March 21, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff
GERMANTOWN, Md. – Intrexon Corporation’s chief operating officer and senior vice president of product development have stepped down from the company as part of a management realignment, the company announced this morning. Company stock was up about 5 percent following the announcement.
Intrexon, a company developing synthetic biological health care solutions, said the realignment of management responsibilities is due to the “successful growth of the company.” Some of that successful growth includes the World Health Organization’s go-ahead nod of support to Intrexon’s mosquito control methods as a possible control for the recent Zika Virus outbreak. WHO noted OX513A, developed by Intrexon’s subsidiary Oxitec, is a potential tool to battle the Zika outbreak. Intrexon pioneered a biological method to suppress wild populations of the mosquito species that carries the Zika Virus through targeted release of male mosquitoes, which do not bite or transmit disease. These Oxitec OX513A males search for and mate with wild females of the species. The progeny of these matings inherit a self-limiting gene and die before becoming functional adults, the company said in a statement on its website.
Intrexon said the realignment will allow the company to intensify its focus on “commercializing its mature technologies” in “anticipation of a number of critical developmental milestones.” Randal Kirk, Intrexon’s chairman of the board and chief executive officer, said the realignment of its management will allow the company to “effectively execute” its strategic goals.
“As we look forward to the remainder of 2016 and beyond, we are well positioned and excited as we continue to make progress along three principle axes: continued financial growth, delivering on several projects initiated from within the company, and partnering and commercializing some of our mature stage assets,” Kirk said in a statement.
While Intrexon has lost two of its senior executives, the company has recruited three new executives to help implement its strategies. Intrexon’s tapped Philip Gioia as its new chief commercial officer of health sector. Gioia most recently served as executive in residence at Warburg Pincus. Bruce Kipp Erickson will serve as vice president of technology and commercialization and food sector. Kipp most recently served as associate research fellow (Global Therapeutics Research) veterinary medicine at Zoetis . Sarah Reisinger, Intrexon’s new vice president of business development, consumer sector, most recently as vice president of research and development collaborations at Amyris.
The duties of COO Krish Krishnan and Suma Krishnan, vice president of product development, will primarily be assumed by Joel Liffman, senior vice president of finance, as well as other top executives, the company said.
