Richard Francis on his Purespring plans: the pharmaphorum podcast
In this episode of the pharmaphorum podcast, our news editor Richard Staines talks to Richard Francis, who took over as CEO of gene therapy company Purespring Therapeutics earlier this month.
Francis was previously CEO of Sandoz, Novartis’ generics and biosimilars division, where he led the development of biosimilars and also sat on the Swiss pharma company’s executive committee.
A new enterprise, Purespring was founded by Syncona with funding of £45 million ($62 million) and launched in November to develop adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapies for kidney disease.
Before his work at Sandoz, Francis worked at Biogen, where he held several global and country leadership positions. Now, in addition to leading Purespring, he will spend part of his time as a partner at Syncona advising the company on other assets in its portfolio.
In this interview Francis discusses his motivations for taking the role, and why his previous experience stands him in good stead to take this position. He also outlines the challenges facing the gene therapy market and his immediate plans for Purespring.
You can listen to episode 29 of the pharmaphorum podcast in the player below, download the episode to your computer or find it – and subscribe to the rest of the series in iTunes, Spotify, acast, Stitcher and Podbean.
