Pharmaceutical Market Europe • May 2022 • 42-44
APPOINTMENTS
Pfizer
David Denton
Pfizer has appointed David Denton as chief financial officer and executive vice president. He will be a member of Pfizer’s senior leadership team reporting to chairman and CEO, Albert Bourla. Denton has over 25 years’ financial and operational expertise in the healthcare sector. As a key part of the company’s executive leadership team, he offers an informed perspective on the role of payers, the needs of patients and the rapidly changing healthcare landscape. Prior to accepting the role at Pfizer, Denton worked at Lowe’s Companies, where he served as chief financial officer and executive vice president. He previously served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of CVS Health and also worked with the management consulting firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. He currently serves on the board of Tapestry.
Novartis
Marie-France Tschudin
Novartis has appointed Marie-France Tschudin as president of innovative medicines international and chief commercial officer. Tschudin will oversee global marketing, medical affairs and value and access across all therapeutic areas. She joined Novartis in 2017 as Europe region head and has over 25 years’ multinational experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.
Novartis
Victor Bulto
Novartis has appointed Victor Bulto as president of innovative medicines US. Bulto previously served as president, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. He has worked with Novartis for 17 years and has extensive, multinational experience in the healthcare industry. Previously, he served as head of the US Alcon Pharmaceuticals Franchise and head of the Neuroscience Franchise for Region Europe.
Novartis
Steffen Lang
Novartis has appointed Steffen Lang as president, operations. In his role, Lang will lead a team of 35,000 associates in manufacturing and supplying high-quality medicines to patients, and providing operational support to the entire Novartis enterprise. Formerly, Steffen was global head of Novartis technical operations. Lang has a wealth of experience, having joined Novartis in 1994 as head of laboratory in research.
Novartis
Shreeram Aradhye
Novartis has appointed Shreeram Aradhye as its new president of global drug development and chief medical officer. Aradhye returns to Novartis after serving as executive vice president and chief medical officer at Dicerna Therapeutics, where he led the development of multiple RNAi assets. During his previous 20-year tenure at Novartis, he was global head of medical affairs for the pharmaceuticals business unit.
ProMIS Neurosciences
Larry Altstiel
ProMIS Neurosciences has appointed Larry Altstiel as chief medical officer. Altstiel has decades of medical expertise in neurodegenerative diseases. He was previously vice president and head of neuroscience clinical research at Pfizer, where he led the selection of drug candidates for multiple clinical studies. He is currently part-time chief medical officer at Pinteon Therapeutics.
Santhera Pharmaceuticals
Shabir Hasham
Santhera Pharmaceuticals has appointed Shabir Hasham as its chief medical officer and member of the executive management team. Previously global development programme lead and global head of medical affairs, Hasham has extensive leadership experience. Before joining Santhera in 2015, he served as EU medical director and global associate brand director at Novartis Pharma.
EXACT Therapeutics
Per Walday
EXACT Therapeutics has appointed Per Walday as chief executive officer. Walday is a senior executive with broad experience in the healthcare sector, from research to the commercialisation of therapeutics, including drug-device combinations within the field of oncology. He was previously chief executive officer of PCI Biotech.
Boyds
Karen Mullen
Boyds has appointed Karen Mullen as its chief medical officer and vice president of clinical and medical affairs. Mullen has 20 years’ experience, having served as head of medical affairs and director of vaccines at GSK. She is Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and was a member of the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority Appeal Board.
Merck
Joseph Romanelli
Merck has appointed Joseph Romanelli to lead Human Health International and to join its executive team. Romanelli will report directly to Robert Davis, chief executive officer and president of Merck. Romanelli will have P&L responsibility for Merck’s $22bn international human health business and lead a team of 14,000 colleagues. Romanelli returns to Merck, having served as CEO of JiXing Pharmaceuticals since 2021. From 2016 to 2021, he led Merck’s business in China, based in Shanghai. Romanelli joined Merck in 1996 and served in several strategic and operational roles with increasing leadership responsibility. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Delaware and his Master’s in business administration from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Management.
Merck
Eliav Barr
Merck has appointed Eliav Barr as its new head of global clinical development and chief medical officer, following the retirement of Roy Baynes. Barr will lead all late-stage clinical development for the company’s expansive human health portfolio and pipeline. During more than two decades at Merck, Barr has held a variety of leadership roles in oncology and infectious diseases clinical development.
Olatec Therapeutics
Mustafa Noor
Olatec Therapeutics has appointed Mustafa Noor as its chief medical officer. Noor specialises in the developing class of selective NLRP3 inhibitors. With over 20 years' experience, he has served as vice president and clinical head of GSK’s Centre of Excellence in External Drug Discovery and at Pfizer’s Centers for Therapeutic Innovation. Prior to that, he was medical director at Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Alector
Gary Romano
Alector has appointed Gary Romano as its chief medical officer. Romano will lead the company’s global clinical development strategy. He has over 25 years’ experience in neurodegenerative diseases, including 18 years in industry roles at Merck, chief medical officer of Passage Bio, and deputy leader of neurodegenerative disease area and head of development for neurodegenerative disease at Janssen.
Exscientia
Michael Krams
Exscientia has appointed Michael Krams as chief quantitative medicine officer. Krams will lead clinical development strategy for Exscientia’s portfolio of investigational medicines, aiming to improve trial design and patient selection within clinical trials. He recently led the Quantitative Sciences group at Janssen R&D and was vice president of Adaptive Trials and Applied Programme Strategies at Wyeth.
