Lilly, Sanofi and Catamaran Bio are among the companies making new appointments this month.
Eli Lilly & Company has appointed Laura Steele as President and General Manager (GM) for UK, Ireland & Northern Europe.
Steele succeeds Ashley Diaz-Granados, who assumes a senior role within Lilly USA leading the company’s Immunology division.
In her new role, Steele will lead Lilly’s commercial business operations in six countries, across the company’s current and emerging portfolio in Diabetes, Oncology, Immunology and Neuroscience. She brings 18 years’ experience with the company to her new role, and joins from Lilly’s Corporate Business Development division, where she specialised in innovation partnerships, large-scale projects in M&A, investments and joint ventures, to drive growth across the company.
“I am honoured to take on this role at such defining moment for the Life Sciences industry in the UK. The new Life Sciences Vision illustrates how all aspects of the health system must work together to ensure we can continue to discover and deliver new life-saving innovations here in the UK. Lilly, as well as the wider industry, are well placed to help drive this forward,” said Laura Steele, President and General Manager Lilly UK, Ireland & Northern Europe.
“As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must build on what we have learned during this crisis. From accelerating the set-up of new clinical trials to advances in delivering care outside of traditional settings, and combating health inequalities, the partnership and advances in care created during the pandemic must not be lost.”
Kevin Ingham (pictured) has joined CDMO AGC Biologics as General Manager / Site Head in Seattle, where he will oversee the strategic development and operational excellence in clinical and commercial biologics production at the site.
Ingham brings with him more than 18 years of leadership experience in the biotechnology and manufacturing industry, most recently as Site Head/Executive Director of Drug Product Manufacturing for Switzerland-based Roche. His past experience also includes roles at Genentech.
In his new role, Ingham will support the continuous growth of the site, while working with colleagues across AGC Biologics global network of facilities to bring new biopharmaceuticals to market.
Meanwhile, Tony Fraij will oversee strategic development and operational excellence in large-scale C> production as General Manager / Site Head at the company’s new Longmont site in Colorado.
Together with the Heidelberg and Milan sites, the Longmont facility will become an integral part of AGC Biologics’ end-to-end cell and gene therapy CDMO services, which currently includes plasmid DNA, viral vectors and cell therapies. Fraij has over 20 years of industry experience, having led operations at Boehringer Ingelheim, Sandoz, Novartis, and AveXis.
Roy Papatheodorou has been named as EVP, General Counsel and Head of Legal, Ethics & Business Integrity; taking over from Karen Linehan who is retiring after 14 years at Sanofi. Papatheodorou will Sanofi from Novartis, where he is the General Counsel of Novartis Pharmaceuticals. In the past, he has headed the Legal Transactions team at Novartis and having previously been the General Counsel of the Actavis Group, one of the largest generic companies at the time. He started his career at international law firm Linklaters, where he specialized in international M&A, corporate, and private equity.
Brendan O’Callaghan has been appointed EVP, Global Head of Industrial Affairs; taking over from Philippe Luscan who retires after 13 years in the role and 32 years with the company. O’Callaghan is currently Sanofi’s Global Head of its Biologics Platform and the Industrial Affairs head of its Specialty Care portfolio. He joined Sanofi in 2015 from Merck where he had served as Head of Biologics and later Vice President of their EMEA Operations.
Additionally, Viviane Monges will join EUROAPI, a European company dedicated to the development, production, and marketing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), as an independent non-executive Chair of the Supervisory Board. She will serve as Chair of the Board of Directors upon transformation of EUROAPI into a société anonyme, in compliance with applicable corporate governance regulations.
Monges’ career has spanned several industries: she was CFO of the Business Excellence Division at Nestlé; served as Group CFO at Galderma S.A.; and was EMEA CFO and then Global CFO of the OTC Division at Novartis. At Wyeth Pharmaceuticals/Pfizer she served as CFO of the Global Pharma Business unit. She also worked for Agence France-Presse from 1990 to 1995.
She is currently an independent Director at several pharmaceutical companies: UCB, Novo Holdings, DBV Technologies, ADC Therapeutics, and Pharvaris. She also served on the Board of Idorsia from 2018 to 2021.
Catamaran Bio, a biotech developing off-the-shelf CAR-NK cell therapies to treat cancer, has appointed Joseph Gold, PhD, as Vice President, Technical Operations and Manufacturing.
