scPharmaceuticals said in late April that it named pharma-veteran John Tucker as president & CEO, effective immediately. Tucker was also elected to the company’s board of directors.
Tucker formerly served as CEO of Alcresta, where he led regulatory and financing strategies for the company’s 1st product approval and launch. He also worked as Incline Therapeutics’ senior VP and chief commercial officer. His commercial strategy for the company’s lead product helped support the $390 million purchase of Incline by The Medicines Company.
“John has both the strong leadership skills and the business expertise required to successfully position scPharmaceuticals as a leading biopharmaceutical company,” scPharmaceuticals board member Jack Khattar said in prepared remarks. “John’s experience building commercial ready infrastructures in both private and public companies, as well as developing new markets, will be enormously beneficial to scPharmaceuticals as we advance our lead program and continue the transition from a research and development company to a commercial-stage organization.”
“I am very honored and excited to join scPharmaceuticals, a growing biopharmaceutical company. We have a tremendous opportunity to reduce the burden to the patient while meaningfully reducing the cost of care in the management of heart failure and infectious disease through innovative subcutaneous drug delivery,” Tucker added. “scPharmaceuticals’ lead investigational drug product – proprietary subcutaneous furosemide, enabled by the patented sc2Wear Infusor – has been developed to facilitate convenient patient care while reducing overall costs to the healthcare system.”
In January, scPharmaceuticals closed a $45.6 million Series B round co-led by OrbiMed and a subsidiary of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries. Other investors included 5AM Ventures and Lundbeckfond Ventures.
The investment will be used to support the development of the operational and commercial infrastructure needed to bring Furoscix and the sc2Wear Infusor to market in the U.S., the company said.
Condurso takes corner office at Cohero Health
Cohero Health named Joe Condurso as its CEO in April. He formerly served as VP of leading strategy, innovation and business development at CareFusion and CEO of PatientSafe Solutions.
“We are pleased to welcome Joe to the talented team at Cohero Health,” co-founder & president Melissa Manice said. “We all share a deep passion for the use of technology to improve health care and patient quality of life, and I look forward to working with Joe to advance Cohero’s leadership position and strategic direction.”
“Cohero’s suite of interactive, tech-enabled solutions are already having a positive impact on the health of people with respiratory disease improving patient engagement, treatment compliance and medication adherence,” Condurso added. “I look forward to working with the board and team of people at Cohero whose intellectual curiosity defines the transformative culture that is leading the way in respiratory disease management.”
Ophthotech (NSDQ:OPHT) said that co-founder, CEO and chairman Dr. David Guyer will become the company’s executive chairman on July 1, 2017. Glenn Sblendorio, the company’s president & chief financial officer, is slated to take the corner office and retain his role as president. David Carroll, the senior VP of finance, was promoted to cheif financial officer and treasurer, effective immediately.
“I have confidence that under Glenn’s leadership as CEO the Company will continue to execute on our plan to achieve the best results for shareholders in the near and long term,” Guyer said. “I look forward to continuing to work closely with Glenn and the management team as the executive chairman of the company.”
“As the Company continues to review strategic alternatives and actively explores potentially obtaining rights to additional products, product candidates and technologies to treat ophthalmic diseases, particularly those of the back of the eye, David Guyer’s extensive expertise and experience brings a wealth of ophthalmology knowledge that is critical as we execute a strategy to maximize shareholder value,” Sblendorio added. “In this newly created role of executive chairman, I look forward to David’s continued guidance and contributions to Ophthotech. Additionally, I look forward to working closely with Dave Carroll in his new position as chief financial officer and to his continued contributions to the company.”
Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE:TEVA) said that its chief financial officer and group exec VP, Eyal Desheh, will step down in the coming months. The move comes just months after the company’s chief executive left.
“Eyal has helped Teva grow into a leading global pharmaceutical company. The management team and I would like to thank Eyal for his many contributions, as well as his continued support during the transition,” interim president & CEO Yitzhak Peterburg said.
“My highest priority is to identify and appoint Teva’s next chief executive officer,” chairman Sol J. Barer added. “We expect the company’s new CEO to have a significant role in identifying Eyal’s successor.”
Frequency promotes Manchanda to chief development officer, names new executive
Frequency Therapeutics said it promoted Raj Manchanda to chief development officer and named Steven Dworetzy as senior VP of molecular and cell biology.
“Frequency continues to rapidly advance our Progenitor Cell Activation platform with a lead program addressing hearing loss. I am very pleased to have a proven scientist and businessman like Steven lead the Frequency team in our Farmington, CT location,” president, CEO and co-founder David Lucchino said. “I am also honored to announce the well-deserved promotion of Raj to chief development officer. Raj’s leadership has been critical in transforming Frequency to a highly efficient development stage organization since joining us from Biogen.”
Manchanda formerly served as senior VP of pharmaceutical development and technical operations at Frequency.
“Frequency’s PCA platform presents outstanding opportunities for the development of new medicines in indications with high unmet medical needs,” Dworetzky said. “I look forward to lending my experience and expertise to continue the work started by Bob Langer and Jeff Karp, and bolstering the Company goals in driving the next wave of regenerative medicine.”
