Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. announced the appointment of James Hassard to the newly-created position of chief commercial officer. Mr. Hassard will be responsible for driving commercial strategy and building the team and sales and marketing infrastructure necessary to support Arrowhead’s growing pipeline of investigational RNAi therapeutics. He has 25 years of commercial-related experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Mr. Hassard served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Market Access at Coherus BioSciences since 2016, where he was instrumental in building the commercial organization and commercial capabilities. He co-led the launch of Coherus’ first product, a biosimilar, pegfilgrastim; one of the most successful pharmaceutical launches of 2019. Prior to his tenure at Coherus, he served as Vice President of Marketing at Medivation, prior to and through its acquisition by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. From 1999 to 2016, he held multiple increasingly senior commercial roles at Amgen, Inc., across sales and marketing, domestic and international, including an assignment as General Manager of Amgen Portugal. He was responsible for the launch, growth, and subsequent life-cycle management of several oncology and nephrology products, including darbepoetin alfa and cinacalcet. Prior to his time at Amgen, he spent several years at Schering Plough Canada, in sales and marketing roles, in the therapeutic areas of oncology, cardiovascular and hepatitis. He received his Bachelor of Science in pharmacology from the University of Toronto and a master’s in business administration from Nova Southeastern University, Florida.