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Achilles Therapeutics Appoints Julie O'Neill to Board of Directors and Markwin Velders, Ph.D. joins Scientific Advisory BoardLONDON, United Kingdom, May 03, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Achilles Therapeutics plc (NASDAQ: ACHL), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing precision T cell therapies to treat solid tumors, today announces the appointment of Julie O’Neill as a Non-Executive Director to the Board and Markwin Velders, Ph.D. to its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). Both individuals come to Achilles with strong track records of experience in cell therapy and cell therapy manufacturing. Ms. O’Neill is a business professional with more than two decades of executive experience in senior leadership roles. She was previously Executive Vice President, Global Operations at Alexion Pharmaceuticals. where she led the Global Operations business including product development, manufacturing, quality, supply chain and global real estate functions. Prior to joining Alexion, she was Vice President of Operations at Gilead Sciences. Ms. O’Neill serves as an Independent Director on the boards of ICON, DBV Technologies and Hookipa Pharma. She is also on the Board of Ireland’s National Institute for Bioprocessing Research & Training (NIBRT) and serves as the Chairperson of the Strategic Advisory Board at the School of Pharmacy, Trinity College Dublin. “Achilles’ precision T cell therapies have the potential to significantly benefit patients with melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer, as well as other solid tumor disease. As the Company gets closer to breaking ground on expanded manufacturing capacity for clinical and commercial use, operations, manufacturing and quality control are growing in importance,” commented Julie O’Neill. “I am looking forward to joining the Achilles team and supporting them as they move along the clinical path. I am excited to be able to contribute at such an important stage in the company’s development.” The Company has also expanded its Scientific Advisory Board with the addition of Dr. Velders. He is the former VP, Operations and Managing Director at Kite Pharma EU. Before joining Kite, he was CSO at Dutch AM-Pharma, Business Unit Manager at TNO Biosciences, and CEO at SomantiX. After mediating the sale of the start-up T Cell Factory to Kite, he joined Kite Pharma to estblish the company’s EU headquarters in Amsterdam, helping to advance clinical development. Most recently, he was involved in the establishment of Kite’s CAR-T commercial manufacturing site in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands. “Given the importance of manufacturing in cell therapy, we are delighted to welcome Julie to our Board and Markwin to our Scientific Advisory Board,” said Iraj Ali, Chief Executive Officer at Achilles. “As we scale up our fully-closed and automated end-to-end manufacturing process for our expanding clinical work and eventual commercial production, their combined operations and manufacturing management expertise are a welcome complement to the capabilities of our current Board and team.” Achilles has also announced that Rogier Rooswinkel, Ph.D. of Forbion has indicated that he will be resigning from the Board of Directors effective immediately prior to the date of the planned annual general meeting to be held on June 28, 2021. The members of the Achilles Therapeutics Board of Directors are now: Edwin Moses, Chairman About Achilles Therapeutics Forward-Looking Statements Further information: Lee M. Stern – VP, IR & External Communications Consilium Strategic Communications
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