Former Biogen Chief Executive Officer James C. Mullen has leapt from his leadership role at Patheon N.V., a pharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing organization, to take the helm at genome editing company Editas Medicine.
Mullen succeeds Cynthia Collins as Editas’ CEO, effective on February 15, 2021. He will also continue as the company’s Chairman of the Board of Directors, a role he’s held since March 2018.
“On behalf of the entire Board, I thank Cindy for her tremendous contributions and dedication to Editas Medicine,” said James C. Mullen, Chairman, Editas Medicine, in a statement. “Under Cindy’s leadership, the Company initiated the EDIT-101 clinical trial – the first ever administration of an in vivo gene editing medicine in humans, filed an IND for EDIT-301 which the FDA cleared to initiate clinical trials, recovered the rights to the ocular programs and pipeline, and expanded the pre-clinical pipeline. Cindy has positioned Editas to achieve its long-term goals and deliver the potential of gene editing medicines to patients.”
Collins assumed the role of interim CEO in January 2019 after Katrine Bosely abruptly resigned from the role. Shares in Editas rose approximately 167.7% following the announcement of Collins’ CEO appointment in August 2019. Share values in Editas have more than doubled in the past 12 months, and in January the company said they had an equity offer for approximately $231 million of gross proceeds, according to Seeking Alpha.
“It has been a privilege to lead Editas Medicine and this extremely talented team,” Collins said. “I am particularly proud of the progress to the clinic we have made with both in vivo and ex vivo gene edited medicines. I look forward to seeing Editas continue to develop the future of gene edited medicines and succeed on making these medicines for patients around the world.”
Mullen was the CEO and director of Patheon N.V. until it was acquired in August 2017 by Thermo Fisher Scientific. In addition to his current responsibilities, Mullen is on Thermo Fisher Scientific’s board of directors.
Previously, Mullen was the president and CEO of Biogen, a role he held for 21 years from 1989 to 2010. He was responsible for various operation positions at Biogen before he took the CEO role, including Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of International and Vice President of Operations.
The news of the CEO shift at Editas immediately follows the transition news of its chief scientific officer, Charles Albright, Ph.D., nearly one month ago. Albright stepped down from the position “to pursue another opportunity,” according to a statement from the company. Editas did not disclose where Albright went, and Albright did not make any comment on his new role. “I have greatly enjoyed working alongside the extremely talented team here at Editas Medicine. Together, we advanced the revolutionary CRISPR gene editing system into a pipeline of experimental medicines,” Albright said. “I look forward to watching Editas Medicine’s successes continue in the future, developing many transformative medicines for people in great need.”
At the same time of Albright’s departure, the company announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the OK for the company to launch the safety phase of a clinical trial for its experimental, ex vivo gene editing cell medicine for sickle cell disease.