Orchard Therapeutics appoints Mark Rothera as CEO

London, UK-based Orchard Therapeutics has appointed Mark Rothera as its new president and chief executive officer at a time when the group progresses its clinical pipeline.

Rothera brings 28 years’ experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including driving the transition of multiple emerging biotechnology companies from R&D stage to commercialisation, bringing rare disease therapies to the market, and launching several orphan drugs.

He said: “Now is an exciting time to be joining Orchard as the cell and gene therapy field is advancing successfully.

“The clinical data we’ve seen to date with Orchard’s therapy for ADA-SCID is exceptional, and the company has assembled and impressive R&D pipeline to apply the approach more widely.

“I’m honoured to join such a talnted management team and exceptional academic founders as CEO, and I look forward to leading Orchard in the years ahead.”

Prior to his new role, Rothera served as chief commercial officer at PTC Therapeutics, where he helped transition the company from a privately funded, US-based R&D biotech to a public, commercial stage company with a 47 country commercialisation footprint.

His previous roles has seen him working for Aegerion Pharmaceuticals as global president and Shire Human Genetic Therapies as general manager of commercial operations.

Ben Auspitz and Alex Pasteur, directors as F-Prime Capital, said: “We are delighted to welcome Mark as CEO of Orchard. He has a patient-centred approach and is focused on delivering access to innovative therapies as early as possible.

“Mark brings proven commercialisation and leadership skills, and he will have a great impact on the company during our next phase of growth.”