Centessa Pharmaceuticals has appointed Antoine Yver, MD, MSc, as an Executive Vice President and Chairman of Development.
In this newly created role reporting to the CEO, Dr. Yver will be accountable for the company’s overall development strategy, including scientific, clinical and regulatory matters, and will continue to provide support to research and clinical development teams, Centessa said in its press release.
As a result of Dr. Yver taking on this elevated role, Javad Shahidi, MD, MSc, has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer reporting to the CEO. Dr. Shahidi will oversee the clinical development teams and will be directly responsible for the overall design, delivery and management of clinical development, regulatory and medical affairs across Centessa.
“We continue to add exceptional talent to our team as we plan several registrational trials and have multiple assets entering the clinic,” said Saurabh Saha, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Centessa. “Javad’s proven track-record of rapidly scaling and delivering highly innovative and impactful clinical development programs in a short period of time will be a significant advantage to us as we progress our portfolio over the next several years.”
“I look forward to working with Javad again as we continue to grow Centessa with this incredible portfolio of assets and come closer to bringing impactful new medicines to patients,” said Dr. Yver.
Dr. Shahidi added, “I am thrilled to be joining Centessa with its unique asset-centric model and working with Saurabh, Antoine, and the entire team of experienced drug developers, subject matter experts and industry leaders. I am excited by this opportunity to advance the many innovative oncology and rare disease programs at Centessa.”
Dr. Shahidi brings significant industry experience, most recently as Vice President – Global R&D at Daiichi Sankyo, where he led the development of ENHERTU, one of the largest development programs in oncology, and served as the Chair of the Joint Leadership Team of the ENHERTU AstraZeneca/Daiichi Sankyo collaboration. Over the past decade, he has had increasing responsibilities in clinical development. Prior to joining Daiichi Sankyo in 2017, Dr. Shahidi was the Global Medical Lead at Eli Lilly and Company, leading the clinical development of ALIMTA and PORTRAZZA. Dr. Shahidi received his MD from Beheshti Medical University in Tehran, an MSc in Experimental Medicine from McGill University, and a graduate diploma in clinical research from McGill University, the company said.