People Spotlight — April 2022

Novartis has appointed Aharon Gal, PhD, as its chief strategy & growth officer, effective no later than Aug. 1, 2022. Dr. Gal will lead the newly created strategy & growth function that combines corporate strategy, R&D portfolio strategy, and business development. He joins Novartis from Sanford Bernstein where he is the senior analyst covering the US biopharma industry. Dr. Gal also brings over 20 years of life-sciences industry experience including financial research and analytics, management consulting and business development.

Jorge Gomez will be joining Moderna as CFO, effective May 9, 2022. He will serve on Moderna's executive committee and report to CEO Stéphane Bancel. Gomez joins Moderna from dental equipment manufacturer Dentsply Sirona, Inc., where he served as executive vice president and CFO since August 2019. At Dentsply Sirona, he was responsible for leading the global finance organization, including strategic finance, financial planning and analsis, accounting, treasury, tax, corporate audit and investor relations, and the information technology function.

David M. Denton will be joining Pfizer as CFO and executive vice president, effective May 2, 2022. Denton will be a member of Pfizer’s executive leadership team reporting to chairman and CEO, Albert Bourla. He joins Pfizer from Lowe’s Companies, Inc., where he served as CFO and executive vice president.

Reena K. Patel. Credit: Blue Fin Group

Blue Fin Group, a full-service management consulting firm to the pharma industry, has promoted Reena K. Patel to partner. Patel joined Blue Fin Group in 2011 as principal consultant, and has advised pharma manufacturers extensively across the entire commercialization spectrum, primarily focusing on product commercialization launches and strategy development, market access, gross-to-net optimization, government pricing and public policy, and channel and patient services. In her new role, she will have direct client oversight and responsibility and will lead several corporate responsibilities.

Elemica, a digital supply chain network, has appointed Sam Addeo as their CTO, effective as of April 4, 2022. Addeo will be responsible for overseeing the continued development of Elemica’s solutions to ensure that Elemica stays on the cutting edge of digital supply chain technologies.

Syneos Health, a biopharma clinical and commercial solutions organization, has promoted two senior internal leaders: Baba Shetty to president, technology and data solutions, and Suma Ramadas to executive vice president, medical affairs. As president, technology and data solutions, Shetty will be a member of the executive team, responsible for developing customer-facing technologies, including AI-based tools and advanced data solutions, to solve critical business challenges. As executive vice president, medical affairs, Ramadas will lead the creation and delivery of a medical affairs solution that connects the organization’s high-value capabilities across the product lifecycle, from development through commercialization.

Koby R. Kreinbring, JD. Credit: CSafe Global

Citius Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a late-stage biopharma company that focuses on oncology, anti-infective products in adjunct cancer care, prescription products, and stem cell therapies, announced that the board of directors has approved management changes to strengthen the company's commercial capabilities. Specifically, Leonard Mazur, Citius co-founder and executive chairman, has been named CEO and chairman, while CFO Jaime Bartushak will assume additional responsibilities as chief business officer. Also, the board has appointed Myron Holubiak, Citius co-founder, to the newly created position of executive vice chairman, with responsibility for building the Citius commercial team and guiding the product launches of the company's first commercial products.

CSafe Global, a provider of powered, temperature-controlled air-freight containers for pharmaceuticals, announced that Koby R. Kreinbring, JD, has joined the company as general counsel. In his new general counsel role and as a member of CSafe Global’s senior leadership team, Kreinbring will be responsible for legal governance across the organization and ensuring CSafe’s interests are protected.

Bayer announced Tara Frenkl, MD, MPH, as the new head of oncology development at its oncology strategic business unit, effective April 25, 2022. She will report to Christine Roth, head of the oncology strategic business unit at the company’s pharmaceuticals division. Prior to joining Bayer, Dr. Frenkl was the senior vice president, head of medicine development leaders in oncology at GlaxoSmithKline, with strategic impact on the global development of medicines across the company’s oncology portfolio.

Rho, a global full-service contract research organization (CRO) working in drug development, has appointed Mamta Hunt, PhD, as vice president of global quality assurance. A 35+ year industry veteran, Dr. Hunt brings experience from several international pharma and biotech companies. Her previous roles have covered all stages of biomedical product research and development.