This month’s news includes hiring, promotions, expansions, and acquisitions at H Clinical, Charles River, DHL Supply Chain, X-Chem, and other key companies.
This month’s news includes hiring, promotions, expansions, and acquisitions at H Clinical, Charles River, DHL Supply Chain, X-Chem, and other key companies.
Pharmaceutical company Pfizer has appointed David Denton and executive vice president, effective May 2. His most recent post was chief financial officer and executive vice president at Lowe’s Companies.
Albert Bourla, CEO and chairman of Pfizer, said, “Dave brings with him deep financial experience, a track record of achievement and true insights into today’s healthcare system. For these reasons, he is the perfect leader to take the helm of our talented finance organization and deliver a comprehensive strategic financial vision that will help drive Pfizer’s future growth and success.”
Charles River Laboratories International has acquired Explora BioLabs Holdings, a company that provides contract vivarium research services. Explora provides pharma clients with turnkey in vivo vivarium facilities, management, and related services to efficiently conduct early-stage research activities.
James Foster—president, CEO, and chairman of Charles River Laboratories—said, “With its presence in West Coast biohubs, the acquisition of Explora BioLabs complements our existing CRADL footprint and offers incremental opportunities to partner with an emerging, high-growth client base, many of which are engaged in cell and gene therapy development.”
DNA and AI specialist X-Chem has announced that Noor Shaker (its senior vice president and general manager) was named a winner in the Artificial Intelligence Excellence Awards program from Business Intelligence Group. The award recognizes people, organizations, and products that apply AI in solving real-life problems. products bringing AI to life and applying it to solve real problems.
“I am very passionate about data and pushing the boundaries for what is possible with AI,” Shaker said. “AI is set to transform nearly every aspect of our lives and culture, and its use to increase the efficiency of drug discovery has increased considerably over the past few years. The ultimate aim of our team at X-Chem is to cure disease — and we believe that our AI technology, combined with our DEL and medicinal chemistry expertise, will help enable this step change in drug discovery.”
Decentralized clinical trial services company H Clinical is expanding logistics service capabilities to support decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) in emerging markets throughout Latin America. The move includes strategically located depots, in-country supply procurement, medical equipment rentals, and experienced teams that include project managers, coordinators, and couriers.
"How do you deliver to places with no address? How do you avoid customs and shipping charges and delays?" said Mitchell Parrish, president of H Clinical. "With more localized facilities, locally sourced team members who know these communities, and an established presence in vital countries, these regionally focused capabilities bolster our ability to continue as the centralized provider for multi-country DCTs in Latin America."
Jim Saponaro has been promoted to president of life sciences and healthcare for DHL Supply Chain. Saponaro most recently served as vice president of operations for life sciencs and healthcare at the company.
“One of my great responsibilities is to select the right leaders for our future,” said Scott Sureddin, CEO of DHL Supply Chain in North America. “The relationships Jim has built within the sector and with its customers, as well as his outstanding leadership abilities, make him well suited to assume this role.”
Sumitomo Chemical has announced plans to build a new manufacturing plant for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates for small molecule drugs at its Oita Works site in Oita City, Oita Prefecture, Japan. This project reportedly is intended to enhance the company’s capacity to supply a variety of high-quality APIs and intermediates to meet growing demand for small-molecule drugs; the plant is slated to open in September 2024.
The new plant will manufacture a wide variety of APIs and intermediates requiring complex chemical reactions and offer the ability to scale from development to commercialization. It will be compliant with US, EU, and Japanese GMP3, regulatory standards for pharmaceutical manufacturing and quality management.
Cancer-focused data company COTA has named Miruna Sasu president and chief executive officer. In her new role, Sasu (whose previous companies include Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb) will head efforts to drive broader adoption of real-world data to help accelerate development and improve costs of cancer treatments.
“I came to COTA because of my belief that real-world data and analytics can fundamentally improve outcomes for cancer patients,” Sasu said. “As president and CEO of COTA, I am committed to making clinical trials and cancer care more accessible and affordable to all people regardless of income, race, ethnicity, gender, or geography.”
Procaps Group has announced its acquisition of a 86,000-square-foot production facility in West Palm Beach Florida, its first manufacturing reach into the US. The facility (purchased from Strides Pharma) reportedly offers a annual production capacity of about 1.8b capsules, expanding the company’s product development capabilities by more than 70%.
“This acquisition is an important milestone for our strategy of bringing soft gelatin-based innovations to all corners of the globe both via integrated CDMO solutions and our own developments,” said Ruben Minski, CEO of Procaps Group. “This facility has a strong production track record and audit history and we believe it will become a global center of pharmaceutical excellence.”
Clinical trial software company Cytel has appointed Albert Kim to serve as its first chief medical officer. Kim brings more than 21 years of diverse experience at a range of companies, including roles at Novartis and Pfizer.
“Innumerable challenges can hinder clinical development success, not least the potential communications gaps between statisticians and clinicians,” said Joshua Schultz, CEO of Cytel. “Empowering and connecting teams that speak different scientific languages makes navigating hurdles in clinical research dramatically more efficient. Dr Kim, with his multi-domain expertise, will be an accelerating force as Cytel expands our application of advanced analytics to the entire product development team — from patient recruitment to market access.”
Clinical trial software provider CluePoints has announced three senior appointments: Catherine Ditzler, vice president of marketing; Céline Daubresse, vice president of people; and James Faust, vice president of business operations.
Patrick Hughes, chief commercial officer and co-founder of CluePoints, said, “We are delighted to have recruited these talented leaders in their fields to join the CluePoints team as we look to the future.”
The two contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) have announced the launch of their Xpert Alliance joint program. The effort reportedly is intended to promote development and delivery of solutions that address clients’ changing and expanding needs in the area of complex biopharmaceuticals.
Frank Mathias, CEO of Rentschler Biopharma, said, “We and Vetter have ambitious goals for our collaboration and believe that our clients can greatly benefit from the complementary services and seamless interactions we offer, with the ultimate aim of bringing new, life-changing treatment options to patients.”
