First chief diversity officer for Alexion; plus changes at WuXi, Dicerna, Valneva, MeiraGTx, Anika and more

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN) appointed Uzair Qadeer as its first chief diversity officer. Previously, he served the rare diseases company as VP, head of enterprise partnership. His appointment comes as BIO rolls out its BIOEquality agenda, which has initiatives ranging from diversifying the biotech workforce to ensuring that clinical trials reflect the societies they serve (see “BIO Challenging its Members to Walk the Talk on Social Justice”).

Jian Dong is leaving his post at WuXi Biologics Inc. (HKEX:2269) to become CEO of WuXi Vaccines, the company’s JV with Shanghai Hile Bio-Technology Co. Ltd. (Shanghai:603718). Dong was SVP, global biomanufacturing and site head of WuXi Biologics. The vaccines JV is building a manufacturing facility in Ireland, which it says will be operational in 2021. ...