Orchard Therapeutics Appoints Robin Kenselaar As Chief Commercial Officer

As part of the Kyowa Kirin enterprise, Orchard Therapeutics appointed Robin Kenselaar as their chief commercial officer. Mr. Kenselaar assumes responsibility for global commercial leadership by leading commercial strategy development and operations for sales, marketing, market access, and government affairs.

Frank Thomas, president and chief operating officer of Orchard Therapeutics, said in a statement, “Robin has a wealth of experience and a strong track record of successfully launching rare disease therapies, including playing a central role in making Libmeldy available to eligible children with metachromatic leukodystrophy following its commercial introduction in Europe. He is an ideal candidate to continue building our commercial team, infrastructure and capabilities as we accelerate growth in the U.S. and Europe while exploring future potential regulatory approvals in other regions and territories for MLD and the rest of our portfolio.”

Mr. Kenselaar became part of Orchard in 2018 to serve as senior vice president and general.
Manager of EMEA, which involved leading the Libmeldy® commercialisation strategy in Europe
And Middle Eastern markets after the European Commission approved the treatment in December 2020. During his 15 years at Sanofi Genzyme, Mr Kenselaar used the period to build
Commercial operations across Europe for therapies that treat significant medical needs among
Patients with rare genetic conditions, as well as oncology and immunology ailments.

Robin Kenselaar expressed, saying, “I am honoured to be appointed chief commercial officer at a pivotal time for the company. Our hematopoietic stem cell gene therapy approach continues to demonstrate great promise in addressing diseases for which current treatments are limited or do not exist. I look forward to playing an even greater role in leading Orchard’s efforts to bring these potentially curative therapies to eligible patients and their families worldwide.”

He also commented, “The U.S. launch is building on Orchard’s success delivering personalised gene therapies to eligible children throughout Europe and the Middle East by utilising a similar commercial strategy. Commercial activities in the U.S. are proceeding well, with notable progress being made across several key areas about accelerating diagnosis, treatment delivery and reimbursed access. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure every child diagnosed with MLD who may be eligible for treatment with HSC gene therapy has the access to care they deserve.”

The company made several updates regarding its hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) gene therapy product after obtaining U.S. approval for Lenmeldy™ (atidarsagene autotemcel) under the brand name Libmeldy® in Europe.