Slone Partners Finds CEO for Epic Sciences
April 18, 2019 – Executive search firm Slone Partners has placed Lloyd Sanders as the new CEO of Epic Sciences in San Diego, CA. He replaces Murali Prahalad, who stepped down after six years at the helm to pursue new opportunities. Dr. Prahalad has been appointed to Epic’s board of directors. Leslie Loveless, partner and CEO, led the search along with Kim Wilson, VP of executive search.
“In the rapidly escalating and competitive landscape of precision medicine, Epic Sciences required their new CEO to have substantial depth and breadth of oncology industry experience,” said Tara Kochis-Stach, president of Slone Partners. “Lloyd is a mission-driven leader who will thrive in Epic Sciences’ high-intensity culture that is collaborative, creative and entrepreneurial.”
“As Murali continues to advise the company in his role as a director, we welcome Lloyd to the team to capitalize on our solid foundation,” said Gregory T. Lucier, chairman of Epic Sciences. “The trajectory has been set for significant commercial growth through Epic’s portfolio of high-value liquid biopsy tests and expansion into breast cancer, immuno-oncology and global markets. Lloyd and the leadership team, board, investors and Epic employees are highly motivated to take Epic to the next level.”
Mr. Sanders previously served as president of the oncology segment of the molecular diagnostics company Myriad Genetics, overseeing the oncology, urology and dermatology commercial organizations. In that position, he was responsible for the sales, marketing, medical affairs, customer service and laboratory operations for numerous market-leading commercial products. Before that, Mr. Sanders served as COO at Dey Pharma, a division of Mylan, overseeing sales, marketing and medical affairs, including the EpiPen flagship brand. Earlier in his career, he held several leadership positions at Sanofi-Synthelabo, subsequently Sanofi-Aventis, where he led the restructuring and integration of the two companies’ sales forces.
Develops Novel Diagnostics
Epic Sciences develops novel diagnostics to improve and personalize the treatment and management of cancer with a mission to extend patient lives. The company’s focus is to offer greater certainty for doctors to make correct decisions for patients at pivotal points in treating cancer and to rapidly pivot away from therapies that are no longer clinically effective. Currently working with 65 top pharmaceutical partners and 45 academic cancer hospitals, including the National Cancer Institute, Epic Sciences technology is being used in over 200 clinical trials and has tested over 10,000 patient samples.
Shifting Needs in Life Sciences Attract Non-Traditional Talent
To keep up with the mind-bending changes that are coursing through the life sciences sector, recruiters who specialize in this area are keeping an open mind to new possibilities in their own work.
As Leslie Loveless, CEO of Slone Partners explains, the life sciences industry has become increasingly consumer-centric, opening the door for recruiting more talent from outside the field. In addition, exciting progress in areas like gene-editing, and the promise it holds, has piqued the interest of many executives who in the past would have given the sciences a wide berth. An entrepreneurial spirit permeates much of the industry, and that has also attracted non-traditional talent.
In his new role, Mr. Sanders is responsible for all strategic and business aspects of the oncological diagnostics company. “Epic has established an impressive position in the prostate cancer liquid biopsy market and I am eager to work with the team to advance the mission of providing very powerful predictive, actionable information to physicians and patients that can extend lives,” he said. “By expanding the breadth and depth of Epic’s portfolio of reimbursed products, and building our thriving biopharma solutions business that supports our pharmaceutical partners’ development of next-generation immunotherapies and targeted cancer agents, we can play an important role in changing cancer from a lethal to a chronic, manageable disease.”
Slone Partners is a nationally recognized senior-level recruitment provider that specializes in delivering executive, management and leadership talent for the diagnostic, biopharmaceutical, healthcare information technology and laboratory testing industries. The firm has offices in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Recently, Slone Partners was included among Hunt Scanlon Media’s “Top 50 Healthcare & Life Sciences Search Firms.”
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
