Cindy Perettie, Foundation Medicine, and Pearl Huang, Cygnal Therapeutics
Two Roche veterans moved onto new pastures this month, but both were in different circumstances: Cindy Perettie (left) becomes CEO of Foundation Medicine, which Roche recently bought out for $2.4bn (€2.1bn), while Pearl Huang (right) leaves the company entirely to become CEO at Cygnal Therapeutics.
Huang joins a very early-stage biotech, one that was only founded in 2017. She will enter this position from her previous role as head of therapeutic modalities at Roche – a role she held for close to four years. She will be able to draw on experience working at GSK, at Beigene Bio, which she founded, and at MSD.
“Cygnal has uncovered what promises to be a new hallmark of cancer and immunological control and is arguably the first biotechnology company broadly tackling this space,” said Avak Kahvejian, founding CEO of Cygnal and partner at Flagship Pioneering.
He continued, “With Pearl on board, Cygnal is now poised to exploit its knowledge of this new biology through the design, manufacture, testing, and distribution of multiple novel candidate therapeutics.”
While Cindy Perettie leaves her position as Roche’s SVP of global product strategy in oncology to take the reins at Foundation Medicine. The company was founded to profile patient genomes to provide patient-specific treatments. The work at Foundation Medicine is able to identify therapies that directly target the molecular alterations that occur in a patient’s cancer.
Troy Cox will step down as CEO of the company to make way for Perettie. He will transition out of the role in the capacity as an advisor to her. He said, “I look forward to collaborating with her and the senior management team in transitioning the chief executive officer role, as we together work toward supporting the company’s mission. My time at Foundation Medicine has been one of the most rewarding of my career.”
