served in the same executive role at Replimune for three years before his move to Bicara and spent five years in Sanofi’s oncology business sector before that. His background also includes several years in oncology-focused roles at Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK and Genentech.
At Bicara, Sarchi will be tasked with paving a commercial path for the Boston-based biotech as its first chief commercial officer. His appointment should help Bicara transition into a commercial company as it prepares to file an FDA bid for its lead asset, a bifunctional antibody dubbed ficerafusp alfa that’s currently being tested in a phase 2/3 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma study. Story
Infinimmune names CMO to lead clinical push
Infinimmune
Srikanth Pendyala, M.D., has been named chief medical officer of Infinimmune, where he will lead clinical and regulatory strategy for the antibody-focused biotech’s lead assets, IFX-101 and IFX-201.
With more than 25 years of experience in immunology and inflammation, Pendyala previously served as CMO at several early-stage biotechs, including Endeavor Biomedicines, where he led clinical strategy and regulatory interactions for the company’s immunofibrosis programs. He also has clinical development experience at BridgeBio, Theravance Biopharma, Merck and Roche/Genentech.
“After 25 years of developing immunology therapeutics, it’s clear that the drugs that work best in patients tend to resemble what the human immune system already makes,” Pendyala said. “Infinimmune starts with those antibodies rather than engineering toward them, and I’m excited to join and begin translating that into clinical programs.” Release
> Jae Kim, M.D., is departing Septerna Therapeutics to pursue new opportunities, with the clinical-stage biotech now searching for a successor. Release
> CAR-T therapy maker CPTx snagged a new chief scientific officer in experienced R&D leader Edward Rebar, Ph.D., and promoted David Maier to the executive team as chief business officer. Release
> AstronauTx is preparing for liftoff into clinical development with Michelle Mellion, M.D., on board as chief medical officer and Deb Gouveia heading up clinical operations and development strategy. Release
> Acclaimed industry leader Jo Brewer, Ph.D., is pivoting from Adaptimmune, where she was a founding scientist, to join Infinitopes as chief scientific officer and interim chief operating officer. Release
> The Quantitative Biosciences Institute at the University of California, San Francisco, has appointed John Young, Ph.D., chief strategy officer to advance the institute’s mission of translating protein-protein interactions into therapies. Release
> Effective June 1, Donn Casale will bring his experience scaling products in consumer healthcare to ARS Pharmaceuticals, where he will serve as president and lead the commercial launch of the company’s epinephrine nasal spray. Release
> Mark Soued is the new chief commercial officer at MBX Biosciences, bringing two decades of experience in biopharma, including senior vice president roles at Amolyt Pharma. Release
> Verastem Oncology has named Daniel Lyons chief commercial officer. He previously served as senior vice president and head of rare tumors international and global head of market access at SpringWorks Therapeutics. Release
