Passage Bio, Inc. Announces Key Executive Appointments
July 19, 2021 at 07:00 am EDT
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Passage Bio, Inc. announced key leadership appointments. These experienced executives will support the company’s growth and further enhance the company’s strong clinical development capabilities in managing its robust pipeline. Maria Törnsén joins Passage Bio as chief commercial officer, effective July 19, 2021. She reports to Passage Bio President and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Goldsmith, Ph.D., and is a member of the executive team. She is responsible for leading and building out the company’s commercial organization and strategy, including determining product positioning and paths to commercialization. Prior to joining Passage Bio, Ms. Törnsén, who has nearly 20 years of global commercial experience, was at Sarepta Therapeutics, where she was senior vice president, general manager, U.S. Mark Forman, M.D., Ph.D., will join Passage Bio as chief medical officer, effective July 30. He will report to the Chief Research & Development Officer Eliseo Salinas, M.D., MSc., and will be responsible for leading the company’s translational and clinical development efforts. Dr. Forman has nearly two decades of experience in translational research for neurological disorders, having served as head of translational medicine at Acadia and translational research for neuroscience at Merck. He will join Passage Bio from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), where he oversaw the drug discovery and development portfolio. Ms. Törnsén has nearly 20 years of global commercial experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, working in both rare and specialty therapeutic areas and across multiple geographic markets. As the U.S. general manager for Sarepta, she led the launch of its second and third products for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. She also led launch preparations for future gene therapies and double-digit year-over-year sales growth in 2019 and 2020. Ms. Törnsén joined Sarepta from Sanofi Genzyme, where she served as the global therapeutic head for rare neurological, metabolic and endocrine diseases with responsibility for both marketed and pipeline products. Before Sanofi Genzyme, she worked at Shire in marketing in rare diseases before moving to the neuroscience division. While at Shire, she relocated to the United States and led U.S. sales and marketing for the endocrine franchise. Before joining Shire, Ms. Törnsén was at Merck KGaA in Switzerland, where she held a number of marketing leadership roles in neurology. She began her industry career as a sales representative with Eli Lilly in Sweden, launching three products.
Passage Bio, Inc. is a clinical-stage genetic medicines company focused on improving the lives of patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Its clinical product candidate, PBFT02, seeks to elevate progranulin levels to restore lysosomal function and slow disease progression across a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. PBFT02 utilizes an adeno-associated virus capsid to deliver a functional granulin gene, or GRN, encoding progranulin to the brain via intra cisterna magna administration. The lead indication for PBFT02 is frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, caused by progranulin deficiency, or FTD-GRN. Its development programs consist of PBFT02 for the treatment of FTD-GRN, PBFT02 for the treatment of FTD-C9orf72 and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and PBFT02 for the treatment of Alzheimerâs disease. Its clinical product candidates include PBGM01, PBKR03 and PBML04. It has one unnamed preclinical research program that explores multiple potential treatment targets for Huntington's disease.