Magenta Therapeutics started the year losing its chief scientific officer when Michael Cooke hopped over to IFM Therapeutics. Now, the company has picked his successor: Lisa Olson, Ph.D., who previously led immunology discovery at AbbVie.
Over 15 years, Olson held various leadership roles at AbbVie’s bioresearch center, shepherding 15 molecules into the clinic, including the rheumatoid arthritis med Rinvoq.
Along with its new chief scientist, Magenta also hired Kevin Johnson, Ph.D., to lead its regulatory and quality unit. Johnson previously held similar roles at rare disease companies that spun out of Cydan: Imara, a sickle cell disease-focused biotech, and Vtesse, which worked on treatments for a form of Niemann-Pick disease.
RELATED: Magenta CSO Michael Cooke jumps to IFM Therapeutics
Having filled the CSO position, Magenta is now on the hunt for a new chief operating officer and chief financial officer as Jason Ryan steps down from the dual role.
“Jason has been a dynamic and reliable leader at Magenta since he joined us in 2019, leading finance and operations, contributing to our strategic planning efforts, and spearheading two financings during a period of significant growth,” Magenta CEO Jason Gardner said in a statement. “We are truly grateful for his contributions to the patients we seek to serve, our employees and business partners.”
The appointments come after several deals, including partnerships inked with gene therapy player Avrobio and base-editing biotech Beam Therapeutics around its lead conditioning program, MGTA-117.
RELATED: Avrobio taps Magenta’s ADC in ongoing quest to improve gene therapy conditioning
Conditioning is a necessary step for some gene therapies, but one that can cause side effects, like nausea, hair loss and mouth sores, or make patients more vulnerable to infection. Magenta is looking to improve on current methods with an antibody-drug conjugate.
MGTA0117 is made up of an anti-CD117 antibody linked to amanitin, a cell-killing toxin. It is designed to target only hematopoietic, or blood-forming, stem cells and progenitor cells. Animal studies suggest it could clear space in bone marrow for gene-modified stem cells to take root, Magenta said in the statement. The company plans to wrap IND-enabling studies for the antibody-drug conjugate this year.
