Yumanity Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Brigitte Robertson (photo) as chief medical officer. Robertson brings almost 20 years of clinical and regulatory experience in neurology and psychiatry to her role, most recently serving as therapeutic area head of neuroscience global clinical development at Takeda (formerly Shire). Previously, she practiced medicine as a board-certified adult, child and adolescent psychiatrist and held a faculty position at Duke University.

“Joining Yumanity Therapeutics represents an exciting and critical opportunity to improve the treatment landscape for a number of historically complex and difficult-to-treat neurodegenerative conditions,” said Robertson. “I was inspired by the science this company was founded on and encouraged by the overall potential of its propriety platform to overcome the toxicity associated with protein misfolding. I look forward to partnering with our team of talented scientists and researchers to help generate successful clinical outcomes and improve the lives of patients.”

David Altarac has been appointed chief medical officer of Entasis Therapeutics Holdings, succeeding Robin Isaacs, who retired at the end of 2019. Before joining Entasis, Altarac was senior vice president and head of global regulatory affairs, global drug safety and R&D quality and compliance at Shire.

Regenerative medicine company NervGen Pharma has named Paul Brennan president and CEO, replacing Ernest Wong, who will continue to support the company as a consultant. Brennan has also been appointed to NervGen’s board. He has held a number of executive positions within biotech, including at Eupraxia Pharmaceuticals, Aquinox Pharmaceuticals and Arbutus Biopharma. NervGen also announced the appointment of Lloyd Mackenzie in the newly created position of COO. He was most recently chief development officer at Notable Labs.

Agios Pharmaceuticals has named Bruce Car CSO, succeeding the retiring Scott Biller. Car spent 25 years at Bristol-Myers Squibb and its legacy companies, serving most recently as the interim head, BMS drug discovery.

Rakuten Medical has appointed two new directors to its board: David Chao, cofounder and general partner of DCM Ventures, and Kentaro Hyakuno, COO and group executive vice president of Rakuten, Inc.

Aruvant has named William Chou CEO. He joins the company from Novartis, where he served as vice president, global disease lead for the cell and gene therapy unit, overseeing the global commercial launch of Kymriah.

Clarissa Desjardins has been elected to the board of directors of Insmed. She has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the biopharma industry and currently serves as president and CEO of Clementia Pharmaceuticals, recently acquired by Ipsen.

Kronos Bio has appointed Jorge DiMartino as chief medical officer and executive vice president, clinical development, a newly created position. DiMartino was most recently vice president, translational development at Celgene.

Israel-based BiomX has elected Russell G. Greig as chairman of the board of directors and Lynne Sullivan as board director. Greig was most recently president of SR One, GlaxoSmithKline’s corporate venture group. Sullivan was formerly senior vice president of finance at Biogen and most recently CFO for Compass Therapeutics.

Gene therapy developer CODA Biotherapeutics has named Annahita Keravala senior vice president, gene therapy. Keravala joins the company after serving as associate vice president, AAV platform at Rocket Pharmaceuticals.

Klaus Lindpaintner has been appointed CSO and chief medical officer of InterVenn Biosciences. Lindpaintner’s previous roles include vice president and global head of human genetics and computational biomedicine at Pfizer, CSO of Thermo Fisher Scientific and senior vice president and head of the Roche Center for Medical Genomics.

Former Bristol-Myers Squibb CSO Thomas Lynch has been named chairman of Kleo Pharmaceuticals. Kleo’s previous chairman, Declan Doogan, remains on the board and Alex Goor has resigned his board seat.

Paris-based Ipsen has appointed Howard Mayer as executive vice president and head of R&D. He succeeds the retiring Alexandre Lebeaut. Before joining Ipsen, Mayer was senior vice president, chief medical officer and head of R&D in Shire’s neuroscience division.

Stanley Musial has been named CFO and chief business officer of Xenikos. He joins the company with more than 25 years of financial leadership experience in the life sciences, having served as CFO for EryDel, Egalet, Prism Pharmaceuticals and Strategic Diagnostics.

Prakash Raman (photo) has been appointed to the post of senior partner and the newly created role of chief business development officer of Flagship Pioneering, responsible for enhancing business development activities and strategic partnerships to maximize value for Flagship’s portfolio of therapeutics companies. He most recently served as vice president, global head of business development and licensing at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

Ovid Therapeutics has appointed Jason Tardio chief commercial officer. He most recently served as vice president and head of the multiple sclerosis franchise at Novartis.

James D. Watson has been appointed chief business officer of Imago BioSciences. He most recently served in the same capacity at Sigilon Therapeutics, where he closed a $473 million strategic partnership with Eli Lilly for a treatment for Type 1 diabetes.