Franklin Biolabs, the genetic medicines contract research organization that gene therapy expert James Wilson, M.D., Ph.D., spun out of the University of Pennsylvania earlier this year, has named Vatsala Naageshwaran, Ph.D., as its new CEO.
Naageshwaran is joining Franklin from Pharmaron, where she served as vice president and head of business development for U.S. cell and gene therapy and lab services. She spent 13 years at Absorption Systems, including a stint as chief business officer, before the company was acquired by Pharmaron in 2020.
"With her decades of experience building high-performing teams and directing results-driven operations, Vatsala is well equipped to lead Franklin Biolabs as it brings transformative therapies to more patients with rare and debilitating diseases,” Wilson, Franklin’s chairperson, said in a Dec. 4 release.
Franklin Biolabs officially launched operations in early October after being founded by Wilson alongside a gene therapy biotech, GEMMA Biotherapeutics. After leading Penn’s Gene Therapy Program for more than 30 years, Wilson left the university at the end of July and turned the program’s work into the two new companies.
"Forming these two new entities is the next step to accelerate the future of gene therapy and deliver therapeutics to patients significantly faster," Wilson said in a release at the time.
Franklin Biolabs will provide specialty services in immunology, vector production and analytics, next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics, and nonclinical pharmacology and toxicology studies, the company said in October, and will conduct research for sponsors across several continents.
Wilson’s other new venture, GEMMABio, is also taking a global approach. The nascent firm is looking to bring rare disease gene therapies to Brazil with an up to $100 million partnership with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a public health research institution that is part of Brazil’s Ministry of Health.