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.
Novartis oncology head to retire for personal reason
Novartis
Oncology head Bruno Strigini will retire.
As clock’s ticking for CEO Joe Jimenez’s final days with Novartis, Bruno Strigini, the drugmaker’s oncology head, will also retire—from the company and the industry—for personal reasons. Before Strigini joined Novartis in 2014, he was president of Merck’s European and Canadian operations. He took over from Alessandro Riva, who later jumped ship to lead Gilead’s oncology efforts. Novartis made significant progress in oncology during Strigini’s time. It finished the vaccine-for-oncology asset swap with GlaxoSmithKline, navigated through the blockbuster patent loss of Gleevec last year, and most recently got the first-ever CAR-T nod in Kymriah, followed closely by Gilead’s Yescarta after the major Kite Pharma buy under Riva. FiercePharma
Allergan COO to join former colleague Bisaro at combined Amneal-Impax
Amneal
Robert Stewart will become president and CEO.
Impax Labs is about to merge with Amneal in the first half of 2018 as the entire generics business faces growing pricing pressure. And before that goes down, Amneal has poached Allergan’s COO Robert Stewart to take the reins of the combined company, which will pick up Amneal’s name. The $6.4 billion merger was orchestrated by a former Allergan colleague, M&A specialist Paul Bisaro, who came to head Impax in March after serving as chairman of the new Allergan; before that, he was Actavis’ CEO. Bisaro will take the executive chairman post after the Amneal-Impax merger; Amneal’s co-founder and co-CEOs, Chirag and Chintu Patel will serve as co-chairmen of the fifth-largest U.S. generics company. Stewart’s Allergan post will be filled by SVP of global operations, Wayne Swanton. FiercePharma
Teva loses North America Generics head amid broad shakeup
Teva
Andy Boyer resigns as head of North America Generics.
Another Teva executive is leaving, as the generics drugmaker is carrying out a sweeping structural overhaul under new CEO Kåre Schultz. Any Boyer, Teva’s president and CEO of North America Generics, will leave next quarter, following generics CEO Dipankar Bhattacharjee, who lost his job as Schultz unveiled a new company structure that brought generics and specialty products under one commercial organization. Wells Fargo analyst David Maris said that although the leadership at the generic segment are very much responsible for Teva’s current issues, he doesn’t think now is the time to let those leaders go. FiercePharma
> Novartis' soon-to-be-ex CEO Joe Jimenez will become a board member at Procter & Gamble and has set eyes back at Silicon Valley for his post-Novartis life. FiercePharma
> Zimmer Biomet poached Bryan Hanson from rival devicemaker Medtronic as its new president and chief executive, a move seen as an effort to expand its target audience. FierceMedTech
> Bob White, previously SVP and president of Medtronic's Asia-Pacific region, has been named to pick up Hanson's role as EVP and president of Minimally Invasive Therapies Group; Chris Lee, SVP and president of Greater China region, will assume the position of APAC president. Release
> Three months after Janssen said it was ditching work with Achillion on a cocktail hepatitis C program, David Apelian, M.D., Ph.D., resigned from Achillion as EVP and CMO. FierceBiotech
> Intellia Therapeutics named John Leonard, M.D., as its new chief, as former leader and founder Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D., returned to the venture capital industry. FierceBiotech
> Spectrum Pharma fired CEO Rajesh Shrotriya without cause and named COO Joseph W. Turgeon to the position; CCO Thomas J. Riga took over as COO. Release
> Vir Biotechnology, a 2017 Fierce 15 winner, appointed renowned immunologist Antonio Lanzavecchia, M.D., as SVP and senior research fellow. Release
> Christina Waters, Ph.D., founder and CEO of pediatric rare disease nonprofit Rare Science, joined genomics WuXi NextCODE as SVP, focusing on its rare disease programs. FierceCRO
> Troy Hamilton, who oversaw the launch of Trulance as Synergy Pharmaceuticals' CCO, was promoted to the company's CEO, while Gary S. Jacob, Ph.D., previously president, CEO and chairman, assumed the position of executive chairman. Release
> After a $150 million IPO in November, Apellis named board member and a partner at venture capital firm AJU IB Investment Timothy Sullivan as CFO. Release
> James Beer, drug distributor McKesson's EVP and CFO, will leave, and Britt Vitalone, SVP and CFO of the company's U.S. Pharmaceutical and McKesson Specialty Health, will succeed him. Release
> Neurotrope, which develops therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, brought on Charles S. Ryan, Ph.D., as CEO after the resignation of Susanne Wilke, Ph.D.; he was previously SVP and chief intellectual property counsel at Forest Laboratories. Release
> Spanish company Laboratoris Sanifit, which focuses on treatments for calcification disorders, appointed Alexander M. Gold, M.D., as CMO and president of its U.S. subsidiary. Release