Boston Pharmaceuticals has announced the appointment of Craig T. Basson (photo) as chief medical officer. For the past ten years, Basson served as global head of translational medicine for the cardiovascular and metabolic therapeutic areas at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, where he led the team developing new global programs to translate basic findings into novel therapeutics. Before Novartis, he was a professor of cardiology and internal medicine at Cornell University Medical College.

“As a highly regarded scientist and drug developer, Craig’s experience in global translational medicine is uniquely suited to Boston Pharmaceuticals as we continue to evolve our pipeline,” said Robert Armstrong, CEO and cofounder of the company. “His proven track record for innovation and drug development will support our mission of addressing unmet medical needs for larger patient populations.”

PhoreMost has announced the appointments of Catherine Beech to its board as a non-executive director and Benedict (Ben) Cross as senior director (technology) to direct the evolution and development of the company’s SiteSeeker screening platform. Beech has over 25 years of biotech and pharma industry experience. She is a scientific founder and CEO of Exonate. Cross joins PhoreMost from Horizon Discovery, where he established and led the company’s functional genomic screening platform.

Abalos Therapeutics (Essen, Germany) has named Klaus Binder chairman of the board and Dethardt Müller as chief technology officer. Binder was the founding CEO of Cevec Pharmaceuticals and served on the board of several companies, including Amaxa, Natrix Separations and Pfanstiehl. Müller joins Abalos from ViraTherapeutics, where he was head of CMC since 2016.

Sara Bonstein has been appointed chief financial officer of Insmed. She joins the company with more than 15 years of financial and operational experience in the life sciences industry, most recently serving as CFO and COO of OncoSec Medical. Previously, she was CFO, secretary, treasurer and executive vice president at Advaxis.

Passage Bio has announced the appointment of Bruce Goldsmith as CEO, succeeding Stephen Squinto, who cofounded Passage Bio and had served as interim CEO since 2018. Goldsmith joins Passage Bio from Deerfield Management, where he was a venture partner and served as interim CEO of Civetta Therapeutics. Previously, he was chief operating officer at Lycera.

Healx (Cambridge, UK) has named Anthony Hall as chief medical officer. Hall has over 25 years of experience in drug development, having served as CMO at Aparito and as therapeutic area head of orphan drugs at Mereo BioPharma. He is a cofounder of the rare-diseases patient group support charity Findacure.

CytomX Therapeutics has announced the appointment of Alison L. Hannah as senior vice president and chief medical officer. She brings 30 years of experience in the development of investigational cancer therapies, most recently serving as a consultant to nearly 30 pharma and biotech companies. Previously, Hannah held the role of senior medical director at Sugen.

Kenji Hashimoto has been named chief medical officer of Crescendo Biologics, succeeding Pavel Pisa, who has transitioned into the role of scientific adviser to the company. Hashimoto joins Crescendo with over 15 years of experience in oncology and immuno-oncology. He previously led the clinical development of a checkpoint inhibitor in renal cell carcinoma at Roche, with responsibility for late-phase clinical trials.

Nicola Heffron has been named senior vice president, Europe for bluebird bio. Formerly head of global marketing for Celgene’s myeloid portfolio, Heffron will aid the launch of bluebird’s first commercial product, its gene therapy Zynteglo. She succeeds Andrew Obenshain, who has joined the company’s global leadership team in Boston.

Decibel Therapeutics has announced the retirement of Steven Holtzman, who has served as president and CEO since July 2016. Succeeding him as acting CEO is industry veteran Laurence Reid, an entrepreneur-in-residence at Third Rock Ventures and formerly CEO of Warp Drive Bio. Holtzman will become a strategic business advisor to Decibel.

Moderna has announced the nomination of Sandra Horning to its board of directors. She has been nominated as a class II director and will serve as a member of the product development committee of the board. Horning most recently served as chief medical officer and head of global product development at Genentech/Roche. She is currently a cofounder and advisor for EQRx and serves on the board of directors of Gilead Sciences. In addition, Moderna has named Melanie Ivarsson as its chief development officer. Ivarsson joins Moderna from Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where she was vice president, head of global clinical operations. She has also served as senior director, head of clinical strategy and operations at Pfizer.

Sandra E. Poole has been appointed chief operating officer of Candel Therapeutics. She joins the company with over 25 years of global biopharma drug development and manufacturing operations experience, most recently serving as COO of LogicBio Therapeutics.

Ransi Somaratne has been named chief medical officer of Epirium Bio. He was most recently core team leader for BioMarin Pharmaceutical’s hemophilia A gene therapy program. Before that, he was global development lead for Repatha (evolocumab) at Amgen.