Keith Dionne appointed CEO of Constellation Pharmaceuticals

Constellation Pharmaceuticals has named Dr Keith Dionne as its replacement for outgoing CEO and president Dr Mark Goldsmith.

The US company specialises in using epigenetics to discover and develop small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory/immunologic disorders.

“With more than 20 years of experience leading US. and international biotech companies, research and development teams and successful strategic alliances between companies, Keith is ideally suited to lead this phase of our organization and advance our leadership in chromatin biology and epigenetics drug discovery and development,” said Dr Goldsmith, who will stay on as chair.

Dr Dionne joins from life sciences investment firm Third Rock Ventures, where he served as an entrepreneur-in-residence.

His previous positions include CEO of Aurface Logix, as well as president and CEO of Alantos Pharmaceuticals, which he led during its acquisition by Amgen in 2007.

He also spent several years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, including serving as both VP of R&D strategy and VP and general manager of the company's technology business.

Meanwhile, Dionne has held a number of non-pharma roles, including that of adjunct professor in the biomedical department at Brown University.

“I'm delighted to join Constellation at this exciting time in the company's growth and evolution,” said Dr Dionne.

“We are fortunate to be able to continue to work closely with Mark in his role as executive chairman as we approach clinical milestones in our internal programmes and continue to realise the full potential of our platform in conjunction with our broad discovery alliance with Genentech.”