Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Darren Incorvaia or Zoey Becker and it will be featured here at the end of each week.
Ovid eyes next chapter with CEO transition
Ovid Therapeutics
Neuro biotech Ovid Therapeutics' C-suite is metamorphosing, with co-founder and longtime CEO Jeremy Levin, M.D., Ph.D., set to give up the reins. Levin will step down Jan. 1 to make room for Meg Alexander, who will become Ovid’s chief exec after first joining the company in 2021. Alexander most recently served as Ovid’s president and chief operating officer, and she joined the poetically named biotech after a five-and-a-half-year stint as founder and managing director at Syneos Health.
Levin, who will transition to become executive chairman of Ovid’s board, said he has “deep respect for Meg’s judgment, integrity and strong leadership.” Release
FDA’s oncology head takes top CDER post
FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
Twenty-six-year FDA veteran Richard Pazdur, M.D., is taking on a new title as the director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), which oversees most prescription drugs. Pazdur, whom FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., referred to as a “renowned regulatory innovator,” has been the FDA’s top oncology leader since becoming the founding director of the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence in 2017. He is one of two center leaders that have stuck with the FDA since the shake-up the agency saw this year under the Trump administration and will still serve in his oncology role for the time being. Pazdur succeeds the short CDER leadership tenure of George Tidmarsh, M.D., Ph.D., after the former director resigned earlier this month amid an investigation into alleged misuse of his regulatory authority. Story
Metagenomi shuffles CEO in reorg
Metagenomi
A quarter of Metagenomi’s employees, including the company’s CEO Brian Thomas, Ph.D., are set to lose their jobs after the gene editing biotech decided to focus resources on its preclinical hemophilia A program. Thomas, a co-founder of the company, will remain on the board, while current President and Chief Operating Officer Jian Irish, Ph.D., will replace him in the top job. The 25% layoff is intended to stretch the $184.1 million Metagenomi ended September with into the fourth quarter of 2027. Story
> Experienced R&D leader Manoj Malhotra, M.D., is coming off of a year as AbbVie’s VP of global medical affairs in neuroscience and eye care to join QurAlis Corporation as its chief medical officer. Release
> Alpha-9 Oncology named a pack leader in Paul Blanchfield, who takes over as CEO after nearly six years at Lantheus, where he most recently served as president. Release
> Joseph McClellan, who previously headed up biosimilar development at Pfizer before moving to Alvotech as chief scientific officer in 2019, is pivoting to the chief operating officer role as the company adopts a new commercial leadership structure that welcomes a slew of new leadership appointees. Release
> Celldex’s Richard Wright, Ph.D., is retiring from his chief commercial officer position after more than 10 years of service, passing the reins to 20-year Johnson & Johnson vet Teri Lawver. Release
> Rob Guigley’s latest move in the digital health products space is at Freenome, where he will build out core commercial capabilities at the blood-based cancer screening test company as chief commercial officer. Release
> Microbial therapeutics company Prokarium is looking to advance its lead bladder cancer asset with the help of new CEO Ibs Mahmood. Release
> Two months after debuting on the Nasdaq, LB Pharmaceuticals has recruited Kaya Pai Panandiker to serve as chief commercial officer, the same role she has held at Neumora Therapeutics since last year. Release
> Jean-Marie Cuillerot, M.D., who previously led medical development of Bristol Myers Squibb’s Yervoy (ipilimumab), is now chief medical officer at Domain Therapeutics. Release
> Neurvati Neurosciences, the neuroscience development platform of Blackstone Life Sciences, has a new chief commercial officer in Carlos Martin. Release (PDF)
> Bexorg, a startup turning donated human brains into drug testing platforms, is thinking about scaling up with Sean Murphy, Ph.D., as chief technology officer. Release