New hires:
Madrigal Pharmaceuticals named Carole Huntsman as chief commercial officer.
Michael Byrnes, an alum of agencies like Weber Shandwick and Matter, is joining Highwire PRas the firm’s first managing director of health.
Outlook Therapeutics tapped Jedd Comiskey to serve as SVP and head of Europe.
Virtual care company Babyscripts named William Bates as EVP of technology.
Nereid Therapeutics appointed Michael Kauffman, MD, PhD as CEO.
Hale Advisors hired Rebecca Zobbe as head of business development and Hank Conant as creative lead.
KCSA Strategic Communications announced Alessandra Nagy joined its health and wellness practice as SVP of its public relations team.
Board appointments:
Days before releasing its most recent earnings, Roivant Sciences appointed Mayukh Sukhatme, MD to its board of directors, effective immediately.
Envision Pharma Group established an AI innovation board and appointed Dr. Loubna Bouarfa as chairwoman.
Preclinical stage biotech Tessellate BIO named multiple international experts to its scientific advisory board.
Myrcix Bio appointed former ADC Therapeutics head Dr. Chris Martin as its chairman of the board of directors.
Biopharma CoRegen named Dr. Edward Benz to its board of directors.
Syndivia tapped Nobel Prize-winning chemist Professor Jean-Marie Lehn as the chairman of its scientific advisory board.
Departures:
Dr. Antony Blanc, CureVac’s Chief Business and Chief Commercial Officer, will leave the company at the end of the month. CureVac’s CEO Dr. Alexander Zehnder will lead the business development and commercial team during the search for a permanent replacement.
Layoffs:
Thermo Fisher Scientific is closing a plant in east Alabama and nearly 100 employees will lose their jobs.
Cancer therapy company Theseus Pharmaceuticals cut 72% of its workforce as it explores plans to boost shareholder value, including the potential to sell the firm.
Talis Biomedical is cutting about 90% of its workforce by about 90% as part of a cost reduction plan.
Deals:
Legend Biotechannounced earlier this week that its subsidiary entered into an exclusive, global license agreement for a drug candidate with Novartis.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals inked a deal worth up to $770.5 million with Autifony Therapeutics to discover and develop drug candidates targeting two different ion channel targets associated with neurological disorders.
Gilead Sciences’ oncology arm Kite Pharma announced a $285 million expansion of its deal with Arcellx that will give Kite access to ACLX-001, a BCMA-targeted CAR-T cell therapy for multiple myeloma.
Coefficient Health announced a global alliance with ad agencies Nitro Digital and Galapagos Tokyo.
Graphite Bio agreed to merge with LENZ Therapeutics in an all-stock transaction.
Mural Oncology spun out from Alkermes with $275 million and a lead immunotherapy program in hand.
Stride Health announced deals with Shipt and Care.com to help their workforces access health insurance during the open enrollment period.
Funding rounds:
Neurodegenerative disease startup VectorY secured $138 million in a Series A funding round to develop a treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
EyeBio announced the close of an extension to its Series A financing, which totaled $130 million.
MBrace Therapeutics raised $85 million in a Series B funding round to boost its oncology pipeline with antibody drug conjugate candidates.
Nouscom, a Swiss clinical stage immuno-oncology company, announced the completion of a Series C funding round that brought in $72 million.
ViaNautis Bio raised a $25 million Series A funding round.
Medical startup Pathway raised $5 million in seed funding to scale access to its advanced AI and search tool.
Industry news:
3M announced its planned, independent healthcare company spinoff will be known as Solventum.
Regeneron committed $34 million to continue its sponsorship of the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair.
An investor class action lawsuit filed against Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics alleged the company made false and misleading statements between August 15, 2022, and September 27, 2023, violating Federal Securities Laws.
The Food and Drug Administration reviewed and cleared Tenax Therapeutics’ Investigational New Drug Application for TNX-103 for the treatment of pulmonary hypertension with heart failure.
The agency also approved CorMedix‘s drug DefenCath for bloodstream infections.
Biopharmaceutical company Aclaris Therapeutics said it will discontinue further development of the ATI-450 program to treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis.
EMD Serono, the North American healthcare business of Merck KGaA, announced plans to move its U.S. healthcare headquarters to Boston’s Seaport District in summer 2024.
Stand Up To Cancer announced three additional research teams focused on bringing new therapies to clinical trials for the treatment of gastroesophageal cancer, a part of a Dream Team Collective supported by the Torrey Coast Foundation.
