The latest news on pharmaceutical industry hires, promotions, acquititions and other events includes Medable, Eversana, Parexel, Astellas and more.
The latest news on pharmaceutical industry hires, promotions, acquititions and other events includes Medable, Eversana, Parexel, Astellas and more.
Decentralized software specialist Medable has announced several leadership hires, intended to help the company meet growing demand for virtual trial technology. The team offers nearly 150 years of combined experience, including experience with Novartis, Abbott, Covance, PPD, Medidata, Oracle, IBM, ERT, MedImmune, and Otsuka.
The leaders recently added to Medable’s team include:
- Mary Costello, head of Site and Investigator Network
- Rasmus Hogreffe, vice president of Decentralized Trial Innovation
- Steve Lesser, vice president of Partner Strategy
- Heidi Pfefferkorn, Decentralized Solutions Leader
- Eric Peper, executive vice president of Sales
- David Swanger, senior vice president of marketing
- Ching Tian, senior vice president of Strategy and Solutions
Commercial services specialist Eversana has acquired Alkemy Partners, a field learning and development firm. The purchase is intended to expand Eversana’s commercial services platform to help solve a range of challenges for therapies and medical devices, pre-launch and in-market.
Jim Lang, Eversana CEO, said, “Pharmaceutical companies are navigating the realities of a new world; now more than ever, front-line clinical, market access, and field commercial teams need robust training partners offering innovative methods that can be delivered remotely, not traditional strategies. We’re advancing the measures needed to effectively engage all stakeholders in today’s world and leveraging data and analytics to optimize field outreach in real time to ensure appropriate patient utilization.”
CureDuchenne, an advocacy group for people living with the rare genetic disorder Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is producing a virtual gaming tournament, in partnership with PTC Therapeutics. Scheduled October 10, the event is designed to connect gamers and DMD patients, to help reduce feelings of isolation, connect with support systems, and build awareness of the need for treatments for the rare disease.
Gaming can play a critical role for people living with DMD. In advance of the tournament and Mental Health Awareness Day (also October 10), patients are available to share their stories, engage with interested people and connect with support. More information is available at https://bit.ly/3izcquT .
Adamas Pharmaceuticals, a company focused on neurological therapies, has appointed Adrian Quartel as chief medical officer. In his new role, Quarter is charged with leading the firm and providing direction for all scientific and medical functions.
“We are delighted to welcome Adrian to our leadership team to further accelerate the progress and execution of our long-term growth strategy,” said CEO Neil McFarlane. “His proven track record in drug development and extensive clinical experience will be especially valuable at this pivotal time as we build our development efforts to expand our reach to more patients.”
Parexel, a company that offers solutions to accelerate development of therapies, has acquired the Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology assets and transfer of key personnel of Roam Analytics, a healthcare software company. The move is intended to strengthen Parexel’s ability to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to innovate.
“Over the course of our partnership with Roam Analytics, its technology has shown exceptional strength and reliability in not only reading a wide range of clinical data sources, but also in annotating and categorizing data for leading life sciences companies that we serve,” said Michelle Hoiseth, Parexel’s chief data officer. “By integrating the Roam Analytics’ technology into Parexel’s suite of services, we’ll be able to provide customers with an added level of safety and security and pursue our aim to reduce the time and cost of developing new treatments and get them in the hands of patients sooner.”
ChargePoint Technology, a firm specializing in contained and sterile powder transfer solutions, has appointed of Emma Stoddart as chief financial officer. Her past experience includes serving as a partner at Grant Thornton, where she spent more than two decades of her career.
“I am delighted to have been invited to join ChargePoint, who have shown great success in recent years in delivering impressive growth in the UK and internationally,” Stoddart said. “The resilience and adaptive approach of ChargePoint over the last six months shows an underlying culture within the business which is very much aligned to my values. I really look forward to supporting the next stages of the company’s journey and growth.”
Covis Group has agreed to purchase AMAG Pharmaceuticals for approximately $647m on an enterprise basis. AMAG is a commercial-stage development firm focusing on therapies for patients with as-yet unmet needs.
Commenting on the transaction, Covis CEO Michael Porter said, “AMAG’s category leading treatments are strong strategic complements to our existing therapeutic portfolio. Through this combination, we believe we will be able to unlock value for all of our stakeholders, employees and patients through the effective and efficient management of these products, coupled with our two companies’ longstanding commitment to expanding patient access to therapy and putting patient interests first.”
