Biogen, Sartorius and Recipharm are among the companies welcoming new faces to top jobs.
Biogen, Sartorius and Recipharm are among the companies welcoming new faces to top jobs.
CDMO Recipharm has appointed Joaquim Mascaro as Chief Financial Officer.
Mascaro has worked for a range of organisations in the pharma, biotech and healthcare industries, across the US, Asia and Latin America. He joins Recipharm from Sonova Group, where he was Division CFO for hearing instruments, and previously held roles with GSK and Novartis.
Joaquim joined Recipharm on April 3 and replaces Michael Tyroller, who was interim CFO.
Kyowa Kirin, Inc. (an affiliate of Japan's Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.) has appointed Steve Schaefer as President, North America, effective April 11.
Schaefer joins Kyowa Kirin North America (KKNA) after holding key leadership roles at top pharmaceutical companies, including Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly and Company.
He brings more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry and a consistent record of accomplishments as a senior executive across multiple therapeutic areas. In his most recent role as Senior Vice President, Neuroscience Business Unit and Head of US Commercial Operations, Mr. Schaefer was responsible for a commercial portfolio of specialty medicines delivering multi-billion dollar annual revenues as well as commercial data and advanced analytics, forecasting, sales and marketing operations, and corporate training and leadership development.
Prior to Takeda, Schaefer held roles with Eli Lilly and Company in marketing, sales and general management.
Schaefer is a decorated veteran, serving as Captain, in the United States Marine Corps, and continues to be a strong advocate of veterans' causes. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from LaSalle University, Philadelphia.
Schaefer succeeds Gary Zieziula, who is retiring. Zieziula assumed the role as President, North America in April 2020, and led the company through a period of tremendous growth and change. Zieziula is returning to the North America Board of Directors where he will continue to advise and help facilitate a smooth transition.
KKNA is the fastest growing region in Kyowa Kirin's global footprint. The region markets first-in-class medicines in three therapeutic areas: neurology, oncology and rare disease. With nearly 600 employees in the US and Canada, KKNA now represents over a quarter of Kyowa Kirin's global revenues.
The Supervisory Board of Germany’s Sartorius AG has appointed Alexandra Gatzemeyer, Ph.D., as Member of the Executive Board, effective May 1, 2023.
Alexandra Gatzemeyer will succeed Gerry Mackay, Board Member and Head of the Lab Products & Services division, who will hand over duties in the course of May and June to ensure a smooth transition at the helm of this division. After stepping down as Executive Board member as of June 16, Gerry Mackay will continue to support Sartorius in various cross-divisional tasks and initiatives.
Alexandra Gatzemeyer currently leads the LPS Sales & Services organization at Sartorius. During her more than 18 years tenure with the company, she served in various senior leadership roles including Product Management, Human Resources Management, and as Managing Director of a country organization. Alexandra holds a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry and pharmacology from the St. Petersburg State Chemical and Pharmaceutical University.
From June 16, the Sartorius Executive Board will thus consist of the four following members: Dr. Joachim Kreuzburg, Chairman and CEO; Dr. René Fáber, Head of Bioprocess Solutions; Alexandra Gatzemeyer, Head of Lab Products & Services; and Rainer Lehmann, Chief Financial Officer.
Eterna Therapeutics Inc - a Cambridge, Massachusetts life science company dedicated to mRNA cell engineering to create new medicines – has appointed Jeff Karp, Ph.D. to Eterna’s Scientific Advisory Board.
Dr. Karp is the Distinguished Chair in Clinical Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School in Boston.
He is also a principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and an affiliate faculty member at the Broad Institute and at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.
Dr. Karp was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Royal Society of Chemistry, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering’s College of Fellows, Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
He has published over 125 peer-reviewed papers with more than 30,000 citations. Several technologies developed in his lab have led to multiple products currently in development or on the market, and to the launch of ten companies.
Dr. Karp has received more than 50 awards and honors. Most recently, he received the Clemson Award for Applied Research, the highest award for innovation from the Society for Biomaterials. Boston Magazine recognized Dr. Karp as one of 11 Boston Doctors Making Medical Breakthroughs and the Boston Business Journal recognized him as a Champion in Healthcare Innovation. MIT Technology Review magazine also recognized Dr. Karp as being one of the top innovators in the world in its “TR35” list, and three members from his laboratory have subsequently received this award. His work has been selected by Popular Mechanics as one of the Top 20 New Biotech Breakthroughs that Will Change Medicine.