Mesoblast
Philip Krause
Mesoblast has appointed Philip Krause to its Board of Directors. Over the past decade, Krause has been deputy director, Office of Vaccines Research and Review at the US FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. He is currently Chair of the World Health Organization’s COVID Vaccines Research Expert Group, which has shared responsibility for COVID-19 vaccines in the US.
HOOKIPA Pharma
Klaus Orlinger
HOOKIPA Pharma has appointed Klaus Orlinger as its chief scientific officer, where he will lead research teams in addressing unmet medical needs. Joining the company in 2012, Orlinger became head of virology, where he was responsible for coordinating with international research partners. He then went on to serve as the company’s executive vice president of research.
CellCentric
Kris Frese
CellCentric has appointed Kris Frese as director of cancer biology. Frese will work closely with the team to maximise the potential of small molecule inhibitors to improve treatments for people with cancer. Specialising in models of cancer and biomarker analysis, Frese was formerly co-lead at the Cancer Biomarker Centre Preclinical Pharmacology Team at Cancer Research UK.
CellCentric
Andrew Hughes
CellCentric has appointed Andrew Hughes to its Board as a non-executive director. Hughes has more than 25 years’ experience in oncology clinical development and currently acts as the company’s chief development advisor. Hughes previously led over 50 oncology research and development programmes at AstraZeneca. He is also an Honorary Professor of experimental cancer medicine.
Publicis Health
Megan Howard
Publicis Health has appointed Megan Howard as its new global chief operations officer, where she is responsible for identifying client needs and opportunities. In 2010, she served as client service director at Publicis LifeBrands Resolute, before being appointed general manager in 2013. She previously worked at Saatchi and Saatchi as VP account group director and at FCB Healthcare.
VMLY&R
Claire Gillis
VMLY&R has appointed Claire Gillis as its CEO of VMLY&R HEALTH. Gillis has also joined the company’s global leadership team, supporting further growth and development of VMLY&R HEALTH across Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region. A trained pharmacologist and health economist, she joined VMLY&R in 2020 to launch a specialist international agency.
OVID Health
Cameron Miller
OVID Health has appointed Cameron Miller as an associate director. Miller will be advising the agency’s public affairs and patient advocacy roster. Formerly, Miller led Sanofi UK’s public affairs and advocacy work in vaccines and rare diseases. He was also The Brain Tumour Charity’s head of policy and public affairs where he helped to improve outcomes for brain tumour patients.
OVID Health
Andy Jones
OVID Health has appointed Andy Jones as an associate director. With over 20 years’ experience,
Jones has worked in various sectors including clinical development and medical affairs. Working within government affairs, Jones covered Brexit, the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme and the Life Sciences Strategy among others. He was also involved in supporting the Department of Health.
HAVAS Just::
Paul Zetlin
HAVAS Just:: has appointed Paul Zetlin as commercial director. Zetlin joins the company with over 20 years’ experience working with agencies including Burson, FKB, Omnicom and MBA, where he held senior finance positions. In his new position, he will provide leadership, direction and oversight of the financial and commercial affairs of the agency, to help reinforce support in all aspects of the agency.
Wilmington Healthcare
Paul Rowe
Wilmington Healthcare has appointed Paul Rowe as its new solution director for the company’s Investigator XD product. With over 25 years’ experience in marketing, sales and training positions in the pharmaceutical industry, Rowe will be responsible for providing continuous development of data insights by overseeing use of the cloud-based intelligence tool. Before joining the company, Rowe held roles at Daiichi Sankyo and Bayer.
VISFO
Chris Grimes-Crompton
VISFO has appointed Chris Grimes-Crompton as its new senior advisor to VISFO’s executive team. Grimes-Crompton will be responsible for supporting the company’s expansion in the US and European markets and developing its software platforms and services. He brings over 25 years’ experience within the life sciences sector, working with cross-functional teams and industry leaders during product launches.
KVA
David Rowley
KVA has appointed David Rowley as an advisor to the Board. Rowley has extensive industry experience, having worked in healthcare marketing, strategy and communications for 35 years. He has worked closely with clients at GD Searle, Wyeth and Novartis and brings a wealth of global agency knowledge to the position, as both 15-year founder of Hunstworth Health and as co-founder of OPEN Health.
AXON
Zaid Siddiqui
AXON has appointed Zaid Siddiqui as its new global healthcare insights and strategy lead. Siddiqui brings a decade of experience in the medical sector, with a background of seven years in medical insights and strategy. He was formerly a senior strategist at FCB Health and has worked across various sectors, including medical devices, market access and precision medicine.
Makara Health
Gurjit Chahal
Makara Health has appointed Gurjit Chahal as its new PR and comms business unit director. Chahal has been in healthcare communications for over 14 years, having worked at healthcare specialist and integrated creative agencies including Tonic Life Communications, Red Consultancy and 3 Monkeys Zeno. In her new position, she will oversee PR development and growth.
Makara Health
Annlou Pendse
Makara Health has appointed Annlou Pendse as its new medical education business unit director. She will oversee the agency’s medical accounts alongside its team leaders, supporting the group in client services and scientific strategy. Pendse has worked in the industry for over 16 years, including at Meditech Media, Resolute Communications, Kechum Pleon and Langland.
Makara Health
Helen Rodway
Makara Health has appointed Helen Rodway as its learning and development business unit director.
Rodway has a strong background in pharmaceutical marketing, having worked in the industry for 27 years and has served at healthcare organisations including DB Remedy, MRM McCann and Pfizer. In her role, Rodway is responsible for driving the agency’s learning and development offering.