Moderna Hires Commercialization Expert with First Product

Now that the young vaccine company has launched its first and only product commercially (the COVID-19 vaccine), it tapped branding expert Kate Cronin as its first Chief Brand Officer. Her primary focus for the company will be launching the COVID-19 vaccine marketing campaign. While the product’s sales are in full swing, its emergency authorization status limits marketing opportunities, leaving Moderna to prepare its marketing strategy while the FDA considers full approval.

Cronin comes to Moderna from Ogilvy where she ended her 16-year span at the company as global CEO. She will be helping the biotech differentiate itself from pharma giants such as Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson with its only product on the market. She will draw upon her vaccine views, which she stated at the start of the pandemic while still with Ogilvy: “Pharmaceutical companies recognize they have to justify their societal impact and that it’s important for customers—patients and HCPs—to understand what they stand for,” she said. “The word innovation alone doesn’t differentiate one pharma company from another; it needs to be deeper than that.”

EQRx Enlists Exec to Provide Low-Price Drugs

The Massachusetts-based company committed to developing and delivering important new medicines to patients at radically lower prices, appointed Carlos Garcia-Echeverria, PhD, as Chief of Rx Creation. In this new role Dr. Garcia-Echeverria will lead EQRx’s drug creation and early-stage research and development functions to keep building its robust and sustainable pipeline of novel medicines.

“Carlos brings deep expertise across platforms, modalities, and therapeutic categories, as well as his grounding in cutting-edge digital technologies, which further bolsters EQRx’s capability to realize the incredible potential of what’s possible through drug engineering,” stated Melanie Nallicheri, President and Chief Operating Officer of EQRx.

The company re-makes medicines and uses strategic partnerships with stakeholders from across the healthcare system and cutting-edge science and technology, to provide high-quality, patent-protected medicines more efficiently at more affordable prices for the public. Dr. Garcia-Echeverria will further this mission with his research strategy expertise gleaned from his most recent role at Sanofi, as the Chief Operating Officer of Research and Global Head of Research Platforms.

Adcendo

Former Oncology Chief at Celgene and CEO of Immunomedics, Michael Pehl, moves to Denmark-based Adcendo as its new CEO. Pehl will use his proven scientific and commercial experience, including taking drugs from bench to market, to lead the company as it builds its pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), including a program for a new cancer target, uPARAP.

Amgen

Jean-Charles Soria, MD, PhD will now lead Amgen’s oncology therapeutic area as a Senior Vice President. Dr. Soria previously served the same role at AstraZeneca, contributing to his international reputation in the field of precision medicine, immunotherapy, and diverse oncology pipelines.

AstraZeneca

The drug making giant promoted Susan Galbraith, PhD to Executive Vice President of Oncology Research and Development. In her 11-year career, Dr. Galbraith played a role in the development of PARP inhibitor Lynparza and tyrosine kinase inhibitor Tagrisso for AstraZeneca and early development of Opdivo for Bristol Myers Squibb.

Doceree Inc.

The global network of physician-only platforms for programmatic marketing appointed Stephen Hoelper as the company’s President, North America. Hoelper is joining leadership to drive platform advancements using his expert knowledge in product development and digital marketing in healthcare. He has spent his career connecting with the global physician marketing enterprise to elevate programmatic interactions between pharma marketers and physicians.

IBM Life Sciences

Partha Anbil, Business Area Leader and Chief AI Officer, IBM, has been invited to join the highly exclusive and prestigious Life Sciences Industry Academy membership at IBM, awarded to candidates recognized as Life Sciences subject matter experts and thought leaders within and outside IBM. As an innovative industry visionary, Anbil will join the IBM Industry Academy community to shape global industry agendas, capitalize on multi-industry collaboration to be essential partners to IBM’s clients, and cultivate future industry leaders.

Medivir

The Swedish biotech focused on filling cancer drug gaps appointed Malene Jensen as VP, Clinical Development. In her 15-year career, Jensen has served at drugmaker giants such as AstraZeneca and Sedana Medical in the clinical development space. Jensen will focus on the clinical trials for Medivir’s main program, MIV-818, a novel drug designed to selectively treat liver cancer cells and to minimize side effects.

Novartis

Rob Kowalski, PharmD has been promoted to Chief People and Organization Officer. During his time as a senior drug development and regulatory executive at Novartis, Dr. Kowalski successfully built and led Global Regulatory Affairs, a large organization within the Novartis Drug Development with many interfaces into commercial and R&D organizations. He will now scale the culture change and talent agenda, deliver Novartis’ People and Organization operating model, and help further connect human capital decisions with business strategy.

Ogilvy Health

Ogilvy Health promoted Shannon Walsh to President of Public Relations for North America and appointed Kim Johnson as Global Chief Executive Officer. Walsh has spent 16 years at the company leading public relations in New York, and is now responsible for overseeing and driving client growth, as well as expanding the health PR footprint, across North America. She is a trusted advisor to top clients and will use her leadership skills to continue impacting the world’s health.

Johnson has worked at the forefront of global health and science innovation on both the agency and client side throughout her 20-year career. She will now oversee all aspects of Ogilvy’s Health business spanning brand strategy, advertising, public relations, experience, medical education, HCP promotion, market access, and patient/consumer engagement and be responsible for further accelerating Ogilvy Health’s growth.

Point of Care Communication Council (PoC3)

PoC3 named Nicole Divinagracia, an industry leader with robust expertise in pharmaceutical and consumer marketing, as Executive Director. Divinagracia recently served as VP, Group Director of POC Investment at Havas Media Group and will use her experience to develop and implement a strategic plan to ensure the POC channel’s continued growth, increase engagement with media buyers and agencies, and grow PoC3’s Industry Advisory Council.

Scorpion Therapeutics

Axel Hoos, MD, PhD was named the CEO of Scorpion, a next-gen biotech making precision oncology medicines. Having served as oncology team lead at Bristol Myers Squibb and, most recently, GlaxoSmithKline, Dr. Hoos is a distinguished oncology program visionary and leader with intimate knowledge of the oncology patient experience. He made the switch in order to build a next-generation oncology company, with the goal of delivering best- and first-in-class medicines to many cancer patients.

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