Basilea's Hans Christian Rohde takes up commercial role at uniQure

Gene therapy company uniQure has appointed Hans Christian Rohde to serve as its new chief commercial officer.

Rohde joins the company from Basilea Pharmaceutica, where he was chief commercial officer and a member of that company's executive management committee.

In his new role at Netherlands-based uniQure he will be tasked with helping the company commercialise Glybera, which last month became the first gene therapy to be approved in the western world.

Glybera treats patients with the inherited disease lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), which is also known as familial hyperchylomicronemia and is extremely rare, affecting no more than 1-2 people per million.

Jörn Aldag, CEO of uniQure, said: “With the approval of Glybera we need to rapidly build and expand our commercial organisation to enable the successful roll-out of Glybera and provide access to this crucial treatment to as many patients as possible.

“Hans Christian's experience and successful track-record in major biotechnology companies such as Basilea, Merck-Serono and Biogen Idec provide us with the necessary leadership qualities to successfully commercialise Glybera.”

Rohde has almost 25 years experience in commercial roles across the pharma and biotech industries.

Prior to Basilea, he was corporate vice president, head of global therapeutic areas, reproductive health and endocrinology at Merck-Serono from 2003 until 2007.

Before this he was responsible for international marketing and global market development at Biogen Idec.