Another big pharma exec jumps ship to join biotech minnow

In what is becoming a growing trend, another big pharma senior executive has left to take on a position with a growing biotechnology company, this time to the advantage of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Axcella Health and loss for Swiss giant Novartis (NOVN: VX).

Axcella today announced the appointment of William (Bill) Hinshaw as president and chief executive. Mr Hinshaw is a highly accomplished health care executive with nearly three decades of global pharmaceutical experience and was most recently executive vice president and head of US Oncology at Novartis.

“Bill joins Axcella’s leadership team at a key inflection point in the company’s strategic and clinical evolution with a proven track record of overseeing the successful clinical development and commercialization of numerous therapeutic franchises across multiple geographies,” said David Epstein, chairman of the Axcella board of directors and executive partner of Flagship Pioneering, who served as chief executive of Novartis Pharmaceuticals from 2010 to mid-2016 and worked with Mr Hinshaw.