Management tracks: CuraSen names Vargas CMO; plus Sosei, Casebia

Neurodegenerative disease start-up CuraSen Therapeutics Inc. (San Mateo, Calif.) hired Gabriel Vargas as its first CMO. Vargas led early development of migraine prophylactic Aimovig erenumab at Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN), where he was most recently executive medical director of digital health and neuroscience therapeutic area head of early development. He is a volunteer associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco.

CuraSen debuted last month with a $54.5 million series A round led by New Leaf Venture Partners. The biotech is developing small molecules against undisclosed targets in monoamine receptor pathways to treat Orphan neurodegenerative diseases as well as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease (see "CuraSen's SPARK"). ...