Genmab is revamping its executive team as the Danish antibody specialist expands its commercialization efforts and looks to evolve into “a fully integrated biotech innovation powerhouse.”
Genmab’s chief operating officer, Anthony Mancini, will leave Genmab to pursue other opportunities, the company said Friday.
Seemingly breaking up Mancini’s responsibilities, Genmab created two new C-level roles: chief technology officer and chief commercial officer.
For the technology position, Genmab brought on Amgen veteran Rayne Waller, who was most recently chief operating officer at Capsida Biotherapeutics. For the commercial job, Genmab elevated its U.S. general manager, Brad Bailey.
The shuffling comes as Genmab’s commercial portfolio recently grew to two products with the U.S. launch of AbbVie-partnered blood cancer bispecific antibody Epkinly last year. Bailey was hired in 2020 to establish Genmab’s commercial organization before the 2021 FDA approval for the cervical cancer antibody-drug conjugate Tivdak, which is partnered with Pfizer following its acquisition of Seagen.
As chief technology officer, Waller will lead all of Genmab’s manufacturing and supply chain capabilities from preclinical to commercial stages. Before Capsida, he had spent 27 years at Amgen in positions related to production, packaging, distribution, logistics and plant and supply chain management, according to Genmab.
Before Tivdak, Genmab had been relying solely on royalties and collaboration revenues from antibody drugs it out-licensed to other pharma companies, including most notably Johnson & Johnson’s blockbuster multiple myeloma drug Darzalex.
Thanks to good performance from those products, Genmab earlier this month dialed up its full-year 2024 projection, now expecting revenues to come in a range between 20.5 billion Danish kroner ($3 billion) to 21.7 billion Danish kroner ($3.2 billion), with increased expectations across royalties, collaboration milestone payments and net product sales.
While Genmab’s existing commercial assets are managed through collaborations, the regular Big Pharma partner is starting to fly solo elsewhere, and it’s building out a commercial infrastructure that can support products on its own.
The new appointments “strengthen our commitment to envision a bold future for our diverse and innovative mid- to late-stage clinical programs and pipeline that can impact the lives of as many patients as possible,” Genmab CEO Jan van de Winkel, Ph.D., said in a statement Friday.
“That’s the next phase, basically—to hold on to these molecules,” van de Winkel said in a March interview with Fierce Biotech.
Earlier this month, BioNTech ended its collaboration with Genmab on the latter’s PD-L1x4-1BB bispecific antibody acasunlimab, citing strategic portfolio prioritization. The termination leaves Genmab solely responsible for the development and commercialization of the candidate, which the company plans to advance into a phase 3 trial in second-line, PD-L1-positive non-small cell lung cancer this year.
In addition, GenMab earlier this year switched to the other side of the deal table, acquiring ProfoundBio for $1.8 billion and gained an FRα-targeted ADC called rinatabart sesutecan (Rina-S), a potential rival to AbbVie’s newly bought Elahere. A phase 3 trial for that drug in previously treated FRα-positive ovarian cancer is also planned for this year.