Synthetic Genomics, co-founded by genomic pioneer Craig Venter, has been sued by its former intellectual property chief for gender discrimination – a claim that CEO Oliver Fetzer believes to be "without merit."

This week's roundup sees Sanofi appoint Biogen's former SVP of corporate affairs to executive vice president, external affairs. Meanwhile, Galena Biopharma, Abpro, Genmab and Purdue Pharma have all named new executives.

Synthetic biology offers opportunity across many industries, but the ultimate prize may be health care. The millions of dollars investors have poured into companies developing CAR-T cell therapies and gene editing technologies points to growing confidence in the power of gene manipulation to generate novel, approvable therapeutics, even if for now these are just the early steps toward creating fully synthetic organisms.

Recent executive-level company changes and promotions in the biopharma, medical device, and diagnostics industries.