Dublin-headquartered biotechnology company Prothena has lined up Michael Isaacs as its next general counsel, succeeding Michael Malecek who is leaving the company.
Isaacs is currently deputy GC and will take up his new role in June when Malecek departs. In his new role, Isaacs will be responsible for overseeing the corporate legal department. Isaacs is based in the US.
Prothena is a late-stage clinical biotech company specialising in protein dysregulation and related neurodegenerative diseases.
At the same time as Isaacs’ promotion, the company also elevated vice president of corporate strategy Annie Kingston to chief strategy officer, taking over the remit from chief financial officer Tran Nguyen.
Gene Kinney, president and CEO of Prothena, said: “I look forward to continuing to work with Mike Isaacs in his new role leading our corporate legal functions. Having already made significant contributions to the company, both Annie and Mike are well positioned to step into their expanded roles.”
Issacs joined Prothena in 2020 as a corporate counsel and was promoted to deputy GC in 2023. He was previously a corporate associate at Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer.
Kinney added: “On behalf of our board and all Prothenians, I would like to thank Mike Malecek for his leadership over the past seven years, as well as his succession planning leading to the seamless transition to Mike Isaacs.”
Malecek joined Prothena as chief legal officer in 2019 from data and AI company Snowflake, where he was deputy GC. Like Isaacs, Malecek is an Arnold & Porter alumni, having practised there for more than seven years.
He was also previously a partner at defunct firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, chief advocacy counsel at legacy biotech company Affymetrix, an assistant US attorney in the Northern & Eastern Districts of California and an associate at Latham & Watkins.
In other recent in-house life sciences-related moves, in February South Korea gene-editing tech business ToolGen hired US litigator Dave Boncheun Koo as CLO amid a push to enforce its global patent rights.
Also in February, US drugmaker Viatris hired Matthew Maletta as CLO, replacing Brian Romano in the role.
And in December a trio of US life sciences companies appointed new legal heads – Sudo Biosciences, PepGen and Tonix Pharmaceuticals.
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