Chutes & LaddersAnother Novartis exec answers the biotech call, this time for gene therapy startup Tevard – FierceBiotech

Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good wordor the badfrom your shop to Fraiser Kansteiner, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.

TevardBiosciencesGopi Shanker, Ph.D., lands at the startup as chief scientific officer.

Shanker's departure marks something of a trend for Novartis. In late April,Jeff Engelman, M.D., Ph.D.,left the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) to stand up the new oncology biotechTreelineBiosciences. Just a few days later, fellow Novartis cancer R&D execPeter Hammerman, M.D., Ph.D., leftto start as chief scientific officer of molecular machines biotech MOMA Therapeutics.Shanker, for his part, will take up the post ofchief scientific officer at gene therapy startup TevardBiosciences. After heading upneuroscience atNIBR, Shanker will nowlead the preclinical scientific programs at the transfer RNA-based gene therapystartup.A few months back, Tevard forged a pact withZogenix to seek out and work on gene therapies for Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy, and other genetic epilepsies.Fierce Biotech

Blueprint MedicinesPercy Carter, Ph.D., takes up the helm of chief scientific officer.

Carter is in good company at Blueprint, where he joins former Bristol Myers Squibb compatriotFouad Namouni, M.D., who became president of R&D last fall. Carter, who joinedBristol Myers Squibb in 2001and eventually rose through the ranks tosenior vice president and head of discovery, willspearhead research and preclinical development as the new chief scientific officer at Blueprint. More recently, Carter held posts atJohnson & Johnson, where he was global head of discovery sciences in the healthcare giant's Janssen unit, andFibroGen, where he was in the CSO seat for less than a year. He joins Blueprint a little over a year after the company's first approval. In January 2020,Ayvakit,kinase inhibitor, became the first targeted treatmentfor patients with a type of stomach cancer called gastrointestinal stromal tumor who carry a (PDGFR) exon 18 mutation.Fierce Biotech

IovanceBiotherapeuticsMariaFardis, Ph.D.,is hitting the exit.

Fardis, who's also Iovance's president and a director, alertedthe company on Tuesday that she wasresigning topursue other opportunities," Iovance quietly revealed in a Wednesday securities filing. Her exit coincides withadditional data requests on potency assays for Iovance'slead candidate lifileucelfrom the FDA.Iovancewill continue validating the potency assays and expects to submit further data and meet with the FDA in the second half of 2021.The setback pushesIovancesbiologics license application submission into the first half of 2022,the company said. The "optics" of Fardis departure are "challenging" and raise "questions about whether something else is behind the change or whether the Board chose to make the change, Jefferies analysts wrote to clients this week. Long term,we think the drug works [] and it will eventually get to market," the Jefferies team added.IovancesBoard will appoint general counsel Frederick Vogt, Ph.D., as interim president and CEO. The company will immediately kick off the huntfor a successor.Fierce Biotech

>Passage Bio has bidadieu to chief medical officer Gary Romano, M.D., Ph.D. The gene therapy startup and Romanomutually agreed they should part waysTuesday, and Romano hit the exit that same day.Chief Financial Officer Richard Morris is also leaving the company on May 30, but Passage Bio described the situation differently: It said Morris' departure was not the result of any disagreement regarding any matter relating to the Companys operations, financial statements, internal controls, auditors, policies, or practices. Passage didn't say whether Romano's departure was the resultof a disagreement.Fierce Biotech

>Merck KGaA has slottedChris Round into the role ofpresident at its North America healthcare unit, replacing Andrew Patterson, who'll step into the newly minted role of chief marketing officer.EMD Serono is hoping to cash in with three promising drugsits Pfizer-partnered immuno-oncology medBavencio, multiple sclerosis treatment Mavenclad and Tepmetko for non-small cell lung cancer.Round will be based in Rockland, Massachusetts. He served for 20 years at Merck & Co. before arriving at Merck KGaA in 2017 to spearheadcommercial operations in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.Fierce Pharma

>Clinical Ink, a global clinical trial technology firm, has summoned Janette Morgan as EVP, general manager, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Morgan joins after a 13-year run at Medidata, where she most recently served as vice president, global partner initiatives & partner business management. In that role, she was in charge ofglobal leadership and management of Medidatas Partner Study-by-Study business.Release

>Xenter, hot on the heels of last week's $12 million series A, has enlistedScott Heuler as senior vice president of global sales and marketing, whileGary Baldwin signs onas chief technology officer in Xenter'shospital technologies business unit.Baldwin previously led R&D, engineering and product teams for multiple organizations. Heuler, for his part, has held seniorsales and marketing leadership roles with NeuroOne Medical Technologies, Guidant Corporation and U.S. Surgical Corporation, Xenter said.Release

> Clinical-stage immuno-oncology companyMedicenna has tapped Mann Muhsin, M.D., as chief medical officer. With more than 20 years experience in medical practice and drug development, Muhsin signs on with "an outstanding track record of innovation in oncology and immuno-oncology trial design," Medicenna said in a release. Muhsin kicked off his clinical research career atPICR phase I unit, where he conducted more than 17 clinical trials for international sponsors likeAstraZeneca,Hoffmann La Roche, Merck, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnsonand Bayer. He then went on to lead early clinical development programs at Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit.Release

