EQRx Strengthens Team with Industry Leaders in Drug Development, Patient Access and Organizational Culture
Biotech veterans appointed to key executive positions
Former CEO of NICE joins as advisor
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–EQRx, a biotech company committed to making innovative medicines at dramatically lower prices for the benefit of people and society, today announced four key executive appointments: Rona Anhalt, chief people officer; Christian Antoni, M.D., Ph.D., chief development officer; Eric Hedrick, M.D., chief physician executive; and Daniel Hoey, chief of technical operations. Sir Andrew Dillon, CBE, FMedSci, former chief executive of The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the national health technology assessor of the United Kingdom, joins as an EQRx advisor.
“Each new member of our leadership and advisory team brings deep domain expertise, as well as incredible passion for shifting the paradigm in drug development and delivery to patients,” said Melanie Nallicheri, president and chief operating officer of EQRx. “The breadth and depth of the team further strengthen EQRx’s opportunity for rapid growth and continued acceleration toward our mission of improving patient access to and significantly reducing costs of high-quality branded medicines.”
Ms. Anhalt has more than 20 years of experience scaling organizations for growth and building high-performing teams in life sciences. Prior to joining EQRx, she was corporate vice president of human resources at Celgene. Ms. Anhalt also spent 12 years aligning people and talent strategies to drive business performance and results at Novartis in positions of increasing responsibility, culminating as the vice president and global head of human resources for the cell and gene therapy unit. She holds a Master of Business Administration in finance from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in accounting and economics from Queens College.
Dr. Antoni joins EQRx from LEO Pharma, where he served as senior vice president of global development. Prior to LEO Pharma, Dr. Antoni established the immunology development function at Sanofi. There, he was responsible for the clinical development of both biologics and small molecules in multiple autoimmune diseases, leading successful approvals of dupilumab and sarilumab. In his previous role at Novartis, he led the secukinumab program from proof-of-concept through approval, which became the first anti-IL17 drug to be approved in multiple indications. Before joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Antoni established and led the clinical trial unit at Friedrich-Alexander University, where he was the lead investigator on all rheumatology development programs, including the first investigator-initiated trial, which led to the psoriatic arthritis indication for the first TNF-alpha inhibitor, infliximab. He completed his medical training and residency in internal medicine and rheumatology at Friedrich Alexander University, Germany.
Dr. Hedrick previously served as chief advisor to BeiGene and chief medical officer at both Epizyme and Pharmacyclics. In these roles, Dr. Hedrick was responsible for the clinical development of several first-in-class and best-in-class oncology drugs, including ibrutinib, zanubrutinib and tazemetostat. Previously, he spent nearly a decade at Genentech, focused on late-stage clinical development and clinical post-marketing programs for bevacizumab and rituximab. Before joining Genentech, Dr. Hedrick served as an attending physician on the hematology service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Hedrick served as president and chief resident of internal medicine at Boston City Hospital and was a fellow in medical oncology and hematology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University.
Mr. Hoey joins from Teva Pharmaceuticals, where he led global supply chain operations, driving the transformation of one of the industry’s largest and most complex global pharmaceutical supply chains focused on patient-centric healthcare solutions. Previously, Mr. Hoey led global manufacturing and supply chain for Teva API and Biologics, the largest active pharmaceutical ingredients manufacturing network in the industry. Prior to joining Teva in 2016, he held senior leadership roles for global operations at Merck, where he served in a variety of technical operations, supply chain and contract manufacturing roles during his 27 years there. Mr. Hoey earned a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Michigan State University. He is certified in applications of lean sigma process improvement in pharmaceutical operations.
Sir Andrew Dillon was the founding chief executive of NICE and served as its chief executive officer for 20 years. He was previously chief executive officer of two London teaching hospitals, The Royal Free and St. George’s.
ABOUT EQRx
EQRx is committed to making innovative medicines at dramatically lower prices for the benefit of people and society. By bringing together stakeholders from across the healthcare system and utilizing the latest advances in science and technology, the company seeks to discover, develop and deliver high-quality, patent-protected medicines more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company is backed by G.V., ARCH Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Casdin Capital, Section 32, Nextech and Arboretum Ventures. For additional information, visit www.eqrx.com and follow us on social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
EQRx™ and Remaking Medicine™ are trademarks of EQRx, Inc.
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Dan Budwick, 1AB
dan@1abmedia.com
