Moderna Adds Takeda’s Melanie Ivarsson as Chief Development Officer

Moderna (NASDAQ: [[ticker:RNA]]) named Melanie Ivarsson as its chief development officer. Ivarsson was most recently vice president, head of clinical operations at Takeda Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: [[ticker:TAK]]). Her previous experience includes serving as senior director, head of clinical strategy and operations at Pfizer (NYSE: [[ticker:PFE]]), and roles within the early clinical development group at Eli Lilly (NYSE: [[ticker:LLY]]).

Cambridge, MA-based Moderna, which raised more than $600 million in the largest-ever biotech IPO in December 2018, is working to develop synthetic messenger RNA drugs that are intended to compel the body to produce disease-fighting proteins.

Author: Sarah de Crescenzo

Sarah is Xconomy's San Diego-based editor. Prior to joining the team in 2018, she wrote about startups, tech and finance at the San Diego Business Journal. Her decade of full-time news experience includes coverage of subjects including campaign finance, crime and courts as a reporter and editor at outlets throughout California, including the Orange County Register. She earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature at UC San Diego, where she wrote for the student newspaper and played collegiate lacrosse. In 2019, she earned an MBA at UC Irvine. View all posts by Sarah de Crescenzo