Mereo BioPharma appoints head of patient access and commercial planning

London, UK-based Mereo BioPharma, has strengthened its team with the addition of Wills Hughes-Wilson, who joins the biopharma as its new head of patient access and commercial planning.

Her new role will see her take responsibility for leading and optimising Mereo’s patient access and commercialisation strategies, initially on a part-time basis as the company builds out its rare disease commercial infrastructure.

Dr Denise Scots-Knight, chief executive officer of Mereo BioPharma, said: “Ms. Hughes-Wilson brings in-depth market access and product launch expertise as well as a proven ability to develop and lead commercial planning efforts globally.

“With extensive experience in the rare and orphan disease areas, she will be instrumental as we advance our portfolio of rare product candidates through late-stage clinical development and towards commercialisation.”

Most recently, Hughes-Wilson served on the executive leadership team as chief patient access officer and senior vice president access and external affairs at Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi), a speciality healthcare company dedicated to rare diseases.

In this role, Hughes-Wilson was responsible for Sobi’s commercialisation approach and led pricing, reimbursement and access teams for the group’s rare disease product portfolio.

Prior to this, she served as vice president of health and market access policy at Genzyme Corporation – now part of Sanofi.

She said: “I look forward to applying my experience to help the company continue its journey to develop these therapies, and, if approved, make them commercially available to patients and healthcare systems in a timely and sustainable manner.”