By Bob Mitchell

Orbit Biomedical of Ambler, PA, a medical device company focused on targeted delivery of gene and cell therapies into the retina, is merging with Gyroscope Therapeutics of Stevenage, England, a biotechnology company developing gene therapies for retinal diseases.

The merged company will be known as Gyroscope, and is the first, integrated retinal gene therapy company with clinical, manufacturing and delivery capabilities. As it enters the next phase of growth towards bringing medicines to patients, Gyroscope will be led by a new CEO, Khurem Farooq.

Prior to joining the company, Khurem was the Senior Vice President of the Immunology and Ophthalmology business unit at Genentech, and was responsible for managing Lucentis and the pre-launch activities for lampalizumab for age-related macular degeneration.

“It is an exciting time to join Gyroscope with our first clinical study in patients with geographic atrophy due to dry AMD underway,” Farooq said.

“By joining forces with Orbit, we can combine our expertise in developing gene therapies and our high-quality manufacturing processes with a surgical platform that can support accurate, safe and consistent delivery of medicines that will hopefully cure eye diseases that today leave people blind.”

In addition to Farooq, the company’s leadership team includes:

• Soraya Bekkali, M.D., who led Gyroscope into the clinic and will continue to lead the research and development organization as President, Head of Research and Development
• Susan Hill, Ph.D., who led the launch of Orbit, will become Gyroscope’s Chief Business Officer
• Mike Keane, Founder of Orbit, will be Gyroscope’s CTO, and continue to oversee the Orbit platform and its application to internal programs and external partnerships
• Ashwin Datt with more than 25 years of lab management, business operations, and human resources experience in academia and the biotechnology industry, will join the company as Chief People Officer.
• Ian Clark has been appointed as a non-Executive Director. Ian has more than 30 years of senior leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry; most recently serving as Chief Executive of Genentech.

“Gyroscope is one of the first companies globally to move gene therapy out of rare diseases through the delivery of natural regulatory proteins,” said Chris Hollowood, Chief Investment Officer of Syncona and Chair of Gyroscope’s board.

“As retinal gene therapy progresses to more prevalent conditions, delivering a therapeutic in a way that ensures higher consistency of dosing, will allow patients to receive a less invasive treatment, is key to widespread use and clinical effectiveness. The merger ensures Gyroscope now has all the platform capabilities it requires to develop and deliver its therapeutics commercially. This marks an important step in fulfilling founding academics, David Kavanagh and Andrew Lotery’s vision of widespread use of genetically defined treatments for dry AMD.”

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