BMS’ capture of Celgene caught much attention, due to the size and scale of the deal, but rival companies have taken the chance to snap up employees deemed surplus to operations.
As a sign of how a large acquisition can have an impact across the industry, a number of appointments recently have been influenced by BMS’ decision to acquire Celgene.
The company itself also announced the look of its new leadership team, which sees a new face join from a rival pharma company and the exit of some long-serving members of the BMS team.
BMS’ capture of Celgene caught much attention, due to the size and scale of the deal, but rival companies have taken the chance to snap up employees deemed surplus to operations.
As a sign of how a large acquisition can have an impact across the industry, a number of appointments recently have been influenced by BMS’ decision to acquire Celgene.
The company itself also announced the look of its new leadership team, which sees a new face join from a rival pharma company and the exit of some long-serving members of the BMS team.
Following BMS’ $74bn (€65.2bn) decision to acquire Celgene, the company revealed how its new leadership lineup would look through the integration of the biotech.
Giovanni Caforio will remain CEO, working with Celgene’s Rupert Vassey, who will lead BMS’ research and early development division, Nadim Ahmed, who will lead the haematology division, and David Elkins, who will become CFO.
Elkins will replace Charles Bancroft, who will take on the role of executive lead for integration, before retiring during 2020 – ending his 35 years at the company.
In addition, Samit Hirawat will join BMS as CMO, arriving at the company from Novartis, where he was head of oncology development.
BMS’ current CSO, Tom Lynch, will remain in his position until October 1, 2019, at which point he will leave to “pursue opportunities in healthcare.”
“I’m looking forward to working with this leadership team as we combine the strengths of BMS and Celgene to enhance the value of our marketed portfolio, deliver six significant new product launches and realise the full potential of our deep and broad pipeline,” said Caforio.
According to BMS, the newly merged company will base the leadership roles around two core areas, research and early development and global drug development.
The biopharmaceutical company headquartered in California appointed Johanna Mercier as its newest CCO. Mercier will take over the company’s commercial operations at the start of July, filling a new position as the current EVP of Worldwide Commercial Operations, Laura Hamill, leaves the company.
Mercier previously worked in leadership positions across areas such as oncology, inflammation, and neuroscience. Mercier will join Gilead from Bristol-Myers Squibb, where she held the position of president and head of the company’s large markets division.
Mercier said in a statement, “Throughout my career, I have worked to improve care for people with unmet medical needs and I am excited to join a company that shares my commitment to doing what is right for patients – and to advance and commercialise important new medicines.”
Currently, Mercier is a director on the Robert Wood Johnson University hospital board, in addition to her work in the biopharmaceutical research industry.
In another move that sees an individual exit BMS to take a leadership position at another company, F-Star has brought in Louis Kayitalire as CMO.
The position has been newly-created for Kayitalire, which the biotech suggested is part of its transition to a ‘wholly-owned portfolio’ organisation that would also see it expand its clinical operation capabilities and accelerate its pipeline.
The company’s lead product candidate is FS118, a LAG-3/PD-L1-targeting tetravalent bispecific antibody currently in a Phase I clinical trial.
At BMS, Kayitalire had performed the role of VP of immune-oncology for over three years, which was part of the reasoning behind bringing him in to work on F-Star’s oncology pipeline, the biotech’s CEO suggested.
Eliot Forster, CEO of F-star, said, “[Kayitalire]’s oncology expertise and extensive experience advancing clinical research programmes will be invaluable at this stage in F-star’s evolution as we accelerate development of our lead product candidate, FS118, and work to rapidly progress more assets into the clinic.”
Paul McKenzie has been announced as CSL Behring’s COO, joining the haemophilia and immune deficiencies-focused biotech from Biogen.
At Biogen, McKenzie held the position of EVP of pharmaceutical operations and technology for over three years. Prior to this, he held similar roles at Janssen for eight years, BMS for 10 years, and Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada) for six years.
In his role at CSL, he will be responsible for CSL’s global supply chain organisation, which includes its manufacturing process, engineering, and environmental responsibilities.
On his announcement, CSL noted that McKenzie is an “accomplished author and thought leader on operational excellence in the biotech industry.”
Joseph Farmer will take on the role as COO at the privately held biopharma company Akrevia Therapeutics. The company, which was launched by Atlas Ventures and F-Prime in September 2018, will see Farmer take on business development functions as it works on its development candidates.
Farmer, who previously served as SVP and general counsel at Tesaro, will lead finance, administrative, and business operations at the company, directly reporting to René Russo who was appointed CEO just last month.
Russo commented on the appointment of Farmer stating, “As we focus on the next phase of Akrevia’s growth, I am thrilled to welcome Jo as our COO.”
She continued, “This is an exciting time for the company as we approach nomination of our first development candidates from our tumor-activated IL-2 and anti-CTLA4 programs, unlock the full potential of our Aklusion platform technology and work to deliver on our long-term strategy to build a leading immuno-oncology company.”
