Hello and welcome to the weekly round up of industry appointments. Here you will find a recent selection of movers within pharma, biopharma, biotech and CMOs.
Gelesis adds to company
Biotech Gelesis has bolstered its offering with the addition of Harry Leider (pictured top right), former chief medical officer and group vice president of pharmacy company Walgreens.
Leider’s new role as chief medical officer will see him take responsibility for leading Gelesis’ overall medical strategy, including overseeing medical affairs functions and programming with medical associations, patient advocacy groups and other healthcare organisations.
Leider brings expertise in clinical programme development, quality assessment, health outcomes research, health analytics and clinical reporting activities to Gelesis.
Also joining the company is Boehringer Ingelheim USA’s ex chief executive Paul Fonteyne (pictured bottom right), who joins the group’s board of directors, bringing experience in commercial, marketing and general management functions to his new position.
Fonteyne’s history has also seen him sit on the board of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) industry association and has held various roles with Boehringer Ingelheim, Abbot Laboratories and Merck & Co.
GSK’s CSO cell and gene therapy joins CGT Catapult
Jonathan Appleby (pictured) will join UK-based Cell and Gene Therapy (CGT) Catapult as its chief scientific officer (CSO).
Appleby, who will succeed CGT Catapult’s first CSO Johan Hyllner, currently serves as chief scientific officer for cell and gene therapy at GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) rare diseases unit.
There, he is medicines development leader for adenosine deaminase deficiency (ADA-SCID) gene therapy Strimvelis – the first alternative medicine to stem cell transplant for the disease that’s bagged a regulatory approval.
Prior to this, Appleby served as project leader and portfolio manager at the GSK Centre of Excellence for External Drug Development.
Commenting on the new appointment, Keith Thompson, chief executive of CGT Catapult, said: “With over 20 years’ experience in R&D, Jonathan has both commercialisation and drug development expertise.
“He has worked in all phases of drug development from target identification through to phase IIII in a broad range of therapeutic areas and shares our vision for the UK to be a global leader in the development and commercialisation of cell and gene therapy treatments.”
Appleby is set to join the company in October this year.
Abcam appoints Peter Allen as non-executive chairman
Life sciences research tools supplier Abcam has appointed Peter Allen (pictured) as its non-executive chairman, a role he assumes from Louise Patten, who has been serving as interim chairman and will revert to a non-executive director.
Allen has over 20 years’ experience as an executive director, non-executive director and chairman in a range of life sciences companies and he is currently non-executive chairman of Clinigen, Advanced Medical Solutions and Diurnal Group.
Allen, who has also served as chief financial officer of Celltech Group, said: “I am looking forward to taking on the role of chairman and am delighted to have the opportunity to help take Abcam to the next stage in its development and growth.”
Joseph Swedish joins Mesoblast’s board
Cell-based medicines group Mesoblast has strengthened its board with the appointment of Joseph Swedish.
Leveraging over two decades of healthcare leadership experience, Swedish has a history of heading healthcare organisations.
Most recently, he served as executive chairman, president and chief executive of Anthem, a health benefits provider based in the US.
Brian Jamieson, chairman, Mesoblast, said: “Swedish’s strong understanding of US healthcare resource allocation and reimbursement metrics is in line with the board’s objective to strengthen its commercial focus.”