Julia P. Gregory has been named CEO of ContraFect Corp. after serving about six months as interim head of the biotechnology company in downtown Yonkers.
Gregory last November was named interim CEO after ContraFect”™s founder, Dr. Robert Nowinksi, left the company for medical reasons, according to a company announcement. She joined ContraFect, a developer of protein and antibody drugs to treat drug-resistant, life-threatening infections, in July 2012 as executive vice president and chief financial officer.
Gregory formerly was president and CEO of Five Prime Therapeutics Inc. in South San Francisco, Calif. Before joining Five Prime, she was executive vice president for corporate development and CFO of Lexicon Pharmaceuticals Inc. Â in The Woodlands, Texas. A ContraFect spokesperson said she has been involved in more than $1 billion of public and private financings and strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
Gregory also was named a ContraFect director. Also appointed to the company”™s board of directors were David N. Low Jr., an investment banker and managing director of the Lazard Life Sciences Group; Michael J. Otto, former chief scientific officer of Pharmaset; and Dr. Roger J. Pomerantz, an infectious diseases specialist and former senior vice president at Merck & Co.
ContraFect directors said Sir Richard Sykes resigned from the board.
