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Orchard Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to transforming the lives of patients with rare disorders through innovative gene therapies, announced two key additions to its executive leadership team, appointing Jason Meyenburg as chief commercial officer and John Ilett as general counsel & company secretary.
Mark Rothera, Orchard’s CEO, stated: “I am delighted to welcome Jason and John to Orchard’s executive leadership team. We are making great strides toward building a leading, global, fully-integrated company bringing transformative gene therapies to patients. Both Jason and John’s skills and experience will be essential in delivering Orchard’s vision, especially as we prepare for potential commercialization of our lead program as early as 2019.”
Chief commercial officer Jason Meyenburg brings extensive global commercialization experience to Orchard including the launch of multiple therapies for ultra-rare life-threatening diseases, new market entry strategies, market access and organizational development. He joins the company to lead the global commercialization of gene therapies for primary immune deficiencies and inherited metabolic disorders. Orchard anticipates submitting a biological license application for its lead program OTL-101 for ADA-SCID (adenosine deaminase severe combined immunodeficiency) in 2018.
Until recently, Meyenburg served as chief commercial officer at Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Vtesse. Mr. Meyenburg also led commercial operations at Alexion in the U.S. and Latin America in the hematology, nephrology and metabolic business units, and held commercial leadership roles expanding access to the company’s products in Europe, the Middle-East, Africa and Japan. Mr. Meyenburg holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland and a Master of Business Administration from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Mr. Meyenburg commented: “I am thrilled to be joining a stellar leadership team at Orchard to advance the commercialization of gene therapies for patients with rare and life-limiting diseases around the world.”
General counsel and company secretary John Ilett brings broad expertise in corporate, commercial and IP law. He has extensive experience in legal, compliance and corporate secretarial roles in international biopharmaceutical and life sciences companies. He also brings commercial and biotech intellectual property experience. He joins Orchard to lead the company’s legal function.
Prior to joining Orchard, Mr. Ilett was a non-executive director at Oxular Limited and group general counsel & company secretary at Consort Medical plc. He held senior legal affairs roles at several companies operating in the rare disease space including Synageva, BioMarin and Oxford GlycoSciences.
Mr. Ilett is a qualified solicitor. He received his Bachelor of Law degree in Business Law from City of London, his postgraduate diploma in EC Competition Law from King’s College, London and a postgraduate diploma in Intellectual Property Law from Queen Mary University of London.
Mr. Ilett commented: “This is an exciting time to be joining Orchard with its advanced pipeline in gene therapy. Through my prior roles, I have developed a deep passion for the orphan disease sector and look forward to contributing toward the development of life transforming gene therapies.”
About Orchard Therapeutics
Orchard Therapeutics is a privately held clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to transforming the lives of patients with rare and life-threatening diseases by developing innovative gene therapies. Orchard, based in the UK and US, with a presence in London, San Francisco and Boston, has partnered with world leaders in gene therapy, including University College London, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the University of Manchester and Central Manchester University Hospitals, the University of California Los Angeles and Boston Children’s Hospital. Orchard’s growing pipeline of autologous ex vivo lentiviral gene therapy programs for rare immune deficiencies and metabolic disorders includes late clinical stage programs that have already provided transformative treatment for patients with rare genetic diseases. In 2016 the company was named a Fierce 15 Company by Fierce Biotech and was awarded a $19 million grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to advance their autologous ex vivo lentiviral gene therapy in ADA-SCID. In 2017, Orchard raised $110 million in a Series B round of funding to further develop its pipeline in parallel with enhancing manufacturing capabilities.
