Cambridge, MA, 08 January 2015 – Alacrita, the life sciences consulting firm, today announced that it has appointed Markus Peters, PhD, as Associate Partner in its Cambridge, MA office to advise clients on the global commercialization of early and late stage biopharmaceutical assets.
Most recently, Markus was VP Global Marketing with Synageva BioPharma Inc., a company specializing in breakthrough therapies for rare diseases, which was acquired in 2015 for $8.4bn by Alexion Pharmaceuticals. In this role, he was responsible for the successful global launch of KANUMA (sebelipase alfa), an innovative treatment for ultra-rare LAL Deficiency. Markus was also responsible for the commercial input to the company’s earlier stage product pipeline, and was a key member in the team that led the transition of Synageva from research based to global commercial biopharmaceutical company.
Over his more than 20-year career in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, Markus led global commercial teams to successfully launch ten specialty and rare disease franchises, including two orphan drugs with Alexion and Synageva, and four indications for ENBREL (etanercept) with Wyeth/Pfizer. Furthermore, Markus was responsible for New Product Planning of the oncology pipeline with Wyeth/Pfizer and various Business and Corporate Development projects. He has extensive international on-the-ground experience, including the US, Europe, Japan and China. Markus’ therapeutic area experience includes immunology, oncology, endocrinology, nephrology, metabolic/cardiovascular, hepatology and hematology. He speaks six languages and has a PhD in Biochemistry from Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf/Germany.
Markus joins Alacrita’s team of expert consultants, all of whom have established track records of developing novel pharmaceuticals. This expertise is regularly deployed to help biotech and pharma companies with clinical and commercial strategy, and to support investment and licensing decisions by big pharma and investors.
Markus Peters said “I am delighted to be joining the Alacrita team, which has an impressive track record of providing product development advice and transaction support to pharma companies and investors in the life sciences. The development and commercialization of novel drugs to treat rare diseases is particularly challenging, and I look forward to working alongside Alacrita to share my insights and expertise with the biotech and pharma communities.”
Rob Johnson, Managing Partner at Alacrita, said: “We are delighted to welcome Markus to the Alacrita team as we continue to build a best-in-class pharma consulting practice. Markus has a proven successful track record in the commercialization of rare disease and specialty pharmaceuticals. He joins a high caliber team of seasoned consultants and underlines our commitment to providing exceptionally high quality advice to the industry.”
