Jeb Keiper, the longtime head of Nimbus Therapeutics, is stepping down in a planned transition that will promote the biotechnology startup’s top business executive to chief executive officer.
Nimbus on Friday said Abbas Kazimi, its current chief business officer, has been named CEO effective immediately. He’ll replace Keiper, a former GSK executive who joined Nimbus 11 years ago and has led the company since 2018.
In its statement, Nimbus said Kazimi’s appointment is part of a succession plan to create the “next chapter in leadership” at the company. Kazimi earned the board’s unanimous support and has been a “critical leader in the last decade of success” at Nimbus, said board chair and Atlas Venture partner Bruce Booth, in a statement.
“This is the perfect time for a transition; the company is on solid ground with an excellent pipeline and the right team in place to deliver on the next wave of breakthrough medicines for patients,” Keiper wrote in a LinkedIn post, adding that he will remain a “committed investor” in the company.
Since its formation in 2009, Nimbus has made itself into one of biotech’s more successful privately held companies, using two lucrative deals to generate investor returns while sidestepping public markets.
The company was started as a financial experiment during the Great Recession, given access to computing tools from drug discovery specialist Schrodinger and structured as a limited liability company. Subsidiaries each owned separate programs.
Nimbus used that “hub-and-spoke” approach to advance drug prospects, increase their value and then sell them at a premium. In 2016, Gilead acquired a Nimbus liver disease medicine for $400 million upfront. Three years ago, Takeda paid $4 billion in cash for an autoimmune disease treatment it sees as a future blockbuster.
Those deals, as well as a handful of funding rounds, have enabled Nimbus to build a sizable bank account during stretches of time when it’s been difficult for drug startups to go public.
“We want to build a great R&D organization that is around for not just 13 or 14 years, but 30 years,” Keiper said in a 2022 interview.
Kazimi will now take on that task. The company has one cancer drug prospect that recently completed early-stage clinical testing and another headed for human trials this year. Two others are following, as is metabolic disease research through a partnership with Eli Lilly.
"I am honored to lead Nimbus at this pivotal time in the company's evolution," Kazimi said in a statement.
