Spark Ther­a­peu­tics nabs new CMO from Genen­tech, fill­ing a ma­jor post-merg­er de­par­ture

Spark Ther­a­peu­tics is get­ting a new CMO from their new own­ers.

The gene ther­a­py com­pa­ny-turned-sub­sidiary has named Gal­lia Levy, who had been run­ning rare blood dis­or­ders — in­clud­ing clin­i­cal de­vel­op­ment for their block­buster-po­ten­tial he­mo­phil­ia an­ti­body Hem­li­bra — for Roche’s big biotech sub Genen­tech to run med­ical af­fairs.

The ap­point­ment is a fit­ting one. Roche spent $4.8 bil­lion to ac­quire Spark last year in large part to get their hands on their he­mo­phil­ia gene ther­a­py, SPK-8011, and ex­pand the toe-hold Hem­li­bra gave them in an crowd­ed he­mo­phil­ia space.  It’s al­so a some­what iron­ic ap­point­ment: The FTC held up the Spark ac­qui­si­tions for near­ly a year, re­port­ed­ly over con­cerns about the an­ti-trust im­pli­ca­tions of Roche own­ing both a top chron­ic treat­ment in Hem­li­bra and a top one-time treat­ment in Spark’s gene ther­a­py.

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