>CDMO and clinical supply services company Experic is putting David Wood in charge as chairman and chief executive officer. Over a 30-year run in the industry, Wood has lead organizations and teams atCaptek Softgel International, Catalent Pharma Solutions, Cardinal Health PTS and Becton Dickinson. He's taking the reins from Jeffrey McMullen, one of Experic's founders and its former chairman and CEO. McMullen took on aninterim CEOrole in 2019 after the untimely passing of the executive previously managing the company.Release

>NeuBase Therapeutics, looking to push its first drug candidate into the clinic next year, will welcomeSandra Rojas-Caro, M.D., as chief medical officer onMay 24. At NeuBase, she'll be in charge of thepreclinical and clinical development, medical, and regulatory strategy of NeuBases pipeline. She most recently worked at Gemini Therapeutics, where she held the same post. Before that, she was CMO atAeglea BioTherapeutics.Release

>Rain Therapeutics, working on precision oncology therapeutics, has lifted co-founderRobert Doebele, M.D., Ph.D., into the role ofpresident and chief scientific officer. Doebele co-founded Rain with chairman and CEOAvanish Vellanki in 2017. Before he joined the company full-time in October 2020, Doebele served asassociate professor of medicine in the division of medical oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, director of the Thoracic Oncology Research Initiative at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and as principal investigator for the University of Colorado Lung Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence.Release

> Precision oncology firm Fore Biotherapeutics is building out its leadership team with the addition ofStacie Peacock Shepherd, M.D., Ph.D., as chief medical officer and Nora Brennan as chief financial officer. Shepherd will oversee clinical strategy and operational advancement of Fore's lead precision oncology program, FORE8394, and she will also helpexpand the company's clinical pipeline in the coming months. Brennan, for her part, previously served as CFO atTELA Bio, and held the same role at Xeris Pharmaceuticals before that.Release

>Cybrexa Therapeutics has summonedStephen Basso as its chief financial officer. Before joining the Cybrexa team, Basso served as senior vice president of finance atInozyme Pharma. He also served as vice president, North America commercial finance, global G&A at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, and as director, financial planning and analysis at Pfizer.Release

>Celularity, developing off-the-shelf cell therapiesderived from the postpartum human placenta, has signed onBradley Glover, Ph.D., as EVP and chief technology officer. At Celularity, Glover will oversee all aspects of the company's technical operations, includingprocess development, quality, manufacturing, supply chain, IT, facilities and engineering, and more. He joins the team from Kite Pharma, where he wore a number of executive hats in corporate development and technical operations.He rose through the ranks at Genentech and Roche before that.Release

> Early-stage allogeneic cell therapy company Appia Bio has enlisted Qi Wei, Ph.D. as senior vice president and head of technical operations. Wei is bringingsome serious cell and gene therapy know-how to the fold. He's had stints atNovartis, Gilead's Kite, Eli Lilly, TCR2 Therapeutics and Geneception.He had a hand in the development of several CAR-Ts, including Novartis' Kymriah and Kite and Gilead's Tecartus.Release

>Aerovate Therapeutics, working on meds for patients with rare cardiopulmonary disease, has handed the CEO torch toTimothy Noyes. Noyes was also elected to the company's board of directors in April. He previously served as president and chief executive ofProteon Therapeutics. He previously served aschief operating officer of Trine Pharmaceuticals and held the position of president of Genzymes renal division following its acquisition of GelTex Pharmaceuticals. Noyes started his industry run at Merck & Co.Release

> Biopharma product and portfolio strategy planner Prescient has appointed John Crowley as director of the company's intelligence and insight business, whileSugandh Sharma enters the role of senior director in the same business unit. Before joining the fold at Prescient, Crowleyled analyst teams at Decision Resources Group, covering rare diseases in neurology, immunology and hematology, as well as infectious diseases.Release

>Cognito Therapeutics, developing a new class ofdisease-modifying digital therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative disorders likeAlzheimers disease,tapped Everett Crosland as its chief commercial officer. He recently held the same role at AppliedVR, where he was in charge ofnational launch sales, marketingand payer strategy on the first breakthrough designated virtual reality therapeutic. Prior to that, he was VP of market access & reimbursement atPear Therapeutics.Release

>Umoja Biopharma, developing an integrated, in vivo immunotherapy platform, has signed onIrena Melnikova, Ph.D., as chief financial officer. She comes over from SVB Leerink, where she was a managing director in investment banking. Before that, shewas a managing director at Burrill & Company and, prior to that, director of strategy and external innovation at Sanofi.Release

>ONI has enlistedTyler Ralston, Ph.D., as its chief technology officer. In his role, Ralston willprovide leadership, strategic vision and oversee the research and development of ONI's technology. He signs on from the 4Catalyzer incubator, where he most recently served as CTO for Tesseract. Release

> Quanterix, working ondigital protein biomarker technology to enableprecision health, tappedMasoud Toloueas president of Quanterix and Diagnostics. He'll enter the role on June 9. He joins the team fromPerkinElmer, where he most recently served as senior vice president, diagnostics. He alsofounded and led Bioo Scientifics next generation sequencing business, which was acquired by PerkinElmer in 2016.Release

> Gene therapy firm AavantiBio has named Jessie Hanrahan, Ph.D., as Chief Regulatory Officer. She's the fifth senior executive to joins AavantiBio's leadership team in recent months and will be in charge ofglobal regulatory affairs for AavantiBios diversified pipeline of gene therapy programs targeting rare diseases with significant unmet medical need.Most recently, she was vice president of regulatory science at bluebird bio.Release

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Chutes & LaddersAnother Novartis exec answers the biotech call, this time for gene therapy startup Tevard - FierceBiotech