Welcome to this week's Chutes and Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Angus Liu (email), and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Gilead’s director of oncology clinical research jumps to Compugen
Compugen
Henry Adewoye, M.D., became CMO.
As Norbert Bischofberger is slated to step down from his CSO post at Gilead, Henry Adewoye, M.D., the company’s recent clinical director in oncology, has left for the CMO position at Compugen. Adewoye was involved in the clinical work of several cancer programs at Gilead, including Zydelig’s phase 1 to 3 studies. Prior to Gilead, he held a similar position at Amgen, having worked on such drugs as Blincyto, motesanib and trebananib. The CMO position was just created as Compugen transition from pure discovery into a clinical-stage company. Its first-in-human trials for COM701, an antibody drug targeting the immune checkpoint PVRIG, will start later this year. FierceBiotech
Former longtime Teva executive to assume COO post at Dr. Reddy’s
Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories
Erez Israeli will become COO and global head of generics & PSAI.
Dr. Reddy’s COO Abhijit Mukherjee will retire on Mar. 31 after 15 years with the company. He will be succeeded by Erez Israeli, who had previously spent 23 years at generics giant Teva. His positions at Teva included VP of marketing & sales for North America, VP of Asia operations, president of Teva API, and he left last March as president and CEO of growth markets, months before the executive overhaul under new CEO Kåre Schultz. He comes to the Indian drugmaker from the president & CEO position at Enzymotec, a supplier of lipid-based products. Release
Astellas names new head of ethics & compliance
Astellas
Tatjana Dragovic was promoted to head of ethics & compliance.
Catherine Wertjes is retiring from Astellas after 18 years with the company and 33 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Her journey with Astellas started in November 2000 with an associate general counsel position at former Fujisawa Healthcare, which merged with Yamanouchi in 2005 to form Astellas. Now the global head of ethics & compliance role she has held since April 2016 has fallen on Tatjana Dragovic, who joined Astellas in 2007 as senior corporate attorney and was recently VP of ethics & compliance Americas. Release
> Marc de Garidel, an Amgen and Eli Lilly veteran and who was chairman and CEO of Ipsen from 2010 to 2016, became CEO at Corvidia Therapeutics as the company nears the commercial stage. He succeeds Michael Davidson, M.D., who will stay on as CSO. Release
> The Medicines Company promoted Christopher Visioli to CFO and treasurer, replacing William B. O’Connor, who's retiring from the company after serving as chief accounting officer and then CFO for a total of 13 years. Release
> Frances Duffy-Warren, Ph.D., who served regulatory affairs stints with Actelion, Novartis and AstraZeneca, joined drug discovery and development company Forma Therapeutics as head of regulatory affairs. Release
> Former Alexion head of HR, Clare Carmichael, recently jumped to Wave Life Sciences as chief human resources officer.
> Vertex Pharmaceuticals announced the appointment of Kimberly A. White as SVP and chief communications officer. Release
> Kaleido Biosciences just made two new hires: Stephen Sofen, Ph.D., recently VP of technical operations at CRISPR Therapeutics, joined as head of technical operations; and Susan Stewart, who once served with Tokai, was named SVP of regulatory affairs and quality. Release
> ProLung made another C-Suite appointment, as Mark V. Anderson became CFO. Release
> Early cancer detection test developer Oncimmune hired Adam Hill, Ph.D., as CMO and chief strategy officer. Release (PDF)
> Spinal stenosis-focused medtech company Paradigm Spine expanded its leadership team with the appointments of Francis Magee as chief technology officer, Charlie Gilbride as EVP of sales & marketing, Tim Hein as VP of Sales, and Lisa Denison as VP of Marketing. Release (PDF)