Welcome to this week’s Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of significant leadership hirings, firings and retirings across the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Darren Incorvaia or Zoey Becker and it will be featured here at the end of each week.
Sanofi’s stunning CEO switch
Sanofi
Sanofi is replacing CEO Paul Hudson with Merck KGaA leader Belén Garijo, M.D., Ph.D., after a series of R&D setbacks at the French pharma. Hudson will end his six-year run at Sanofi’s helm Feb. 17, at which point Olivier Charmeil, executive vice president of general medicines, will step in as interim CEO until Garijo arrives April 29. Sanofi has struggled during Hudson’s tenure, with the ousted CEO himself acknowledging the Big Pharma has “had some challenges” on an earnings call with journalists late last month.
Garijo had a prior stint at Sanofi, during which she led the integration of Genzyme, before leaving to join Merck KGaA in 2011. She became Merck’s CEO in 2021. The initial reaction to the CEO change was “very negative,” analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note to clients. The French pharma’s stock was trading down nearly 5% in premarket trading Thursday. Story
CSL drops CEO amid plummeting profits
CSL
CSL is looking to turn its sales struggles around without the help of three-year CEO Paul McKenzie, Ph.D. The leader’s abrupt retirement was disclosed the day before the company unveiled its recent financial results Wednesday, citing a mutual determination that “now is the right time for new leadership,” former CEO and Board Chairman Brian McNamee said. McNamee further explained that the board came to the conclusion that McKenzie “didn’t have the skills that we wanted for the future,” he said in a call with analysts, as quoted by Bloomberg.
McKenzie came to CSL from Biogen in 2019, serving first as chief operating officer before his promotion to CEO in 2023, which came a few weeks after CSL’s landmark FDA approval for hemophilia B gene therapy Hemgenix. As CSL searches for a permanent successor, it has placed longtime company veteran Gordon Naylor in the interim CEO seat. Naylor has been with CSL for 33 years in various executive positions and looks to help the company recover from financial declines that saw its net profit sink from $2 billion in the second half of 2024 to $384 million over the same period in 2025, which was attributed to restructuring write-offs and other factors. Story | Story
Helus appoints new CEO in ‘pivotal moment’
Helus Pharma
After last year’s rebrand from Cybin to Helus Pharma, the Toronto-based clinical stage pharmaceutical company, focused on psilocybin treatment, has named Michael Cola as CEO. The leadership change follows a switch from the NYSE to the Nasdaq Global Market, where Helus’ stock has lost a quarter of its value between Jan. 14 and Feb. 12. Cola brings 30 years of experience in neuroscience, rare disease and specialty pharmaceuticals and was most recently CEO of Avalo Therapeutics, where he led a transition to rare disease and genomic medicine.
Previously, Cola was president of the specialty pharmaceutical business at Shire (acquired by Takeda) when ADHD blockbuster Vyvanse helped grow Shire from $5 billion to $20 billion in market capitalization. Helus called the leadership shift a “pivotal moment” as the company looks to advance its pipeline of mental health therapies. Release
> Artificial intelligence biotech Insilico Medicine is taking in a longtime Bristol Myers Squibb vet, Halle Zhang, Ph.D., as vice president of oncology clinical development. Release
> Toby Ferguson, M.D., Ph.D.’s journey as chief medical officer at Voyager Therapeutics has come to an end, with CEO Alfred Sandrock Jr., M.D., Ph.D., to oversee clinical development in the interim. Filing
> NervGen Pharma has chosen Adam Rogers, M.D., as its next president and CEO to guide development of therapies meant to repair spinal cord injuries. Release
> AbbVie SVP Jag Dosanjh has pivoted from the Big Pharma’s neuroscience and eye care team to lead the immunology portfolio. LinkedIn
> Cell therapy outfit In8bio is granting Chief Operating Officer Kate Rochlin, Ph.D., the additional role of president, effective immediately. Release
> ImageneBio is picturing a new chief medical officer in Ben Porter-Brown, M.D., who brings expertise in the OX40 receptor-ligand inhibition field in which the biotech is working. Release
> Aardvark Therapeutics is rolling out a new U.S.-based subsidiary called Ardia Therapeutics, shuffling its chief operating officer Bryan Jones, Ph.D., to the new unit as its CEO. Release
> Pediatric skeletal disease stem cell therapy maker Boost Pharma is uplifting its leadership by naming board member Hans Schambye, M.D., Ph.D., as its CEO. Release
> Protein-degradation-focused Arvinas has promoted Chief Business Officer Randy Teel, Ph.D., to the president and CEO seat. Release
> London-based corneal pain company Okyo Pharma has named former Dompé strategy chief Flavio Mantelli, M.D., Ph.D., as its new chief medical officer. Release
> Veit Bergendahl, Ph.D., will be the chief operating officer of German CDMO Rentschler Biopharma as of April 1, after previously serving as head of clinical supply biologicals at German pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim. Release
> Commercial-stage Secura Bio’s chief financial officer Will Brown will be doing double duty, as the New Jersey company announced that he will take on the chief operating officer role. Release