Novavax, Sk bioscience and Aspen Neuroscience are among the companies welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Novavax, Sk bioscience and Aspen Neuroscience are among the companies welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Aspen Neuroscience, a private biotechnology company developing the first autologous neuron replacement therapies to treat Parkinson's disease (PD), has welcomed Kim Raineri as Chief Technology Officer and as a member of the company's executive team.
Raineri brings over 25 years of global experience in the cell and gene therapy, biologics and medical device spaces, with a distinguished record of innovation and implementation of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Aspen Neuroscience has been building out its technical operations and team, and Kim will be responsible for developing the strategy for and execution of the company's in-house manufacture of its autologous cell therapy portfolio.
San Diego-based Aspen is entering a ‘historic new stage of growth’ as the first company in the world to reach its current stage of development, where it is manufacturing autologous PD patient iPSCs for use in upcoming clinical trials.
Prior to joining Aspen Neuroscience, Raineri served as chief manufacturing and technology officer and a member of the executive team at AVROBIO, a Boston-based leader in the gene therapy space.
Before AVROBIO, he was vice president of operations for Nikon CeLL innovation Co., Ltd, a Japanese contract development and manufacturing organization. During his tenure, he established the company as the preferred provider of custom process development and manufacturing services for cell and gene therapy products in the Japanese market.
Previously, Raineri also held management positions at Lonza as the business director for cell therapy contract manufacturing operations in Singapore for five years, and as director of operations at Lonza's Maryland facilities. Kim was also previously the senior manager of the Tissue Processing Lab at CryoLife Inc.
Kim earned his Bachelor of Science from the University of Miami and Master's in Business Administration from Kennesaw State University. He is also a frequent presenter and panel member at cell and gene therapy industry meetings and was a mentor for Early Stage Professionals through the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy.
South Korea’s SK bioscience has welcomed Dr. Harry Kleanthous, formerly Senior Program Officer in Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), as Executive Vice President of Vaccine R&D Strategy and External Innovation.
Dr. Kleanthous, an expert in the vaccine field, has devoted 30 years to the vaccine industry in both biotech & large biopharma, serving as Vice President Research at Acambis, and Head of Research for North America at Sanofi Pasteur, where he developed innovative platforms and developed pipelines targeting medically important infectious diseases. He majored in Microbiology and Biochemistry at Manchester Metro University, U.K., and obtained his Ph.D. in Medical Molecular Microbiology at the University of London.
The appointment of Dr. Kleanthous will help SK bioscience accelerate its entry into the US, having appointed Dr. Hun Kim, Chief Technical Officer, as Chief Executive Officer of SK bioscience USA – a new entity that will be established early next year.
Dr. Kim will be responsible for leading the company's business globalization effort, development of innovative platforms and future growth engines, and accelerate sustainable growth through recruitment of additional global talents (starting with the appointment of Dr. Harry Kleanthous).
Dr. Kim joined SK Chemicals in 2008 and served as Head of the Bio Office from 2014 and then as Head of VAX Development at corporate HQ from 2016. He was appointed as SK bioscience's first Chief Technical Officer since its establishment in 2018. He closely cooperated with key global partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), and the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), and successfully led numerous R&D projects including Korea's first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine 'SKYCovione'.
The headquarters of SK bioscience USA, Inc. will be located in Boston: building a US 'bio-cluster' of partnerships in its pursuit of novel and innovative technologies for transfer to SK bioscience's R&D centers in South Korea, for early de-risking and strengthening its pipeline.
Meanwhile, SK bioscience has named Dr. Sally Choe, an expert in drug review, clinical pharmacology, and medical product development, as Head of Global Clinical Development and Regulatory Affairs of the company. In this role, she will be leading the company's clinical development and execution of innovative products and regulatory affairs to advance SK bioscience's global competitiveness.
Dr. Choe joins SK bioscience from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) where she most recently served as the Super Office Director of the Office of Generic Drugs (OGD). Prior to her 12 years of tenure at the FDA, she worked at Parexel Regulatory Consulting firm as Senior Director, and also worked in large biopharma including Bristol Myers Squib (BMS) and Pfizer. She majored in Electrical Engineering at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and holds a Master's and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Michigan.
CARsgen Therapeutics has appointed Dr. Sylvie Peltier as Senior Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs, effective October 31.
CARsgen focuses on CAR T-cell therapies for the treatment of hematologic malignancies and solid tumors, with operations in China and the US.
Dr. Peltier will be responsible for developing global regulatory strategies, leading and driving the company’s regulatory affairs activities, and initiatives in support of IND/CTA/BLA filing and approval of developmental products globally.
She has extensive global leadership and hands-on experiences in clinical and CMC regulatory affairs across several multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining CARsgen, she served as Vice President, Head of US Regulatory Affairs at MorphoSys US since 2020, and as Head of Regulatory Affairs at Servier Pharmaceuticals from 2018.
