Oxford spinout MiroBio adds Keswani as CMO, promotes Murray to CSO

U.K. autoimmune disease company MiroBio Ltd. hired Sanjay Keswani as CMO and Lynne Murray as CSO. Keswani was EVP and CMO at Annexon Inc. (NASDAQ:ANNX), and SVP and global head of neuroscience, ophthalmology and rare diseases research and early development at Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY). Murray joined MiroBio as SVP of R&D in October 2020, before which she was head of regeneration at AstraZeneca plc (LSE:AZN; NASDAQ:AZN). MiroBio, a University of Oxford spinout, launched in 2019 with a £27 million ($33.2 million) series A round led by Oxford Sciences Innovation and Samsara Biocapital to develop antibody modulators of immune cell receptors. MiroBio’s lead candidate MB272, a BTLA agonist, will enter the clinic this year.

Centessa Pharmaceuticals plc (NASDAQ:CNTA) elevated CMO Antoine Yver to the newly created role of EVP and chairman of development. Yver joined Centessa last May and will be succeeded as CMO by Javad Shahidi, who joins the company from Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. (Tokyo:4568) where he was VP of global R&D. Medicxi-backed Centessa launched a year ago with a 13-program pipeline to bring greater efficiencies to the conversion of ideas to products. ...