Pharma veteran Jackie Fouse is leaving a SoftBank-backed biotech founded by a 33-year-old to run a cancer drugmaker
- Pharma veteran Jackie Fouse is leaving her role as executive chairman at Dermavant, a company founded by Vivek Ramaswamy, to join cancer drugmaker Agios Pharmaceuticals as CEO.
- Before Dermavant, Fouse was president of biotech giant Celgene.
- It's the second major executive departure for Roivant Sciences' portfolio of companies.
- Current Agios CEO David Schenkein will move into the executive chairman role in February 2019.
Another top executive is leaving a biotech that's part of Roivant Sciences, the company founded by 33-year-old former hedge fund manager Vivek Ramswamy.
Pharma veteran Jackie Fouse, currently the executive chairman of Roviant subsidiary Dermavant, will become CEO of cancer drug company Agios Pharmaceuticals in February 2019, the drugmaker said on Tuesday.
Fouse, who worked with Agios during her time at Celgene and as a board member, came into the role after other board members asked if she'd be willing to be considered as a potential candidate to replace current Agios CEO David Schenkein.
After serving as Celgene's president, Fouse joined Dermavant, a dermatology company that's part of the Roivant Sciences umbrella, in July 2017. The goal of Roivant is to spot and develop drugs that other pharmaceutical companies have ditched.
Roivant raised $1.1 billion in 2017 in a round led by SoftBank's Vision Fund, and has so far launched 12 subsidiary companies. Those include neurodegenerative disease drug developer Axovant, women's health company Myovant, and urology company Urovant.
Fouse is now the second major executive to leave a Roivant company. In February, former Medivation CEO David Hung left his post as chief executive of Axovant. Hung had been at Axovant for only 10 months, during which time its lead Alzheimer's drug failed a key clinical trial. Axovant has since discontinued that drug program and pivoted to developing a gene therapy for Parkinson's disease.
In June, Roivant also went through a restructuring that included a 10% cut to its staff.
Agios Pharmaceuticals is a cancer drugmaker that has two approved treatments for acute myeloid leukemia. The two drugs work to starve out cancer cells, targeting something known as cancer cell metabolism.
Schenkein will move to an executive chairman position following Fouse's appointment.
See also:
- The CEO of a biotech founded by a 32-year old is stepping down after 10 months - and the stock is crashing
- The FDA just approved a new cancer drug that's part of a groundbreaking approach to tackling the disease