Moderna’s Burton returns to Amgen

Paul Burton will return to Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) on June 26, this time to oversee the newly created chief medical office as CMO. Burton was CMO at Moderna Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA), before which he was chief global medical affairs officer at the Janssen Pharmaceuticals company of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ). He last worked for Amgen from 2002 to 2005, as global development leader, following the company’s merger with Immunex Corp.

Allogene Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:ALLO) fell $0.72 (13%) to $4.98 after the CAR T company announced the departure of CFO Eric Schmidt, one of Allogene’s earliest and most high-profile hires. Schmidt joined Allogene just two months after the biotech launched in April 2018 with rights to allogeneic CAR T programs from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and a $300 million series A round. Just four months after his arrival, Allogene added a further $372.6 million via one of the largest IPOs in 2018. But subsequent clinical data from its CAR T programs haven’t matched expectations, and the share price is down 72% from its IPO price. ...