Credit: Courtesy of Genzyme

Biotech pioneer Henri A. Termeer (right) died on May 12 at his home in Massachusetts. He was 71. Termeer joined Genzyme shortly after its founding and served as chairman, president and CEO from 1983 until 2011, growing it into one of the world's largest biotech companies, employing more than 12,500 people worldwide. Under his leadership, Genzyme developed a group of rare-disease medicines, including the enzyme-replacement drugs Cerezyme (imiglucerase) for Gaucher disease and Fabrazyme (agalsidase beta) for Fabry disease, as well as Lemtrada (alemtuzumab), a multiple sclerosis drug. He stepped down from Genzyme in 2011, when the company was bought by Sanofi for more than $20 billion—the second-largest acquisition in biotech history. In 2006, Termeer joined the MIT Corporation—the Institute's board of trustees—as a term member, and was subsequently named a member for life in 2013. And in 2011, Termeer and his wife donated $10 million to launch the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also served on the board of trustees. He served on the boards of directors of several biotech companies, including X4 Pharmaceuticals, ProQR Therapeutics and Lysosomal Therapeutics, all of which he co-founded, as well as Moderna Therapeutics, Verastem, Aveo Oncology, and others.

David Meeker, president of Sanofi Genzyme, called Termeer “the dean of the biotech community. His vision was to cure rare diseases, and he always had time to meet with the people dependent on our treatments,” he said. “He had the ability to forge such an intense relationship with everyone he met, and he made everyone in the industry feel like he cared about them as an individual.”

Deinove (Montpellier, France) has announced the appointment of Hervé Brailly, co-founder and CEO of Innate Pharma, as a director. Brailly led Innate Pharma for 17 years and currently serves as chairman of the supervisory board.

Suzanne Bruhn (right) has been appointed CEO of Proclara Biosciences (Cambridge, MA, USA). She was most recently president and CEO of Promedior, and previously she served as senior vice president of strategic planning and program management at Shire's human genetic therapies division.

EnobraQ (Ramonville-Saint-Agne, France) has announced the appointment of Christophe Dardel as CEO. He previously served as president of DSM Biomedical.

Astellas (Northbrook, IL, USA) has promoted Shontelle Dodson to senior vice president and head of medical affairs, Americas. She previously served as vice president of medical excellence within the global medical affairs unit. Before joining Astellas, she was vice president of medical affairs at GTx.

Anavex Life Sciences (New York) has announced the appointment of Emmanuel O. Fadiran as senior vice president of regulatory affairs. Fadiran has 24 years of regulatory experience within the US Food and Drug Administration, having held leadership positions at the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

Asya Grinberg has been named head of biologics at Dragonfly Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA). She joins Dragonfly from Acceleron Pharma, where she was senior director of cell biology and protein chemistry.

Healthcare growth equity firm Foresite Capital (San Francisco) has named Molly He (right) as venture partner. Formerly senior director of scientific research at Illumina, He brings to Foresite more than 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical and genomic R&D. Prior to Illumina, she was the head of protein sciences at Pacific Biosciences.

Judit H. Nyirady has joined LEO Pharma (Madison, NJ, USA) as vice president of medical strategy & scientific affairs. Nyirady has over 18 years of clinical R&D experience in the pharma industry. Most recently, she was interim medical unit head of dermatology & immunology, US clinical development & medical affairs and concurrently the executive director, dermatology, US clinical development & medical affairs at Novartis.

Leading human monoclonal antibody biopharma Kymab (Cambridge, UK) has announced the appointment of Sonia Quaratino as chief medical officer. Quaratino was previously global clinical program leader in transitional clinical oncology at Novartis.

Metrion Biosciences (Cambridge, UK) has announced the promotion of Andrew Southan to COO. He joined Metrion in October 2016 and has over 25 years' experience within the life sciences sector, including 14 years managing contract research services. Metrion also appointed James Beaumont as head of business development. Beaumont brings over 20 years' sales, business development and marketing experience at Evotec, Aptuit and New Zealand Pharmaceuticals.

John Stuelpnagel, co-founder, first CEO and former COO of Illumina and a well-known genomics industry entrepreneur, has been elected chairman of the board of directors of privately held Muse bio (Boulder, CO, USA).

Privately held scPharmaceuticals (Lexington, MA, USA) has named John Tucker as president, CEO and a member of the board of directors. Tucker has over 25 years of experience in the pharma industry. Prior to joining scPharmaceuticals, he served as CEO of Alcresta.

PharmaCyte Biotech (Laguna Hills, CA, USA) has appointed Thomas Yuen to its board of directors. Yuen was a co-founder of computer industry pioneer AST Research in 1981. Currently, he is chairman and CEO of PrimeGen Biotech, which he founded in 2002.