Karuna Names Former Voyager, Lilly Exec Steven Paul New CEO

Former Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:VYGR]]) CEO Steven Paul has been tapped to run Boston-based Karuna Pharmaceuticals, a PureTech Health company that just raised $42 million this month. Karuna is developing a combination schizophrenia treatment that includes xanomeline, a drug it licensed from Eli Lilly (NYSE: [[ticker:LLY]]), where Paul was once head of R&D.

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.