Bicycle Therapeutics (Cambridge, UK, and Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Lee Kalowski (right) as chief financial officer. Kalowski most recently served as CFO of Tokai Pharmaceuticals, where he helped lead the company's $105 million initial public offering in 2014. Previously, he was vice president, global biotechnology equity research at Credit Suisse.

“We are delighted to welcome Lee to the Bicycle team at this exciting time for our company,” said Bicycle Therapeutics CEO Kevin Lee. “He brings a wealth of experience working with biotech companies at all stages of their evolution, both as a Wall Street research analyst and as a public company CFO, and his insights will prove invaluable as we continue to grow our business, expand our pipeline and move our lead candidate, BT1718, into clinical development.”

Hugh Cole has been appointed chief business officer and head of corporate development at Jounce Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA). He brings over 25 years of experience in the biotech industry, most recently serving as chief business officer for ARIAD Pharmaceuticals.

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA, USA) has named Jean Franchi as CFO. In a 30-year career in the biotech and life sciences sectors, Franchi has held senior financial management roles at companies spanning all stages of development, from research to commercial. She was most recently CFO for Dimension Therapeutics. Previously, she was the CFO at Good Start Genetics, a commercial-stage molecular genetics information company. Franchi also spent 16 years at Genzyme (now Sanofi Genzyme), including as senior vice president of corporate finance.

Foresee Pharmaceuticals (Taipei, Taiwan) has named Lawrence Gan to the position of CEO.

Gan has 30 years of strategic and operational experience in the pharma industry, serving as senior director at Biogen, director of drug discovery at Boehringer-Ingelheim and senior director at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, among others. He was most recently president and CEO of the Development Center for Biotechnology in Taipei.

Stanislav Glezer has joined diabetes treatment developer Adocia (Lyon, France) as chief medical officer. Before joining Adocia, he served as vice president, medical affairs at Novo Nordisk. Previously, he held several positions of increasing responsibility at Sanofi, including global leader for Toujeo, vice president evidence value and access, and vice president medical affairs.

TARA Biosystems (New York) has named Michael P. Graziano chief scientific officer. A 30-year veteran of developing new medicines for cardiovascular disease, he joins TARA from MyoKardia, where he was vice president of research biology.

Pharmalink (Stockholm) has announced the appointment of Fredrik Johansson as CFO. Johansson most recently served as CFO and COO at Birdstep Technology/Techstep ASA. Pharmalink's outgoing CFO, Anders Hultman, will remain with the company as finance director.

Geoffrey Kim has been appointed as head of oncology strategic combinations at AstraZeneca (Cambridge, UK). Kim comes to the company from the US Food and Drug Administration, where for the last two years he has been director of the division of oncology products. He had been at the FDA since 2010, also working as its medical officer in the division of oncology products.

Relay Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Deborah Palestrant (right) as vice president of corporate development and strategy. Prior to joining Relay, Palestrant led the business development team at Editas Medicine from its inception. As a senior associate at Third Rock Ventures, she helped to conceive and launch Editas and was part of the original founding team.

Dovetail Genomics (Santa Cruz, CA, USA) has appointed Ramesh Ramakrishnan senior vice president of R&D. Ramakrishnan was most recently executive vice president of R&D at Fluidigm.

Alvotech (Reykjavik, Iceland) has appointed Rasmus Rojkjaer as CEO, succeeding Eef Schimmelpennink, who has stepped down from his role. Rojkjaer joined the company in 2016 as COO. Prior to joining Alvotech, he created and led the establishment of Mylan Pharmaceuticals' biosimilar strategy and held senior leadership positions at Novo Nordisk.

Clinical-stage gene therapy developer Orchard Therapeutics (London) has announced the appointment of Mark Rothera as president and CEO. Rothera brings 28 years of experience in the biopharma industry. Until recently he served as chief commercial officer of PTC Therapeutics. Prior to joining PTC, he served as global president of Aegerion Pharmaceuticals and vice president and general manager of commercial operations at Shire Human Genetic Therapies for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Nordic Nanovector (Oslo, Norway) has named Reza Safaei as head of medical affairs. Safaei was most recently head of medical affairs Europe at Seattle Genetics, and was previously director, medical development, immuno-oncology and scientific communications, haematology at Amgen Europe.

Akari Therapeutics (New York and London) has announced the appointment of David Horn Solomon as CEO. Solomon was previously CEO of Zealand Pharma from 2008 to 2015.

Jean-Charles Soria has joined MedImmune (Gaithersburg, MD, USA) as senior vice president and head of oncology innovative medicines. He was previously a professor of medicine and medical oncology at South-Paris University and chair of the drug development department at the Institut Gustave Roussy.