This month’s hires, promotions, acquisitions and other notable news includes Ajinomoto, Medable, Charles River, Immunai, AstraZeneca and other top firms.
Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services has inked a manufacturing expansion deal with AstraZeneca to include drug product manufacturing. The agreement expands the scope of the companies’ arrangement to include aseptic fill finish services at Ajinomoto’s San Diego, California facility, as well as small-molecule manufacturing in Belgium.
Magnus Busch, global account manager with Ajinomoto, said, “We are excited to expand our manufacturing agreement with AstraZeneca and to support them with additional service offerings. This expanded agreement builds on our commitment to be a leading, trusted, innovative partner to our clients.”
Patient-centric technology firm Medable has named Sina Mossayeb as chief design officer. His experience in human-centered design includes work performed for Aero Airline, design firm IDEO, Novartis and the NFL Players Association.
“[Mossayeb’s] ability to empathize while driving creativity is something the healthcare industry is lacking,” said Michelle Longmire, CEO and co-founder of Medable. “As a leader in human-centered design, Sina will be instrumental as we work to make clinical trials more accessible and inclusive for all.”
Amgen has agreed to acquire Rodeo Therapeutics, a pharma firm specializing in small-molecule therapies intended to promote regeneration and repair of tissues. Under terms of the agreement, Amgen will acquire all outstanding shares for $55m upfront, and future contingent milestone payments potentially worth up $666m.
“Given the encouraging preclinical data to date, we are excited about the opportunity to develop a novel therapy with potential in a range of important inflammatory disease indications," said Raymond Deshaies, senior vice president of global research at Amgen.
Clinical laboratory services firm Charles River Laboratories has acquired Retrogenix, an early-stage CRO offering bioanalytical services, including cell microarray technology.
James Foster (chair, president and CEO of Charles River Laboratories) said, “The acquisition of Retrogenix strategically expands Charles River’s existing discovery capabilities by adding a proprietary cell microarray technology to accelerate target identification and provide preclinical safety assurance for novel therapies.”
Drug development technology firm Tools4Patient has named Delphine Elmerich quality assurance director. Elmerich will be charged with maintaining and advancing the clinical quality assurance strategy to support the company’s goals.
“Delphine’s extensive background in early phase clinical trial and quality management make her well prepared to identify and resolve quality issues and to ensure that T4P meets and exceeds international regulations and industry guidances,” said Dominique Demolle, Tools4Patient CEO.
Biotech firm Immunai has acquired Dropprint Genomics, a single-cell genomics software company. Rachel Gate, Dropprint CEO and cofounder, said, “Together, we will work to unlock insights into the functions of the immune system in disease.”
Immunai also has named staff to its executive leadership team and scientific advisory board:
- Peter Smibert, vice president of functional
- Alexandria Cogdill, director of business development
- Adeeb Rahman, senior director of single-cell immunology
- Danny Wells, senior vice president of strategic research
- New scientific advisory board members include Michael Kalos, Jimmie Ye and Regina Barzilay
Pharmaceutical and medical supply distributor is partnering with supply-chain specialist FourKites to track drugs, medical equipment, PPE and other supplies en route to various care facilities. The effort is intended to help Cardinal Health optimize its supply chain operations, connecting more than 29,000 pharmacies and approximately 90% of US care facilities.
Sean Halligan, senior vice president of pharmaceutical operations at Cardinal Health, said, “By partnering with FourKites, we will have end-to-end visibility to see products in transit and make any necessary adjustments to provide a frictionless experience to our customers everywhere and help them better serve their patients.”
The Center for Breakthrough Medicines, a CDMO specializing in end-to-end cell and gene therapy solutions, has filled four senior leadership positions:
- Sybil Danby, senior vice president of business development and strategy
- Eileen Brett, vice president of project leadership
- Dana Cipriano, vice president of testing and analytical services
- Emily Moran, vice president of viral vector manufacturing
Audrey Greenberg, cofounder of the Discovery Labs, said, "We know that our success lies in being customer-centric and keeping the end customer—patients—in mind with each process. To this end, we are proud to have such exceptional female leaders on our team and will continue to recruit and build our team with diversity, inclusion, and the expertise needed to support customer success as fundamental drivers."
Lonza has divested two of its former sites to NextPharma, a European CDMO. The two sites are based in Ploermel, France; and Edinburgh, UK.
Peter Burema, CEO of NextPharma, said, “We are very excited at adding two new centers of excellence, at Ploermel and Edinburgh, to NextPharma’s manufacturing network, allowing us to further broaden our technology offering for both our existing and new customers.”
Florence Healthcare has launched its podcast series, “The Next Phase: Exploring Innovations in Clinical Trials.” The digital program will focus on the industry’s need for sites, sponsors and CROs to leverage technology to support an industry that is increasingly decentralized and remote.
“At Florence, we streamline clinical trials through electronic document workflows and remote site access; our main goal is to make conducting clinical trials easier so that sites can focus on what’s important – the advancement of human health,” said Blake Adams, Florence’s vice president of marketing and podcast host. “We are excited that this podcast will allow us to speak with industry leaders who share that goal and learn about their efforts to advance clinical trials for better health outcomes.”
Synthetic biology firm Evonetix has named Michael Daniels head of product management. In his new role, Daniels will focus on development and introduction of Evonetix’s DNA desktop writer.
Daniels said, “Evonetix’s DNA desktop writer has the potential to revolutionize synthetic biology, and I look forward to working with the team to guide its development and commercialization. It is an exciting time to be joining the company.”
Real-estate developer Trammel Crow has topped out construction on its Fulton Labs at Aberdeen development. The facility is a 423,454-square-foot lab building intended to help firms in the area meet rapidly increasing demand for Class A lab space.
Morgan Blaska, senior associate at Trammell Crow, said, “With the community of life sciences tenants strengthening in our Fulton Labs at 1375 W. Fulton facility, coupled with securing our first lease at 400 N. Aberdeen and achieving this milestone in the construction process, we’re excited to see the continuing impact that our investment in purpose-built wet and dry lab space is having on the community.”
Vibalogics, a CDMO specializing in virotherapy products, has appointed three leaders to its North American leadership, ahead of the opening of its new late-phase and commercial virotherapy manufacturing facility in Boxborough, Massachusetts:
- Mike DiMeo, chief financial officer
- Judith Adair McCorry, vice president of quality
- Hao Qian, head of process sciences
Tom Hochuli, CEO, said, “Mike, Judith and Max are fantastic additions to our team here in Boxborough. They all bring with them exceptional skills and experience that will complement our existing team as we bring the new site online, and they will help ensure that we continue to exceed our customers’ rigorous quality expectations into the future.”