News - Appointments

Andrew Udell, a sales and marketing veteran, has been appointed head of commercial operations in North America for Sweden’s Calliditas Therapeutics AB.

Mark Wright has joined Nordic Nanovector ASA as head of manufacturing to oversee the production of the company’s lead drug conjugate for the treatment of cancer. The product, Betalutin, is an antibody-radionuclide-conjugate that is being developed for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Kathleen Rickard, a respiratory medicine expert, has joined Verona Pharma Plc as chief medical officer to help the company bring its lead product for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease into Phase 3.

John Haurum, formerly chief executive of the UK biotech F-star, has been named executive chairman of Synklino ApS. Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, Synklino is developing therapies to treat cytomegalovirus infections in transplant patients.

Novartis has named Susanne Schaffert, a company veteran, to head the oncology business unit following the departure of Liz Barrett. Dr Schaffert joined Novartis more than 20 years ago and has spent the past six years in oncology.

University of Cambridge professor, David Klenerman, has become an advisor to  Evonetix Ltd to help oversee the development of the company’s DNA synthesis platform. He is joined on the company’s new scientific advisory board by Andrew Briggs of the University of Oxford.

Evox Therapeutics Ltd has appointed Edwin Moses as non-executive chairman of the board of directors as it advances its technology for using exosomes to deliver drugs. Dr Moses was previously chief executive of Ablynx NV which was acquired by Sanofi SA in 2018.

The Dutch cancer company, Modra Pharmaceuticals BV, has recruited Colin Freund to be chief executive and help manage its portfolio of re-formulated taxane chemotherapies.

Jose Saro has joined Avacta Group Plc from Roche as chief medical officer to lead the company’s development of small protein therapeutics for cancer. At Roche, he worked in the area of translational medicine focusing on immuno-oncology and combination products.

Christian Schetter, formerly chief executive of Rigontec GmbH, has joined the life science investment group Arix Bioscience Plc as entrepreneur in residence. In this position he will advise Arix on investments and company creation.