BRIEF—New chief medical officer at Enthera Pharmaceuticals

Enthera Pharmaceuticals, a privately-held autoimmune disease specialist based in Milan, Italy, has appointed Antonio Speziale as chief medical officer.

Dr Speziale was formerly translational medicine leader at Galapagos, and has held senior management positions at Novartis, Shire and Genzyme, now part of Sanofi.

Enthera is developing first-in-class biologics based on the discovery of a novel apoptosis pathway, and the firm’s new CMO will help advance lead candidate Ent001 through proof-of-concept studies and into Phase I trials.

The company also wants to broaden its pipeline, using proceeds from the recent series A financing of 35 million euros ($40 million).