Celsius Therapeutics Appoints New CSO
The company bringing medicines to patients with cancer, autoimmunity, and other complex diseases, brings on Jeanne Magram, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Magram has over 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development, previously serving as CSO of Quentis Therapeutics. Prior to this, Dr. Magram was the founding CSO of Northern Biologics, a company focused on first-in-class biologics for solid tumors.
Tariq Kassum, MD, CEO of Celsius comments, “Jeanne’s experience will be a tremendous asset as we build a deep pipeline of precision therapeutics across autoimmune disease and cancer. Her insights into target discovery, patient stratification, and drug development will help us maximize the potential of our integrated single cell genomics-based platform.”
Dr. Magram will now lead Celsius as it leverages its single cell and machine learning platform to discover the next generation of precision medicines for patients with autoimmune disease and cancer.
Justin Freid Promoted to Chief Growth & Innovation Officer
CMI/Compas, the top media strategy, planning, innovation, and buying agency for healthcare companies, promotes Justin Freid to Chief Growth & Innovation Officer. Freid has been instrumental in the growth of the company’s new-media capabilities, and will now lead the company in its next step in a multi-year plan of bringing growth and innovation to its healthcare clients. Already, he has initiated the breakdown of silos and innovated the way the pharma industry uses search and social channels for better engagement with patients, caregivers, and HCPs.
“Justin has done an incredible job infusing innovation and growth into our agency and client deliverables,” Dr. Susan Dorfman, President, CMI, said in a statement. “He is relentless when it comes to client growth, business development, and bringing new ideas to life. Justin is also an exceptional leader, and continues to develop a strong team of leaders around him who demonstrate unwavering commitment and drive.”
Ad Council
America’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to using communications to drive social change, elected new members to its Board of Directors, including Outcome Health’s CEO Matt McNally. His new position allows Outcome to work with the Ad Council to launch and distribute “Out There for Us,” a campaign that thanks all essential workers for their dedication, resilience, and courage amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
AgeX Therapeutics
The biotech company developing therapeutics for human aging and regeneration, announces the appointment of Andrea Park to Chief Financial Officer. Park served as AgeX’s VP of Finance and Controller since October 2019. Before joining AgeX, she served as VP of Finance and Controller of Lineage Cell Therapeutics.
Atara Biotherapeutics
The T-cell immunotherapy company appoints cell therapy and oncology expert Jakob Dupont, MD, as EVP, Global Head of Research and Development. Dr. Dupont spent much of his career at Genentech/Roche, where he helped gain FDA approval for a number of oncology drugs. He will now be instrumental in the development of unique, allogeneic EBV T-cell immunotherapies for patients with underserved diseases.
Atreca
Kristine M. Ball joins the Board of Directors at the company focused on developing novel therapeutics generated through a unique discovery platform based on interrogation of the active human immune response. Ball boasts 25 years of life sciences industry experience focused primarily on finance, corporate development, and strategic planning. She will now lend her expertise as Atreca develops its lead product candidate, ATRC-101.
Doximity
The online professional medical network adds Kira Wampler, current Operating Partner with Redesign Health, to its Board of Directors. Wampler brings extensive executive and digital marketing expertise, previously serving as CEO of Art.com and former Chief Marketing Officer of Lyft.
Finn Partners
Having expanded its reach to Paris, France, Finn adds Véronique Simon-Cluzel to its team as Vice President. During her 15-year communications career, Simon-Cluzel worked on autism advocacy within the French Secretary of State for People with Disabilities, she was the public relations head for the ARC Foundation for Cancer Research, and also worked as a journalist covering wellness and health for women on a variety of magazines.
Innoviva
Pavel Raifeld becomes the CEO of the respiratory product company. Raifeld is a strategy, business development, and corporate finance guru who previously served on the investment team at Sarissa Capital Management LP. As a company with a number of product royalties, Raifeld is trusted to maximize shareholder value and its focus on capital allocation.
Pandion Therapeutics
The Massachusetts-based biotech taps ex-Gilead exec John Sundy, MD, PhD, as its new Chief Medical Officer. As the previous leader of Gilead’s clinical research in its inflammation and respiratory therapeutics unit, Dr. Sundy has extensive experience in translational medicine. He will now advance Pandion’s lead clinical-stage program, PT101, a treatment for ulcerative colitis.
Roche/Genentech
Roche adds Aviv Regev, PhD, to its leadership as the new head of Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED). Dr. Regev specializes in using technologies to better understand biological processes, having used RNA sequencing in single cells and associated machine learning algorithms to further research in immunology, neurobiology, and cancer. She currently runs a laboratory at Harvard that studies biological circuits, gene regulation, and evolution.
Seelos Therapeutics
Judith Dunn, PhD, joins the Board of Directors for the biopharma company focused on central nervous system disorders and rare diseases. Dr. Dunn’s extensive career includes years at Roche and Pfizer overseeing clinical and regulatory operations in psychiatry and neurology. She has also served as an entrepreneur in residence at Atlas Venture since June 2018.
Sutro Biopharma
Craig Berman, MD, has been appointed the new VP of Clinical Development of the company focused on discovering, developing, and manufacturing oncology therapeutics with precise protein engineering. Dr. Berman brings 17 years of experience in drug development to the company, most recently serving as VP of Clinical Development at QED Therapeutics.
Warp Speed Project
Former GlaxoSmithKline vaccines head, Moncef Slaoui, will lead the government project Warp Speed, which brings together government agencies to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Slaoui currently serves on the board of Moderna, one of many pharma companies racing to develop a vaccine. As part of the project, officials are working through supply chain considerations as well as R&D to prepare for a massive vaccine rollout.
