Philip to succeed Marrazzo at Spark

COO Ron Philip will succeed Spark Therapeutics Inc. co-founder and CEO Jeffrey Marrazzo, who is stepping down on April 1. Marrazzo co-founded the gene therapy company in 2011, growing it from a research center within the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to a venture-backed start-up to a publicly traded biotech company and finally an independent operating unit within Roche (SIX:ROG; OTCQX:RHHBY). Philip joined Spark in 2017 as SVP, head of global commercial from Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE), where he worked for seven years. Spark promoted him to CCO in 2018 and then to COO in February 2021. The company’s Luxturna voretigene neparvovec-rzyl was approved by FDA in 2017 and EMA in 2018 to treat biallelic retinal pigment epithelium-specific protein 65kDa (RPE65) mutation-associated retinal dystrophy, making it the world’s first gene therapy to be approved by both agencies.

T cell therapy company Mnemo Therapeutics appointed Robert LaCaze as CEO effective May 1, when founding CEO Alain Maiore will transition to the role of COO. LaCaze joins Mnemo from Bayer AG (Xetra:BAYN), where he was EVP and head of the company's oncology strategic business unit. Before joining Bayer, LaCaze was SVP of global oncology at Bristol Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE:BMY). Mnemo’s €75 million ($90.9 million) series A round was the largest ever for a French biotech. ...