Welcome to this week’s Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word\u2014or the bad\u2014from your shop to Darren Incorvaia or Zoey Becker and it will be featured here at the end of each week.<\/p>\n
AstraZeneca adds FDA cell and gene veteran\u00a0<\/p>\n
AstraZeneca<\/p>\n
Lola Fashoyin-Aje, M.D.
\n (LinkedIn)<\/p>\n
Longtime FDA leader\u00a0Lola Fashoyin-Aje, M.D., is adapting to a new role at AstraZeneca as\u00a0vice president and head of cell therapy regulatory science and strategy. Fashoyin-Aje is well-positioned to help the British pharma giant in this field, given she spent nearly 12 years at the FDA, with her tenure culminating in directing the clinical evaluation of cell and gene therapies. Before her stint at the Office of Clinical Evaluation, Fashoyin-Aje served as an associate director in the Oncology Center of Excellence. She got her start at the agency as a reviewer of applications for new solid tumor medicines. After departing the FDA in March 2025, a period of intense turnover at the regulator, she spent eight months as a regulatory leader at CRO Parexel before swinging over to AZ\u2019s Maryland office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a pipeline spanning hematology, solid tumors, autoimmune, and rare diseases\u2013and both autologous and off-the-shelf approaches\u2013we’re building world-class regulatory capabilities to match the ambition and transformative potential of our cell therapy pipeline,\u201d Fashoyin-Aje wrote on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Corrixr founder passes baton to new CEO<\/p>\n Corrixr Therapeutics<\/p>\n Corrixr is flipping the page to a new chapter, welcoming a new CEO as it prepares to advance its lead squamous cell cancer asset through the clinic.\u00a0Hilary Malone, Ph.D., is taking the baton at Corrixr from founder\u00a0Eric Kmiec, Ph.D., who will stay on as chief scientific officer and remain \u201cactively engaged\u201d in the company\u2019s scientific direction. Malone brings more than 25 years of executive leadership experience to the table after most recently serving as the CEO of Stylus Medicine, following a tenure as CEO at Certego Therapeutics before that and several appointments at various global pharmas earlier in her career. The new CEO looks to build out Corrixr to be the \u201cdefining company in eliminating squamous cell cancers,\u201d pointing to the biotech\u2019s \u201crigorous preclinical foundation, a differentiated mechanism and a clear path to the clinic.\u201d\u00a0Release<\/a><\/p>\n Capricor brings in DMD veteran to lead commercial launch<\/p>\n Capricor Therapeutics<\/p>\n Capricor Therapeutics has named\u00a0Michael Maurer as chief commercial officer ahead of the company\u2019s potential launch of deramiocel, its investigational cell therapy for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The transformative cell and exosome-based biotech plans to leverage Maurer\u2019s decades of experience in disease commercialization, patient access and launch strategy.<\/p>\n Maurer previously held leadership roles at Amicus Therapeutics (now part of BioMarin), Sarepta Therapeutics and Bristol Myers Squibb and has led commercial initiatives for specialty medicines across neuromuscular disorders, neuroscience and immunology. While at Sarepta, he led the U.S. launch of Elevidys, an FDA-approved gene therapy for DMD and oversaw the commercial strategy for the company\u2019s RNA therapies.\u00a0Release<\/a><\/p>\n > Mass General Brigham preventive cardiologist\u00a0Pradeep Natarajan, M.D., will be joining Amgen in August to oversee cardiometabolic research and human genetics.\u00a0X<\/a><\/p>\n >\u00a0Cocrystal Pharma has a shiny new CEO in\u00a0James Sapirstein, who takes over for co-CEOs\u00a0Sam Lee and\u00a0Jim Martin, with Lee continuing as the company\u2019s president and transitioning to its chief scientific officer role, while Martin is moving forward as chief financial officer. Release<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n >\u00a0BeyondSpring is building up its leadership structure, tapping\u00a0Min Qiu as its new CEO while founder\u00a0Lan Huang, Ph.D., remains chairman but commits her time more fully to her co-founded SEED therapeutics.\u00a0Release<\/a><\/p>\n >\u00a0FundaMental Pharma has appointed\u00a0Hans Eriksson, M.D., Ph.D., chief medical officer, to lead the development of the company\u2019s preclinical treatment-resistant depression candidate.\u00a0Release<\/a><\/p>\n