LB Pharma, Celldex hire commercial heads as launch plans ramp up

LB Pharmaceuticals and Celldex have separately stepped up their respective launch preparations by appointing new chief commercial officers, according to a pair of announcements this week.

New York-based LB recently raised $285 million through an IPO. Having secured the money to fund a phase 3 schizophrenia trial, the biotech has now hired Kaya Pai Panandiker to oversee its commercial arrangements. The appointment allows LB to tap into the expertise of an executive with experience in laying the groundwork for the launches of brain disease drugs.

At Lundbeck, Pai Panandiker oversaw the U.S. launches of Rexulti, Trintellix and the bipolar indication for Abilify Maintena. Later, she worked as head of commercial at Cerevel Therapeutics and CCO at Neumora Therapeutics.

AbbVie struck a deal to buy Cerevel in December 2023, ending the biotech’s need to build out its own sales and marketing operation, and Neumora appointed Pai Panandiker as CCO the following month. At the time, Neumora was closing in on phase 3 depression data. The trial failed, tanking Neumora’s stock, and Pai Panandiker ultimately left Neumora earlier this year, 13 months after arriving.

As with her previous two appointments, Pai Panandiker has joined LB in the run-up to a potential launch. In its IPO filing this fall, LB said it currently lacked a commercial organization but planned to build out capabilities internally over time. Pai Panandiker’s appointment marks a key early step in that process.

Meanwhile, Celldex, too, has appointed a CCO of its own with an eye on a potential launch. Unlike LB, however, Celldex has been down this road before, having named Richard Wright CCO in 2015 in anticipation of the launch of its cancer vaccine Rintega. The cancer vaccine failed a phase 3 trial in 2016, though Wright stayed on as CCO.

Now, with Wright retiring, Celldex has named Teri Lawver CCO. Lawver spent 20 years at Johnson & Johnson, during which time she worked on Remicade, Stelara and Tremfya, before leaving to become CCO of medtech giant Dexcom in early 2023.

Celldex has hired Lawver ahead of the completion of phase 3 trials of barzolvolimab in a skin condition.

In February, the company said its commercial capabilities centered on giving market insights to its R&D team, but left the door open to building a full-scale organization for launching barzolvolimab. Celldex subsequently stepped up spending on commercial planning.