Eterna has in-licensed a portfolio of over 100 patents covering key mRNA cell engineering technologies, including technologies for mRNA cell reprogramming, mRNA gene editing, the NoveSlice and UltraSlice gene-editing proteins, and the ToRNAdo mRNA delivery system from Factor Bioscience. NoveSlice, UltraSlice, and ToRNAdo are trademarks of Factor Bioscience.
FogPharma – a biopharma company pioneering the discovery and development of Helicon therapeutics (small proteins capable of efficient cell-entry and modulating protein-protein interactions) has appointed Mathai Mammen, M.D., Ph.D. as chairman, president and chief executive officer.
Dr. Mammen will serve as an advisor to FogPharma beginning immediately and will assume his position as chairman, president and chief executive officer in June 2023.
Dr. Mammen was most recently on the Executive Committee at Johnson & Johnson, responsible for the pharmaceutical R&D organization, and spearheaded a significant evolution of Janssen’s R&D, one of the largest R&D organizations in the world. He was a key leader that shaped and drove Johnson & Johnson’s bold foray into COVID vaccines and helped drive Janssen's substantial growth to become one of the top pharmaceutical companies globally. He led his team to global approvals of eight new medicines including Tremfya, Darzalex Faspro, Balversa, Carvykti, Rybrevant, Ponvory, Spravato and Tecvayli, with many additional global approvals for expanded indications of marketed products.
Under his leadership, Janssen R&D executed 40+ acquisitions and licenses and 350+ strategic partnerships and collaborations.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, he served as senior vice president at Merck, responsible for multiple research areas including cardiovascular, metabolic and renal diseases, immunology, oncology and immuno-oncology. Before Merck, Dr. Mammen led R&D at Theravance, Inc., a company he co-founded out of graduate school based on his work at Harvard University with Dr. George Whitesides. Under his leadership, Theravance advanced a robust pipeline of multiple development-stage compounds resulting in five approved pharmaceutical products, and separated into two companies: Theravance Biopharma, Inc. and Innoviva, Inc. Dr. Mammen also currently serves on the board of directors of 10x Genomics, Inc.
Dr. Mammen has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed journal publications, posters and patents. He received his M.D. from the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology HST program and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University.
FogPharma founder Gregory Verdine, Ph.D., will transition from his current role as chairman and chief executive officer to vice chairman on the company’s board of directors.
Cambridge, Massachusetts company Seismic Therapeutics has appointed Melanie Manning as Chief People Officer.
Seismic – a biotech using machine learning for immunology drug development – brings in Manning at a key time as the company plans to transition from a discovery stage to a preclinical and eventual clinical organization.
Manning is an experienced human resources leader with more than 20 years of experience supporting business plans and developing programs to engage talent in multiple industries, including at Novartis and Biogen.
Before joining Seismic, Manning held leadership positions at Enspira HR Consulting, where she served as Vice President, Human Capital, acting as primary contact for HR advisory client engagements. Prior to Enspira, she was Chief Human Resources Officer for non-profit organization Upstream USA. Previously, she served as Head of Human Resources for the Infectious Diseases division of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). Before her tenure at Novartis, Manning served as Associate Director, Human Resources at Biogen. Earlier in her career, she held several human resources positions for divisions of Fidelity Investments, which included HR business partner and Center of Excellence program office roles.
She has a Masters degree in Human Relations and a BA from the University of Oklahoma and completed Intensive Studies in French Literature and Civilization at Université de Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Biogen has appointed Adam Keeney, Ph.D., as Executive Vice President, Head of Corporate Development: effective 17 April 2023.
Dr. Keeney will be a member of Biogen’s Executive Committee reporting to Christopher A. Viehbacher, President and Chief Executive Officer.
“As we are working to put Biogen on a sustainable growth trajectory, Adam will focus on advancing the company’s strategy and pursuing external collaborations and other growth opportunities,” said Viehbacher.
Dr. Keeney brings more than 20 years of experience leading R&D, business development and strategy organizations at industry-leading companies within biotech and large pharma, most recently as the Chief Executive Officer of NodThera, a clinical stage biotech company advancing a portfolio of NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors for the treatment of a broad range of inflammatory diseases.
Prior to joining NodThera, Dr. Keeney was at Sanofi where he had responsibility for all of Sanofi Genzyme’s business development activities, including early- and late-stage deals across therapeutic areas and modalities, successfully completing several significant transactions. Previously, Dr. Keeney worked at Johnson & Johnson where he held a number of business development roles with increasing responsibility and started his career at H. Lundbeck A/S.
Dr. Keeney holds a Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology from the University of Nottingham, UK and a Bachelor of Science in Neuropsychology from the University of Leeds, UK.
