COO Haviland to become new Blueprint CEO; Albers sliding to executive chair
Plus Galbraith succeeding Tehrani at Zymeworks and updates from Catalent, Bicycle, ADARx and more
Jeff Albers is handing off the president and CEO job at Blueprint Medicines Corp. (NASDAQ:BPMC) to COO Kate Haviland. Albers will become executive chairman as of April 4, a title he’ll hold through year-end, after which he will serve as chairman. Haviland, who joined the oncology company in 2016 as CBO and became COO in 2019, is joining the board. Chief Commercial Officer Christina Rossi is also getting a promotion; as COO, she will maintain her role leading global commercial strategy and operations, and add oversight of include portfolio strategy and program management, corporate development and corporate affairs.
Kenneth Galbraith will succeed Ali Tehrani as CEO of Vancouver’s Zymeworks Inc. (NYSE:ZYME; TSX:ZYME) on or before Feb. 1. Tehrani, a company co-founder who has served as president and CEO since Zymework’s inception in 2003, forged nine partnerships and guided the company’s HER2-targeted bispecific antibody zanidatamab into pivotal testing, will remain as an adviser to assist in the transition. Galbraith, who served on Zymeworks’ board in 2009-13, was executive-in-residence at Syncona Ltd. (LSE:SYNC), and previously was CEO of Liminal BioSciences Inc. (NASDAQ:LMNL), Prometic Life Sciences Inc. and Fairhaven Pharmaceuticals Inc. The company also promoted Neil Klompas, who becomes COO while remaining CFO. ...