Achilles Therapeutics Appoints Arjan Roozen as VP, Site Head and General Manager
London, UK 7 January 2021 – Achilles Therapeutics (“Achilles” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing precision T cell therapies to treat multiple types of solid tumours, today announced the appointment of Arjan Roozen as VP, Site Head and General Manager, with responsibility for scaling up Achilles’ manufacturing operations to supply cell therapy products for late-stage clinical studies and commercial supply. Arjan brings over 25 years of experience in the field of advanced therapies and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) operations, from early phase to commercial manufacture.
“Arjan is a great addition to the Achilles team,” said Dr Ed Samuel, SVP Technical Operations. “His in-depth knowledge and proven track record in manufacturing operations and product supply across multiple cell and gene therapy programmes will be invaluable as we expand our manufacturing capabilities to support the progress of our lead products through the clinic and broaden our pipeline into other solid tumour indications.”
“I am excited to be joining Achilles as the Company looks to potentially change how certain cancers are treated,” said Arjan Roozen. “I look forward to employing my experience in cell therapy manufacturing to scale out the Company’s manufacturing process capabilities, alongside meeting clinical development timelines in order to deliver groundbreaking therapies to patients.”
Arjan joins Achilles from Zelluna Immunotherapy where he was Chief Technology Officer responsible for GMP manufacturing for all product programmes and managing external contract laboratories. He also gained extensive cell therapy experience from his time at Cellectis where he was VP GMP Solutions/Manufacturing and involved in the company’s allogeneic CAR T programme. Prior to that, Arjan was at PharmaCell, a Netherlands-based cell and gene therapy contract manufacturer later acquired by Lonza Group AG, where he worked across multiple autologous and allogeneic therapies and, as the Operations Director, was responsible for GMP compliance and site performance. Arjan has a degree in microbiology with a specialisation in molecular microbiology.
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About Achilles Therapeutics
Achilles Therapeutics is a clinical stage, biopharmaceutical company developing precision T cell therapies targeting clonal neoantigens: protein markers unique to the individual that are expressed on the surface of every cancer cell. The Company has two ongoing Phase I/IIa trials, the CHIRON trial in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the THETIS trial in patients with recurrent or metastatic melanoma. Achilles uses DNA sequencing data from each patient, together with the proprietary PELEUS™ bioinformatics platform, to identify clonal neoantigens specific to that patient, and then develop precision T cell-based therapies specifically targeting those clonal neoantigens.
For further information please visit the Company’s website at: www.achillestx.com.
Further information:
Lee M. Stern – VP, IR & External Communications
+1 (332 373-2634
l.stern@achillestx.com
Consilium Strategic Communications
Mary-Jane Elliott, Sukaina Virji, Melissa Gardiner
+44 (0) 203 709 5000
achillestx@consilium-comms.com