Business
Rocket Pharmaceuticals Appoints Mayo Pujols as Chief Technical Officer and Strengthens Manufacturing Capabilities
— Mayo Pujols brings nearly three decades of technical operations and manufacturing experience, of which the past five years have been exclusively focused on
About this update from Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n— Mayo Pujols brings nearly three decades of technical operations and manufacturing experience, of which the past five years have been exclusively focused on cell and gene therapy, from leading biopharma companies including Andelyn Biosciences, Novartis and Celgene—\n\n— Mr. Pujols will lead technical operations and the Company’s state-of-the-art, recently cGMP ready, Clinical and potential Commercial AAV manufacturing facility in Cranbury, N.J. —\n\n CRANBURY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nRocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCKT), a leading late-stage, clinical biotechnology company advancing an integrated and sustainable pipeline of genetic therapies for rare childhood disorders with high unmet need, today announces the appointment of Mayo Pujols as Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and Executive Vice President. Mr. Pujols brings nearly three decades of experience, from leadership roles across technical operations, quality operations, validation, process development and Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) manufacturing. He most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Andelyn Biosciences, a leading gene therapy contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) and prior to Andelyn was the Head of Global Cell and Gene Technical Development and Manufacturing for Novartis Pharmaceuticals. As Rocket’s first CTO, Mr. Pujols will lead the technical operations function and chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) for all lentiviral programs. Additionally, he will lead the Company’s state-of-the-art adeno-associated virus (AAV) manufacturing facility that has recently achieved cGMP readiness for a planned Phase 2 pivotal study in Danon Disease.\n\n“The arrival of Mayo, one of the leading cell and gene therapy technical operations experts in the industry, comes at an exciting time, as we have completed our in-house AAV manufacturing readiness plan and are progressing on the path toward a Phase 2 pivotal study and potential commercialization for our therapy for Danon Disease,” said Kinnari Patel, Pharm.D., M.B.A., President and Chief Operating Officer of Rocket Pharma. “Mayo’s proven track record of success and leadership in gene therapy and CAR-T cell therapy at both Novartis and Celgene adds to our team’s rich experience as we prepare our first regulatory filings for our lentiviral platform and advance our AAV platform in ...