Appointments: Gyroscope, Urovant, Horizon, Modus, Allied Minds And Adherium
Executive Summary
This week's roundup includes CEO appointments by Gyroscope Therapeutics, Urovant Sciences and Nevoii Pharmaceuticals, in addition to various other high-level appointments by companies including, Horizon Pharma, Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Modus Therapeutics and Adherium.
Gyroscope Therapeutics, a company focused on retinal diseases, has appointed Soraya Bekkali CEO, chief medical officer and director of its board. Before Gyroscope, Bekkali was senior vice president and chief medical officer of Lysogene SAS and previously, she was global head of the ophthalmology business unit at Sanofi, where she spent 10 years in various positions.
Keith A. Katkin has been elected Urovant Sciences' CEO and most recently, he was president and CEO of Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. Katkin joined Avanir in 2005 as senior vice president of sales and marketing and before this, he was vice president, commercial development for Peninsula Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Neovii Pharmaceuticals AG's CEO, Alexandre Sudarskis, is to retire and will be replaced by Juergen Pohle – effective Jan. 1, 2018. Pohle has been Nevoii's chief commercial officer since March 2016 and in addition to the CEO role, he has been appointed managing director of the company. He has 25 years' worth of experience gained at companies such as Bayer HealthCare LLC, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Novartis AG.
Horizon Pharma PLC. has named Irina Konstantinovsky executive vice president, chief human resources officer – effective immediately. Before this, Konstantinovsky was vice president of global talent at Baxter International Inc.
Veloxis Pharmaceuticals Inc. has appointed Ulf Meier-Kriesche, a nephrologist with over 20 years of clinical experience,chief scientific officer. Meier-Kriesche was previously the clinical trials lead immunology at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
Thomas Knittel has been appointed Modus Therapeutics' chief medical officer (CMO) and joins the company from Prima Biomed, where he was executive vice president medical & scientific development. He has been acting CMO for InDex Pharmaceuticals AB since 2012. Knittel has also previously held positions as business unit director at Novo Nordisk AS for central Europe, general manager pharmaceuticals at Harlan Laboratories and vice president corporate and medical affairs at DeveloGen AG.
Timothy A. Marcotte has joined Adherium Ltd. as chief financial officer and will be based in the company's US headquarters in San Mateo, California. Marcotte brings over 35 years' experience to Adherium and previously worked at various medical device companies, including Zonare Medical Systems Inc., VNUS Medical Technologies Inc., and Repeater Technologies.
TiGenix NV has appointed Gregory Gordon head of medical department. He joins the company from Nestle Health Science SA, where he was global clinical affairs lead, gastrointestinal health. Previously, Gordon held roles at Stealth BioTherapeutics Inc., Ironwood Pharmaceuticals Inc., and Paralex Inc. TiGenix has also named Annette Valles-Sukkar associate director, clinical project. Valles-Sukkar joins TiGenix from Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., where she was responsible for all aspects of clinical trial development.
Sosei Group Corp. has appointed Chris Cargill head of investor relations and corporate communications and Kieran Johnson group financial controller. Cargill joins the company from J.P. Morgan, where he was vice president in the UK healthcare investment banking and corporate broking group. Johnson was previously financial controller for GlaxoSmithKline's UK pharmaceutical and marketing division.
Matthew Hall has joined Tusk Therapeutics as chief financial officer, bringing over 20 years of corporate finance experience to the company. He previously was chief financial officer at Simbec-Orion Group.
Allied Minds has named Harry Rein independent non-executive director. Rein brings experience from the venture capital sector and most recently was general partner for 10 years at Foundation Medical Partners (Foundation). Before this, he was founder and managing partner at Canaan Partners.