Personalized cancer immunotherapy company Gritstone Oncology (Emeryville, CA, USA) has announced the appointment of Jean-Marc Bellemin (right) as executive vice president of finance and CFO. Bellemin brings more than 23 years of international experience in finance and operations management within startup and global commercial pharmaceutical organizations. He was most recently senior vice president and CFO of Actelion Pharmaceuticals, leading the long-term strategic process for the finance, project management, information technology and market access functions at the company until its acquisition by Johnson & Johnson last year.

“With a significant Series B financing raised last September, Gritstone is well-capitalized and will benefit particularly from Jean-Marc's experience leading the finance function at Actelion USA,” said president and CEO Andrew Allen. “We are fortunate to have Jean-Marc join our team as we prepare for our lead personalized immunotherapy program to enter clinical development in 2018 and beyond.”

Nicholas Cross has been appointed non-executive director of digital drug technology company Aigenpulse (Oxford, UK). Cross was a cofounder of both Adaptimmune and Immunocore in 2008 and served the two as chairman for five years. He was previously non-executive director of Avidex.

ASLAN Pharmaceuticals (Singapore) has announced the appointment of Stephen Doyle as head of China, based at the company's offices in Shanghai. He was most recently Boehringer Ingelheim's vice president and head of specialty care for China.

Arcturus Therapeutics (San Diego) has announced the promotion of Christine Esau, senior director of translational research, to vice president of R&D. Esau joined Arcturus in 2015. She previously served as CSO of AptamiR Therapeutics. Concurrently, Pad Chivukula is stepping down as Arcturus' CSO and COO and will serve as a scientific advisor to the company.

Tony Gibney has been appointed to the board of directors of InflaRx (Jena, Germany). A life-sciences-focused investment banker for 23 years, Gibney most recently served as a managing director and co-head of the biotech investment team for Leerink Partners.

CANbridge Life Sciences (Beijing) has announced the appointment of 40-year industry veteran Michael Glynn to the company's advisory team. Glynn was most recently senior vice president, global commercial operations for Synageva BioPharm.

Aradigm (Hayward, CA, USA) has announced the resignation of CEO Igor Gonda, chief medical officer Juergen Froehlich and CFO Nancy Pecota in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a complete response letter for Aradigm's Linhaliq recommending the company run a two-year phase 3 trial before it can refile for approval. The letter came after an FDA advisory committee voted 12–3 against Linhaliq. Aradigm's board has appointed acting chairman John Siebert as executive chairman and interim principal executive officer.

Selvita (Kraków, Poland) has announced the appointment of Steffen Heeger to the role of chief medical officer. Prior to joining Selvita, Heeger served as vice president, head of clinical development and head of clinical operations at Morphosys. Previously, he was head of medical affairs at Merck Serono, leading the global clinical development team for Erbitux (cetuximab).

Axovant Sciences (Basel, Switzerland) has announced that David Hung has resigned as CEO and director to pursue other opportunities. In addition, directors Kate Falberg, Tony Vernon, and Patrick Machado have resigned as members of the company's board of directors. Pavan Cheruvu has joined Axovant as CEO, and Roger Jeffs and George Bickerstaff have joined its board of directors. Cheruvu has held roles of increasing responsibility at Axovant's parent company Roivant since 2015 and was appointed to the Roivant executive leadership team in 2017.

Chrono Therapeutics (Hayward, CA, USA) has announced the retirement of Alan Levy as CEO and chairman of the board of directors. David A. Happel has been appointed CEO, and current board member James Young will assume the role of chairman. Happel joins Chrono from Horizon Pharma, where he was executive vice president of commercial development and strategy. Levy will continue to serve as a member of the board.

Bill Lundberg is stepping down as CSO of CRISPR Therapeutics (Zug, Switzerland, and Cambridge, MA, USA). Going forward, Lundberg will serve as a senior advisor and head of the company's scientific advisory board.

Marion McCourt has been appointed senior vice president and head of commercial at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (Tarrytown, NY, USA). She has more than two decades of broad experience in biopharma management, beginning her career with AstraZeneca where she held positions of increasing responsibility over 12 years, ultimately becoming COO for AstraZeneca US. More recently, McCourt served as COO of Medivation until its acquisition by Pfizer, and as president and COO of Axovant.

The Vilcek Foundation has named Alexander Rudensky winner of the 2018 Vilcek Prize in Biomedical Science, which recognizes immigrants who have had a significant impact on biomedical research in the United States. The Russian-born Rudensky, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and chair of the Ludwig Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was honored for a wide array of findings around regulatory T cells. The Vilcek Prize includes a $100,000 cash award.

Agbiotech company Cibus (San Diego) has named Noel Sauer (right) vice president of research. Sauer, who founded Cibus' technology development team, previously served as the company's director of technology.