Blank slate at BioMarin for Sabry as dealmaker gets back to biotech

After paring back its pipeline to a single clinical product and a handful of preclinical therapies, BioMarin is nearly a blank canvas for veteran dealmaker James Sabry — and is sitting on more than $1 billion in cash. Sabry, who is making his return to biotech after 14 years at Roche and its Genentech unit, is joined on the San Francisco Bay Area rare disease company’s executive team by Amgen alum Greg Friberg, newly hired to lead R&D.

The additions are the latest moves in the C-suite makeover at 27-year-old BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ:BMRN), which picked fellow Genentech alum Alex Hardy to succeed Jean-Jacques Bienaimé when the longtime CEO retired late last year. Richard Meier took over from Bienaimé as chairman. ...