Bicycle Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA, and Cambridge, UK) has announced the appointment of Nicholas Keen (right) as CSO. Keen joins Bicycle from Novartis, where he served as head of oncology research at the company's Cambridge, Massachusetts, site. Previously, he held positions of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca, ultimately leading the early lead generation group for oncology for the pharma's US research site.

“Nick is a highly experienced oncology drug hunter and has great experience leading cancer drug discovery programs at the highest level in top biopharmaceutical companies,” said Kevin Lee, Bicycle's CEO. “He has championed novel mechanisms and progressed multiple compounds into the clinic that will benefit cancer patients.”

Otonomy (San Diego) has named Kathie M. Bishop (right) CSO. Bishop is a neuroscientist with over 15 years of pharma development experience. She led translational R&D of programs in the neurology franchise at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, including Spinraza (nusinersen) for spinal muscular atrophy, which was approved by the FDA in December 2016.

Pliant Therapeutics (Redwood City, CA, USA) has appointed Rik Derynck as a scientific founder. Derynck is currently a professor in the departments of cell and tissue biology, and anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco. He also serves as co-director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Biology at UCSF.

Flagship Pioneering (Cambridge, MA, USA), the venture capital firm formerly known as Flagship Ventures, has named David Epstein as its new executive partner. Epstein was previously CEO and division head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, and president and managing general partner of consulting firm Remedii LLC.

Clinical-stage gene therapy company Voyager Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Jane Pritchett Henderson as senior vice president and CFO. Henderson brings more than 28 years of life sciences industry and banking experience, most recently serving as chief financial and business officer of Kolltan Pharmaceuticals. Previously, she was vice president, business development of ISTA Pharmaceuticals.

John Jenkins has retired from his position as director of the Office of New Drugs (OND) at the US Food and Drug Administration (Silver Spring, MD, USA). Janet Woodcock, head of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) will serve as interim director until a permanent successor has been found.

Prothena (Dublin) has named Carol D. Karp as chief regulatory officer. Karp was an independent regulatory consultant prior to joining Prothena. She previously held executive leadership positions as senior vice president of regulatory affairs and compliance at Esperion Therapeutics, and vice president and head of global regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance & risk management at Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy.

In conjunction with a $2-million financing commitment from Australian healthcare investment firm Tarnagulla Ventures, Jupiter Orphan Therapeutics (Jupiter, FL, USA) has appointed Natalie McNamee to its board of directors. McNamee held positions at Tocagen and Quanticel Pharmaceuticals and is a director at Tarnagulla Ventures.

Aelix Therapeutics (Barcelona) has appointed Philippe Monteyne as an independent member of its board of directors. Monteyne is a partner at Fund+ in Belgium. He was previously a visiting professor of neurosciences at Catholic University of Louvain and vice president of R&D at Sanofi France.

Malte Peters (right) has been appointed chief development officer of MorphoSys (Planegg/Munich, Germany) effective March 1. He will succeed Arndt Schottelius, who is leaving to pursue other opportunities. Peters joins MorphoSys from Sandoz, where he currently serves as global head, clinical development biopharmaceuticals.

OptiBiotix (Heslington, UK) has appointed Per Rehné as a commercial director. He worked most recently as European director of health and nutrition at Cornelius Group.

Dragonfly Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the addition of Sean E. Reilly to its board of directors. Reilly is CEO of Lamar Advertising, one of the largest advertising companies in North America, as well as an investor in numerous startup technology companies in industries ranging from biotech to telecommunications to security software.

Newly launched Vir Biotechnology (San Francisco) has named George Scangos CEO. Sacangos was most recently CEO of Biogen. The company has also named former Vertex Pharmaceuticals president, and Biogen vice president of research and scientific board member Vicki Sato as chairman of the board. Vir is backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Michel Vounatsos has been appointed CEO and member of the board of directors of Biogen (Cambridge, MA, USA). He was most recently Biogen's executive vice president and chief commercial officer. He joined Biogen in April 2016 after a 20-year career at Merck, where he held leadership positions of increasing responsibility in Europe, China, and the US.