Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Donavyn Coffey, Marissa Russo and Will Maddox, and it will be featured here at the end of each week.
Invivyd's chairman adds CEO role ahead of COVID drug readout
Invivyd
Infectious disease biotech Invivyd has appointed current chairman Marc Elia as CEO, and he will now serve in both roles. A member of the board since 2022, Elia helped design Invivyd’s scientific and corporate strategy, the company said.
Elia will lead the company as it prepares for top-line data from its lead monoclonal antibody program in the third quarter of this year. The candidate, VYD2311, is in a phase 3 study evaluating the prevention of symptomatic COVID in adults and adolescents.
In a release, Elia said that he had “struggled with the effects of long COVID” and noted that the company aims to protect patients from COVID beyond the limits of vaccines. “Invivyd and its antibody technologies have the potential to revolutionize COVID prevention, and infectious disease medicine more broadly,” he said. Release
Vertex reshuffles leadership to expand COO role and promote new CFO
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Alongside the completion of its acquisition of Crinetics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals has announced that COO and CFO Charles Wagner will take on an expanded COO role overseeing the integration of Crinetics. Current senior vice president of finance, Jonathan Poole, will take over Wagner’s CFO responsibilities on January 1.
The company said that Wagner’s expanded responsibilities will ensure that the acquisition establishes rare endocrine diseases as Vertex’s next pillar of growth, building on its existing focus on cystic fibrosis, hematology, acute pain and renal diseases.
Wagner joined Vertex in 2019 and previously held leadership roles at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Bruker Corporation, Progress Software Corporation and Millipore Corporation. Poole has led Vertex’s global finance organization since March 2020 and previously served as CFO of Evelo Biosciences and Genocea Biosciences. Release
Inventiva freshens up C-suite ahead of phase 3 readout
Inventiva
Inventiva has named Chris Benecchi its new chief operating officer. Benecchi joins the French biotech as it awaits data from its phase 3 study evaluating lanifibranor, an oral therapy for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), and prepares for potential commercialization.
“We believe lanifibranor is poised to meaningfully impact the current treatment paradigm in MASH. I look forward to leading this work with the team to fulfill that promise in the interest of patients,” Benecchi shared in a release.
Benecchi joins Inventiva after holding commercial leadership roles at Acorda Therapeutics, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson. Most recently, he was CEO of Motric Bio, which emerged from Aditum Bio in 2019 and focuses on developing a new therapy for spasticity associated with neurological injuries and disease. PDF
> Clinical services organization The Emmes Group has promoted Rama Kondru, Ph.D., to CEO from his previous role as CEO of Veridix, Emmes' AI, technology and data sciences business. Release
> Beam Therapeutics has appointed Eric Foster as chief commercial officer (CCO), where he will lead strategy for advancing the company’s hematology and genetic disease products. Foster previously served as CCO at Ardelyx and senior vice president and U.S. general manager at Amgen. Release
> Michaela Levin, Ph.D., is the new chief business officer of precision medicine biotech Acrivon Therapeutics. She previously served as vice president of business development at AI platform company Recursion, where she focused on its oncology and rare disease portfolio. Release
> Will Charlton, M.D., has been named chief medical officer at Polaryx Therapeutics, which focuses on rare pediatric lysosomal storage disorders. The pediatric endocrinologist previously served as senior vice president of clinical development for skeletal dysplasia at Tyra Biosciences. Release
> Italian biotech Resalis Therapeutics has named Novo Nordisk alum Diana Røpcke, M.D., Ph.D., as the new chief medical officer to advance its phase 1b weight loss drug. PDF
> Retinal vascular disease-focused Foventa Therapeutics strengthens its C-suite by bringing in Zaiba Malik, M.D., as chief medical officer and Julia Jones as chief financial officer, who is tasked to secure series A funding to help advance its topical diabetic retinopathy treatment through phase 2b trial. Release
> SonoThera welcomes Joshua Rychak, Ph.D., as the new vice president and head of research to push its targeted genetic medicines pipelines to the clinic. Rychak previously co-founded Targeson and more recently served as the vice president of R&D and genetic medicines at Poseida Therapeutics. LinkedIn
> ElevateBio ushered in a new chief operating officer, Steve Falcone, as it gears up for its first commercial product and expansion to a new site in Pittsburgh. Falcone has had stints at Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi, and, most recently, Novo Nordisk before joining ElevateBio. Release