Ideaya hires Gilead leader to head up commercialization push
Ideaya Biosciences has made a key hire in anticipation of the launch of its first drug, securing the services of an executive who played a role in the commercialization of Trodelvy and Opdivo.
The new hire, Stu Dorman, is joining Ideaya as chief commercial officer. Dorman spent the last four years at Gilead Sciences, where he helped to launch the antibody-drug conjugate Trodelvy and build out the oncology commercial group. Before joining Gilead in 2020, Dorman had a 14-year stint at Bristol Myers Squibb that included a spell handling global commercialization of Opdivo and Yervoy.
Dorman is joining Ideaya ahead of its transition into a commercial company. The biotech is developing a pipeline led by darovasertib, which is in a registration-enabling metastatic uveal melanoma trial. Ideaya is working toward a readout that could support accelerated approval of the molecule in 2026.
Ideaya CEO Yujiro Hata discussed the appointment of Dorman at a Jefferies event Tuesday. Dorman has the right skill set to be Ideaya’s commercial hire, Hata said, and the appointment reflects the biotech’s decision to make commercial readiness one of its three key themes for 2025.
The registration-enabling trial is enrolling people with HLA-A2 negative cancer. Focusing on the patient population, which Hata said accounts for around two-thirds of the total market, sets darovasertib apart from Immunocore’s Kimmtrak. The FDA approved Kimmtrak in HLA-A2 positive patients in 2022. Ideaya believes darovasertib is active in HLA-A2 positive cancer, too, but is targeting the untapped market first.
If R&D goes to plan, the launch of darovasertib in HLA-A2 metastatic uveal melanoma will mark the start of a broader commercial push at Ideaya. The biotech is gearing up to run a phase 3 trial of darovasertib in neoadjuvant uveal melanoma and has other programs coming down the pipeline.
