Arcutis Biotherapeutics names successor to general counsel

Nasdaq-listed Arcutis Biotherapeutics has hired Mas Matsuda as general counsel and corporate secretary to oversee all legal and compliance matters for the company.

Matsuda joins Arcutis from Halozyme Therapeutics where he was senior vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer (CCO) and corporate secretary. Before his time with Halozyme, he worked at Amgen for 18 years in positions of increasing responsibility, with his last role being vice president for law and global commercial operations.

In that role he was responsible for strategic commercial legal support to the company’s US commercial operations organization, in addition to the medical affairs, compliance, global value, access and policy, global marketing and biosimilars division.

Halozyme Therapeutics has appointed Mark Snyder as Matsuda’s successor, effective January 3. He was most recently senior vice president and deputy general counsel for litigation at Qualcomm, where he led litigation strategy for hundreds of cases involving issues such as licensing, antitrust and intellectual property matter. He also managed Qualcomm’s antitrust, legal operations and intellectual property advocacy teams.

At Arcutis, Matsuda succeeds Keith Klein, who has announced his retirement. Arcutis president and CEO Frank Watanabe says in a statement: ‘On behalf of our entire team, we’d like to thank Keith for his considerable contributions to our efforts in establishing Arcutis as a leading medical dermatology company. He has been an invaluable adviser and partner to me during his tenure.

‘Mas brings substantial corporate and commercial legal experience within biotechnology, which will be instrumental as we focus on the growth of Arcutis and the potential approval and ultimate commercialization of a diverse pipeline of topical therapies for immune-mediated skin diseases.’

Earlier this year, Arcutis hired Courtney Barton as CCO, chief of staff and chief privacy officer. Barton was previously vice president for commercial excellence and CCO at Cipla Therapeutics.