Before joining Servier Pharmaceuticals LLC, Dr. Peltier served at Cephalon since 2007, an international biopharmaceutical company which was acquired later by TEVA Pharmaceuticals Industries, holding various positions from Senior Director, Europe Regulatory Affairs, CNS/Pain and CMC, Senior Director, US Regulatory Affairs, to Senior Director, Clinical Search Evaluation and Due Diligence. Previously, she worked at Pfizer Regulatory Affairs from 1995.
Dr. Peltier earned a Diploma of Pharmacy Doctorate and a Diploma of Graduated Specialized Studies (DESS) in Health Law from University of Paris XI in Paris, France.
Lineage Cell Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech developing allogeneic cell therapies for unmet medical needs, has announced that Jill Howe will join as the company’s Chief Financial Officer, effective November 14.
Howe brings more than 20 years of significant strategic, financial, and operational experience to Lineage, with an emphasis on capital strategy, corporate finance, treasury management, global infrastructure, and operational excellence. She has successfully built biotechnology organizations and implemented operational infrastructures alongside the execution of over $1.66bn of capital raising transactions.
Most recently, Howe was Chief Financial Officer of DTx Pharma, and prior to that, was Vice President of Finance and Treasurer at Gossamer Bio, serving an integral role in the company’s initial public offering (IPO) and concurrent listing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, various follow-on and debt deals, and overseeing all aspects of finance and accounting operations globally. She also served as a Board member of all Irish and Luxembourg subsidiaries of Gossamer Bio.
From 2016 through 2017 she served as Controller & Director of Finance at Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company dedicated to the development of therapies for debilitating and life-threatening diseases that affect people with compromised immune systems, which was subsequently acquired by Pfizer.
From 2013 to 2016 she served as Controller & Director of Finance at Receptos, which was subsequently acquired by Celgene for more than $7bn.
From 2006 to 2013 she worked in various accounting roles, leading up to Director of Finance, at Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Pernix in 2012.
Howe earned her Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from San Diego State University and serves on the Board of Directors of various non-profit, private and public biotechnology companies. In 2022, she won the 2022 CFO of the Year Award in the small business category from the San Diego Business Journal.
Judy Chou, Ph.D. has been appointed to the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee (ICOC), the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
Dr. Chou is the President, CEO and a member of the Board of Directors of AltruBio, a clinical stage biotech company that is focused on developing novel antibody therapeutics for the treatment of immune inflammatory diseases.
Dr. Chou has more than 20 years experience in drug development and biomanufacturing. Before joining AltruBio she headed the global Biotech organization at Bayer Pharmaceuticals. At Bayer she oversaw the development, manufacturing and distribution of the company’s more than $3bn product portfolio. She also oversaw more than 2,000 employees and led the drug development and launch activities for the biologics pipeline. In addition, she also served as the site head for Bayer’s facility in Berkeley, California, the company’s largest manufacturing site in the US.
Dr. Chou also has had leadership roles at Pfizer, Medivation Inc., Genentech and Wyeth Biopharma. She has won several awards and in 2018 was the recipient of the Most Influential Women in Business award by the San Francisco Business Times. She is currently an advisor at the UC Berkeley Engineering School and is working to promote diversity and inclusion through her advisory board position at Silicon Valley Women in Engineering.
Dr. Chou obtained her Ph.D., at Yale, her post-doctoral training at the Max-Planck Institute in Germany and was a research faculty member at Harvard University Medical School focusing on cell biology and neuroscience.
CIRM partners with both academia and industry in a ‘hands-on, entrepreneurial environment to fast track the development of today’s most promising stem cell technologies’, with $5.5bn in funding and more than 150 active stem cell programs in its portfolio.
Dr. Chou was appointed to the CIRM Board by State Treasurer Fiona Ma, as the Executive Officer of a Commercial Life Science entity. She replaces Dave Martin.
Vaccine company Novavax has appointed Richard Rodgers, MBA, to its board as an independent director.
Rodgers’ ‘deep experience in the pharmaceutical industry coupled with his extensive acumen in building rapidly growing companies and financial leadership will be invaluable as we continue the commercialization of our COVID-19 vaccine and expand our vaccine pipeline,’ says the company.
From 2010 to 2013, Mr. Rodgers was co-founder, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary, and Treasurer of TESARO, a biopharmaceutical company that was acquired in January 2019 by GSK for over $5bn. From 2009 to 2010, Mr. Rodgers served as the Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Abraxis BioScience, a biotechnology company that was acquired by Celgene for $2.9bn. From 2004 to 2008, Rodgers served as Senior Vice President, Controller and Chief Accounting Officer of MGI Pharma, a biopharmaceutical company that was acquired in January 2008 by Eisai for $3.9bn.
Rodgers currently serves on the boards of directors and as the chair of the audit committee and member of the compensation committee of Ocuphire Pharma, Sagimet Biosciences and Ardelyx.
Rodgers holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Financial Accounting from St. Cloud State University and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Business.