Dr. Gold has more than 25 years of experience in cell and gene therapy process development and GMP manufacturing. As head of Technical Operations and Manufacturing at Catamaran, he will lead the development of key aspects of the company’s Tailwind Platform, including transposon-based NK cell engineering, process development and scale-up, as well as GMP manufacturing of Catamaran’s CAR-NK product candidates.
“We are thrilled to have Joe join our senior leadership team. Joe has a very successful track record of managing and enabling the manufacture of cell therapy products through the entire development cycle, and his expertise will help ensure that our innovative CAR-NK cell therapies reach patients as soon as possible,” said Alvin Shih, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Catamaran Bio.
Prior to his new role, Dr. Gold was Senior Director of Manufacturing for the Center for Biomedicine and Genetics at the City of Hope Cancer Center, where he was responsible for managing process development and GMP manufacturing of cell and gene therapy products for both internal users and external clients.
In this role at City of Hope, he led multiple external collaborations to advance cancer research programs for cell therapies and managed a designated cell production facility.
Previously, he was Assistant Director of Translational Research at the Stanford University Cardiovascular Institute.
Dr. Gold began his career in biotech with Geron Corporation, where he served in several leadership roles. He is an inventor on more than 15 patents related to cell therapy and regenerative medicine and has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Gold earned a BS from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in cell and developmental biology from Harvard University.
Stelis Biopharma Limited, a biopharma and vaccines company and the biotech arm of Strides Pharma Science Limited, has appointed Mark W. Womack as its new CEO.
Womack is also the Managing Director (MD) designate and will be inducted to the Board later subject to necessary statutory clearances and processes. As the company's CEO and MD, Mark will provide strong leadership to drive an aggressive growth and profitability strategy for Stelis across business streams that include global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) services; a biosimilars pipeline; and vaccines division. He will be responsible for the company's overall strategy and provide the necessary direction and leadership to R&D, manufacturing, business development, and commercial operations.
Before joining Stelis, Mark was the Chief Business Officer for CDMO AGC Biologics. Here, he led the organization to nearly a 3x increase in new sales in two years and drove the acquisition of most of the world's top large pharma companies into their portfolio. Before that, he led the global integration of three former CDMOs that were merged to create AGC Biologics.
Mark has served over 25 years as a management consulting industry leader and C-level client advisor: during this time, he served as the Chief Operating Officer for two international management consulting companies.
Before joining the management consulting industry, Womack led a succession of US Navy units, including serving as a combat centre leader on a destroyer class ship.
Womack is a US citizen, and he will be based at the company's corporate headquarter in Bengaluru, India.
Arun Kumar, Founder, Strides Group, said, "Stelis stands on the cusp of a transition to become a globally recognized biopharmaceutical company while targeting significant growth in the coming years. Mark's strong background in commercial leadership, rich management consulting experience, and network within the biotech CDMO space make him exceptionally well suited to drive this transition for Stelis. We are confident that together Mark and his leadership team will take Stelis through the next level of growth, profitability and industry-leading reputation."
Sensorion, a clinical-stage biotechnology company which specializes in the development of novel therapies to restore, treat and prevent within the field of hearing loss disorders, has appointed Otmane Boussif as Chief Technical Officer.
Dr Boussif has more than 25 years experience in biologics, advanced therapy medicinal product, complex small molecules, vaccines, aseptic manufacturing operations and associated technical development, and partnering with contract development and manufacturing management. He joins Sensorion from Novartis, where he held a number of senior roles, including Global Head of Cell and Gene Therapy Technical Development and Global Head of Early Phase Development.
Before Novartis, Dr Boussif was Director of Purification and Formulation Processes for Vaccines at Sanofi Pasteur. He holds a Ph.D. in BioPhysico-Chemistry from the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg and a Master in Organic Chemistry and BioChemistry also from ULP.
Dr Boussif brings with him considerable expertise in CMC development and implementation as well as a strong background in developing different biological modalities. In his new role, Dr Boussif will oversee all the technical operations and CMC functions at Sensorion.
Nawal Ouzren, CEO of Sensorion, said: “Dr Boussif is a cross functional leader who has been instrumental in shaping and leading successful global CMC organizations. He will play a vital role in the expansion of Sensorion's unique gene therapy platform, the small molecules CMC network strategy and his appointment highlights the acceleration of our product development programs.”