After resigning from her role as chief medical officer at CRISPR Therapeutics, Phuong Khanh Morrow, M.D., is taking on the role of head of the oncology therapeutic area unit at Takeda.
Morrow announced her exit from the gene editing company just days after it secured a landmark FDA approval for Vertex-partnered Casgevy but formally left Jan. 26. She wasted no time securing a new role, landing at Japanese pharma Takeda Jan. 29, a company spokesperson told Fierce Biotech.
Her new position was formerly held by Takeda's Chris Arendt, Ph.D., who transitioned to become the pharma's chief scientific officer and head of research a few months ago.
Before joining CRISPR, Morrow spent more than 10 years at Amgen. The FDA also previously appointed her to serve as the industry representative to the oncology drug advisory committee for a four-year stint ending in 2019.
The news of the appointment comes a day after Takeda shared that it had axed four oncology programs from its R&D pipeline—a midphase immunocytokine and three early-stage CAR-T cell therapy prospects.