Keryx selects John Neylan for newly created CMO role

Apr 24, 2015 11:35am

Chutes and Ladders

Welcome to this week's Chutes and Ladders, our roundup of hirings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word--or the bad--from your shop to Eric Sagonowsky (email) or Amirah Al Idrus (email | Twitter), and we will feature it here at the end of each week.

Keryx selects John Neylan for newly created CMO role


	Keryx Biopharmaceuticals Dr. John Neylan was named chief medical officer.

Keryx Biopharmaceuticals ($KERX) appointed Dr. John Neylan to the newly created position of chief medical officer; he'll be responsible for oversight of medical affairs, clinical development and pharmacovigilance. Neylan, a nephrologist and transplantation specialist, has broad-based experience in therapeutic development, Keryx said in its release, ranging from the preclinical phase to postmarketing development. He most recently worked at Genzyme where he served as senior vice president of clinical development. He's also worked at Wyeth and held several positions in academia. "It is my pleasure to welcome John to Keryx," said Greg Madison, president and chief operating officer of Keryx. "As a nephrologist with extensive clinical development experience, John will be an invaluable member of the Keryx leadership team as we work to fulfill our vision of building a leading renal franchise." Release

Industry vet Kevin Krenitsky named OpGen president


	OpGen Dr. Kevin Krenitsky was named president.

On Monday, OpGen named industry vet Dr. Kevin Krenitsky as its president, a role in which he will be responsible for managing the rollout of OpGen's Acuitas MDRO family of gene tests and Acuitas Lighthouse MDRO Management System in development. Krenitsky has more than 15 years of experience leading diagnostic and biotech operations, OpGen said in its release, serving as CCO and COO of Foundation Medicine until December 2014. He's served as CEO at BioServe Biotechnologies and Parkway Clinical Laboratories, and held positions with Enzo Clinical Labs and Genomics Collaborative. "I am excited to be joining OpGen at this important time in the company's evolution," he said. "OpGen recognized the severity of the problem with multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) several years ago, and as a consequence is at the forefront of genetic microbiology diagnostics, well ahead of the competition in providing hospitals and other institutions with the tools to diagnose and track potentially fatal problems." Release

Tom Gibbs to lead commercial operations at Vanda


	Vanda Pharmaceuticals Tom Gibbs was named chief commercial officer.

Vanda Pharmaceuticals ($VNDA) named Tom Gibbs as its chief commercial officer on Monday. Having worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY), Novartis ($NVS), Endo ($ENDP) and Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), Gibbs has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including senior roles in global sales and marketing. He served as vice president of worldwide commercial operations at BMS and vice president of U.S. sales for Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. "We are very pleased to welcome Tom to the Vanda team," said Dr. Mihael Polymeropoulos, CEO of Vanda. "His depth of industry experience and proven track record across a wide spectrum of therapeutic areas are expected to be pivotal to the commercial success of Vanda's global product portfolio." Release

Allergan to cut loose 577 more workers in Irvine. Story

Almirall spares 9 jobs as ax falls on Spanish R&D operation. Report

Biotech

> Recipharm appoints Giorgio Bruno as general manager of Recipharm Italia. Release

> KaloBios ($KBIO) names Ronald Martell to its board of directors. Release

> Pain Therapeutics ($PTIE) appoints Michael Marsman as senior vice president of regulatory affairs. Release

> Xenetic Biosciences announces the resignation of Chairman Mark Leuchtenberger. Release

> Ritter Pharma adds Gerald Proehl to its board of directors. Release

> La Jolla Pharmaceutical ($LJPC) adds Dr. Paul Adams, Dr. Victor Gordeuk, Dr. Ashutosh Lal and Dr. Gordon McLaren to its advisory board. Release

> Intellia Therapeutics appoints Sapna Srivastava as chief financial and strategy officer. Jennifer Doudna and Derrick Rossi will join the company as founding members and scientific advisers. Release | Release

> Aveo Oncology ($AVEO) appoints Keith Ehrlich as chief financial officer. Release

> BioSpecifics Technologies ($BSTC) names Jennifer Chao and Dr. Jyrki Mattila to its board of directors. Release

> Carbios appointed Alain Marty as the company's chief scientific officer. Release

> BioClinica named Mukhtar Ahmed as its eClinical president. Release

> Purdue Pharma named J. Alan Butcher its senior vice president of licensing and business development. Release

> OpGen appointed Timothy Dec as its interim chief financial officer. Release

> Tute Genomics appointed Josh Forsythe as its vice president of marketing. Release

> TissueGene hired Robert Newman as its chief operating officer. Release

> Allergen Research Corporation brought on Warren Desouza as its CFO and Kate Falberg as its board of directors audit committee chair. Release

> Actavis' ($ACT) Chief Communications Officer Charles Mayr is retiring on May 15. Release

> EUSA Pharma appointed Lee Morley as its CEO and Göran Ando to its board of directors. Release

> Cristal Therapeutics announced that Jeroen Tonnaer would be its new chief business officer. Release

> Lysogene appointed Annette Clancy as its board chair. Release

Diagnostics

> Neogenomics ($NEO) promotes Dr. Sally Agersborg to director of hematopathology and medical director, Irvine, Jennifer Balliet to vice president of human resources and Steven Brodie to chief scientific officer and medical director, Fort Myers. Release