Pharma development consultancy Boyds has recruited Kathryn Bartley as senior clinical research associate. Bartley has more than 18 years of experience in the industry, chiefly in study and site management as well as monitoring, across a variety of therapy areas and trial phases.
Most recently, Kathryn spent six years working for GlaxoSmithKline (subcontracted from Parexel and then PPD) as a senior clinical research associate; there, she worked working primarily on real-world evidence respiratory studies, including the noted Salford Lung Studies (SLS). She also served as remote clinical research associate on oncology trials with AstraZeneca.
ProSciento, a specialty clinical research organization focused on metabolic diseases, has closed on growth financing from healthcare investment outfit 1315 Capital. The funds reportedly will support expansion of the company’s CRO operations and patient-access platforms.
“ProSciento has established an outstanding reputation as the leading provider of early stage clinical research services for metabolic diseases,” said Matthew Reber, partner at 1315 Capital. “Our firm seeks to make a positive impact on patients and the entire healthcare system, and ProSciento is a key addition to the portfolio.”
Northbrook, Illinois-based pharma company Astellas has announced the structure and operating model for its global Patient Centricity organization. The initiative is intended to support development of health solutions with a deeper understanding of patient experience, medical needs and behavioral drivers of care at its center.
Anthony Yanni, Astellas senior vice president and global head of patient centricity, will head the members of the Patient Centricity teams:
- Joe Collins, head of Medical Intelligence and Patient Insights
- Deepti Jaggi, head of Patient Insights and Solutions
- Lisa Mattle, head of the Behavioral Science Consortium
- Doug Noland, head of Patient Partnerships
- Tyler Marciniak, head of Strategy and Integration
Stevanato Group, an Italy-based producer of pharma glass containers and drug-delivery integration, has opened its newest Technology Excellent Center in Boston. The facility is designed to provide pharma companies full-service support along drug development, from early-phase development to commercialization.
Chief technology officer Paolo Patri said, “We are excited to open the doors of our new Technology Excellence Center right here in Boston at the heart of the biotech community. Given its location, the Technology Excellence Center can easily integrate with the value chain of US customers, by partnering with them at an early stage.”
Clinical trial solutions provider WCG has hired Carsten Henke as senior vice president, Europe; and managing director, Germany. Henke will head up all operational functions in the region from his base in Germany and will help advance the company’s growth strategy in Europe.
Chief operating officer Jeffrey Litwin said, “Europe is and will continue to be a key center of medical innovation and research, and we are committed to growing WCG’s presence in the region. We’re pleased to be expanding our executive team with a leader like Carsten, who brings to WCG a wealth of life sciences industry experience from his over 25-year tenure in the field and a proven track record launching and commercializing healthcare products and services across Europe.”
Contract Development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) Sterling Pharma Solutions has purchased Alcami’s facility in Germantown, Wisconsin. The acquired facility is intended to bolster Sterling’s presence in the US, and to provide additional capacity for customer active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) development and manufacturing.
Kevin Cook, CEO, said, “This is the latest step of our strategic growth plans and will ensure we continue to provide a strong transatlantic API presence to support our customers. The US market continues to be a key growth area for us; in addition to bolstering our API clinical and commercial manufacturing the Germantown facility has extensive expertise in handling high potency APIs, which will be a valuable addition to our organization.”
Raremark, a rare-disease patient network, has announced numerous executive appointments to its leadership team. Former chief commercial officer Jeremy Edwards has been appointed CEO, and former head of product Alex Garner is the new chief operational officer; chairman Neil Rotherham is expected to play an active role in driving the company forward.
Raremark also has named Caroline O’Connor to join the team as senior vice president of business development. Additionally, the business reportedly has raised approximately $1.6m in additional funds from existing principal investors, AlbionVC and Ananda Ventures.
Adaptive clinical trial specialist Cytel has acquired Laiya Consulting, a drug development solutions company specializing in Bayesian adaptive trial designs and implementation. The purchase reportedly expands Cytel’s roster Bayesian experts with the addition of biostatisticians, including University of Chicago professor of biostatistics Yuan Ji.
“As we look to make the benefits of sophisticated Bayesian methods ever more accessible to drug developers, we’re taking strategic leaps to both bolster our core offerings and streamline their delivery to the market,” said Yannis Jemiai, chief scientific officer at Cytel. “Partnering with Laiya allows us to smoothly feed into our broad Bayesian software capabilities with ever greater levels of statistical innovation and expertise.”