Versant Ventures has appointed Joe Vacca and Paul Sekhri to executive roles at Highline Therapeutics, the firm’s Manhattan-based biotech startup incubator. Vacca, a Merck veteran, has joined up as Highline’s chief scientific officer. Sekhri, currently the president and CEO of Lycera—which Celgene has an option to acquire—has been named an operating partner at Highline. The incubator has formed one startup so far, Kyras Therapeutics, though Versant said in a press release that “several additional seed programs” are under development.
Author: Ben Fidler
Ben is former Xconomy Deputy Editor, Biotechnology. He is a seasoned business journalist that comes to Xconomy after a nine-year stint at The Deal, where he covered corporate transactions in industries ranging from biotech to auto parts and gaming. Most recently, Ben was The Deal’s senior healthcare writer, focusing on acquisitions, venture financings, IPOs, partnerships and industry trends in the pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostics and med tech spaces. Ben wrote features on creative biotech financing models, analyses of middle market and large cap buyouts, spin-offs and restructurings, and enterprise pieces on legal issues such as pay-for-delay agreements and the Affordable Care Act. Before switching to the healthcare beat, Ben was The Deal's senior bankruptcy reporter, covering the restructurings of the Texas Rangers, Phoenix Coyotes, GM, Delphi, Trump Entertainment Resorts and Blockbuster, among others. Ben has a bachelor’s degree in English from Binghamton University.
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