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 Eric Sagonowsky (email) or Angus Liu (email) and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Teva hands newly appointed CEO, Lundbeck chief Schultz $52M package
Teva
Kåre Schultz was named Teva’s CEO.
Teva’s long search for a new CEO is finally over. The generics giant, in a volatile financial situation, hopes Lundbeck chief Kåre Schultz can work his magic again just as he did after moving from a 26-year stint at Novo Nordisk to helm Lundbeck in 2015. A round of layoffs involving 7,000 people Teva announced a month ago has already aligned with Schultz’s restructuring strategy at Lundbeck, which claimed 1,000 jobs. Asset sales to fill the debt hole left by last year’s ill-fated, $40.5 billion purchase of Allergan’s generics unit are already underway, as Teva said it had struck a pact with CooperSurgical to unload its contraceptive product for $1.1 billion in cash. Teva is paying Schultz handsomely to turn the ship around—$52 million, to be specific, including $20 million in cash upfront. That was comparable to Joseph Papa’s $62.7 million paycheck in 2016 when he took the helm at the beleaguered Valeant. FiercePharma | Read more on FiercePharma
Ex-CDC chief Frieden to lead new global health initiative with high-profile backers
Resolve
Tom Frieden, M.D., leads the initiative.
Tom Frieden, M.D., the former director of the CDC under the Obama administration, has landed at the newly launched Resolve, a $225 million global health initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The initiative consists of two programs that aim to save more than 100 million lives by preventing heart attacks and strokes and to help countries with epidemic preparedness and response. The initiative will be housed at health organization Vital Strategies, which will also supplement Resolve’s team with global health experts and provide technical assistance. Release
Roivant Sciences expands C-Suite after $1.1B financing
Allen Waxman became general counsel.
Fresh off a whopping $1.1 billion equity investment round to “fuel creation of new subsidiaries within and beyond biopharmaceutical development,” Roivant Sciences has expanded its management team with three C-Suite appointments. Allen Waxman, most recently Eisai's general counsel and EVP and who used to serve on Pfizer's executive team as general counsel from 2003 to 2008, joined the company as general counsel. Matthew Gline, who joined Roivant in March 2016 from Goldman Sachs and has been serving as SVP of finance and business operations, was promoted to CFO. Pavan Cheruvu, M.D., who has served as the company’s chief of staff since he came on board in October 2015, was promoted to chief people officer. Release
> Biogen has tapped former AstraZeneca exec Sanjay Jariwala as an SVP who will work with the company’s R&D team to design Biogen’s worldwide medical strategy. Release
> Lundbeck took double hits this week: As CEO Schultz leaves for Teva, its CCO Staffan Schüberg has also resigned to join a privately held company as CEO. Release
> WuXi NextCODE poached Rob Brainin, Illumina's former VP and GM of life sciences and applied genomics, as its COO, and moved Alex Fowkes, who has served as COO since earlier in the year, to the post of chief strategy officer and EVP for innovation. Release
> CDMO AMRI lured Stephen Leonard, who was Catalent's SVP of global operations since 2009, as its SVP and head of global operations. Release
> Paul Wagner, Ph.D., who led Pfenex's IPO as its CFO, will join Chinese biopharma company CANbridge Life Sciences as CBO and SVP of corporate strategy and development; he will also head up the company's first office outside of China, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Release
> Axcella Health, which develops defined amino acid compositions, brought on Manu Chakravarthy, M.D., Ph.D., as CMO and SVP of clinical development. Release
> Belgium-based stem cell expert TiGenix strengthened its U.S. operations with two new hires: Gregory Gordon, M.D., was appointed head of medical department (U.S.); and Alexion vet Annette Valles-Sukkar was named associate director of clinical project. Release
> Immuno-oncology company Tusk Therapeutics named seasoned finance professional Matthew Hall as CFO. Release
> Horizon Pharma named Irina Konstantinovsky EVP and chief human resources officer. Release
> Medical device company Titan Spine, which develops spinal interbody fusion implants, appointed Chad Kolean its CFO. Release
> Allergy Therapeutics, which focuses on the treatment and diagnosis of allergic disorders, named Pieter-Jan de Kam as its clinical director and recruited Simon Piggott as head of clinical science. Release