London, 10 January 2016 – Freeline Therapeutics (“Freeline”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of gene therapies for bleeding and other debilitating disorders, today announced that Jan Thirkettle, former VP, Cell & Gene Therapy Platform at GSK, has been appointed Chief Development Officer and Gerard Short, former Senior Medical Director at Genzyme Corporation, has been appointed VP, Head of Clinical and Regulatory.
Freeline, based at the Royal Free Hospital, London, was launched in December 2015 with a £25 million Series A financing from Syncona LLP.
The Company’s next-generation AAV gene therapy platform has been developed by Professor Amit Nathwani, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Freeline as well as Professor of Haematology at University College London, and it builds on the successful haemophilia B phase I/II trial conducted by him with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The results of the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine*, demonstrated that all ten treated haemophilia B patients showed safe, sustained expression of blood clotting Factor IX from a single treatment.
Dr Christian Groendahl, CEO of Freeline Therapeutics, said:
“Our team includes world leaders in the gene therapy field with strong commercial, clinical and technical expertise and I am delighted to welcome Jan and Ged to the Company. We look forward to them leading our haemophilia B gene therapy programme as it advances through the clinic, as well as the potentially life changing therapies for other bleeding disorders in our pipeline.”
Dr Jan Thirkettle, Chief Development Officer of Freeline Therapeutics, added:
“I speak for both myself and Ged to say that we’re thrilled by the opportunity of joining Freeline Therapeutics. The strength of the science and the founding team, together with the strong vision from Syncona, were a compelling draw for us. Gene therapy has the potential to provide long-term benefit to patients from a single treatment and we look forward to playing our parts in driving the Company’s products through the clinic and establishing Freeline as a world class player in the field.”
Dr Jan Thirkettle joins Freeline from GSK where he was VP, Cell & Gene Therapy Platform. In this capacity, over the period of 4 years, he built GSK’s Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC)/supply capabilities in the cell & gene therapy field, enabling the submission of a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) for an ex vivo gene therapy for ADA-SCID in 2015 and establishment of a portfolio of technologies and programmes. Prior to this, Jan was responsible for CMC and supply of a number of late/launch stage biopharmaceuticals. Jan holds an MA in Chemistry and a PhD in Biological Chemistry from Oxford University.
Dr Gerard Short joins Freeline from Genzyme Corporation where he was the global clinical development lead for Genzyme’s Pompe’s Disease programme, including Myozyme/ Lumizyme and the second generation enzyme replacement therapy, NeoGAA. Prior to that he was the global clinical development lead for clofarabine, a treatment for relapsed refractory Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in children. Ged is a pharmaceutical physician with close to 18 years’ experience of pharma and biotech. He qualified in Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School at the University of London; is a Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and has an MBA from London Business School.
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Further information:
Freeline Therapeutics
Christian Groendahl, Chief Executive Officer
Chris Hollowood, Chairman
+44 (0)20 7611 2031
JW Communications
Julia Wilson
+44 (0) 781 8430877
Notes for Editors:
About Freeline Therapeutics
Freeline Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company based at the Royal Free Hospital, London, focused on the development of gene therapies for bleeding and other disorders. Gene therapy has the potential to transform lives for people with severe diseases by providing a long-lasting, safe and reliable source of enzymes to the blood. The Company’s human adapted AAV vector platform is being utilised to advance therapies through the clinic and its shareholders include Syncona LLP and University College London. For further information please visit the Company’s website at: www.freelinetx.com
About Syncona
Syncona LLP was founded in 2012 and operates as an evergreen investment company, taking an active role in identifying, developing and funding technologies with the potential to significantly impact the healthcare market of the future. Syncona can take the long view when necessary, able to concentrate investment into opportunities as technology is validated. Syncona is an independent subsidiary of the Wellcome Trust that invested the initial £200m capitalisation. For further information please visit the Company’s website at: www.synconapartners.com
