Barr to succeed Baynes at Merck
After spearheading Keytruda’s development, next challenge for the pharma CMO will come at Eikon; plus updates from Mammoth, OraSure, Strata and Acacia
Roy Baynes, longtime head of global clinical development and CMO of Merck Research Laboratories, is retiring from Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) in July, when he will become EVP and CMO of Eikon Therapeutics Inc. Baynes is best known for spearheading the development of Keytruda pembrolizumab, which gained its thirty-fifth U.S. approval on Monday when FDA approved the PD-1 inhibitor for advanced endometrial carcinoma that is microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR). Baynes will be succeeded at Merck by SVP, Global Clinical Development Eliav Barr, who has been with the company since 2006 in roles of escalating responsibility in oncology, vaccine, and infectious diseases.
Founded in 2020, Eikon aims to industrialize technology developed by Eric Betzig and collaborators who won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their innovations in fluorescence microscopy that enable the visualization of protein movements. It raised a $517.8 million series B round in January, with plans to double in size and rapidly scale operations. Baynes will assume responsibility for building Eikon’s clinical R&D team and serve as the site leader for a new facility on the eastern seaboard. The company’s CEO, Roger Perlmutter, and General Counsel & CBO Ben Thorner, are former Merck executives. ...