Andrew Cheng has been appointed president and CEO of Cambridge, MA-based Akero Therapeutics. Cheng comes to Akero following a nearly 20-year career at Foster City, CA-based Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GILD]]), where he was most recently chief medical officer and executive vice president. Cheng will be based in San Francisco, which will be the location for Akero’s new headquarters. With Cheng’s appointment, Akero’s co-founder and former CEO Jonathan Young shifts to executive vice president and chief operating officer. Akero launched in June backed by $65 million in Series A financing. Lead drug AKR-001, an experimental treatment for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis that was licensed from Amgen (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMGN]]), is expected to start Phase 2 studies in mid-2019.
