Capsida Biotherapeutics Announces Promotion of Rob Murphy to Chief Manufacturing and Quality Officer

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Mar 12, 2024, 07:45 ET

Promotion reinforces commitment to advancing our wholly owned gene therapy pipeline and strength of in-house manufacturing capabilities

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif., March 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Capsida Biotherapeutics ("Capsida"), a leading fully integrated targeted gene therapy company, developing treatments for rare and common diseases across all ages, today announced the promotion of Rob Murphy to Chief Manufacturing and Quality Officer. In his new role, Mr. Murphy will help advance the company's pipeline of gene therapy programs, by overseeing in-house cGMP manufacturing, process development and analytical capabilities, and ensuring manufacturing scalability while maintaining the highest quality standards throughout the development lifecycle.

Rob Murphy, Capsida Biotherapeutics' Chief of Manufacturing and Quality

"Rob's appointment reflects Capsida's dedication to advancing our robust gene therapy pipeline of both wholly owned programs, and further strengthening our in-house manufacturing capabilities which are a key strategic advantage for the company," said Peter Anastasiou, Capsida's Chief Executive Officer. "With Rob at the helm of manufacturing and quality, Capsida is well positioned to enable speed to clinic while establishing a standard of excellence in manufacturing of our engineered adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based gene therapies."

"I am honored to take on this new role at such a pivotal time for Capsida," said Mr. Murphy. "Our end-to-end in-house manufacturing capabilities position Capsida as a leader in the gene therapy space. Capsida's state-of-the-art cGMP gene therapy manufacturing facility exemplifies our dedication to advancing our pipeline. I look forward to ensuring quality across all operations and supporting our wholly owned programs and collaborations, including our recent manufacturing agreement with Kate Therapeutics."

Mr. Murphy, formerly Vice President of Technical Operations, has played a pivotal role in steering Capsida's technical operations, ensuring quality standards, and contributing significantly to the company's progress in the AAV space. With a career spanning more than 30 years, Mr. Murphy has demonstrated a keen understanding of the intricacies involved in biologics manufacturing, including gene therapy. He has led cGMP manufacturing, quality assurance and quality control, supply chain, and process development functions supporting more than 16 approved biotherapeutics. Mr. Murphy joined Capsida in 2020 where he and his team successfully designed, built, and staffed the company's new state-of-the-art gene therapy manufacturing facility.

About Capsida Biotherapeutics
Capsida Biotherapeutics is a fully integrated gene therapy company with a central nervous system (CNS) pipeline consisting of disease modifying and potentially curative treatments for rare and more common diseases across all ages. Capsida's intravenously (IV) administered gene therapies utilize proprietary engineered capsids that enable high transduction levels to desired tissues and cells, while limiting tropism to non-target organs, such as the liver. Capsida's two wholly owned programs are both in IND-enabling studies and include a potential first-in-class treatment for genetic epilepsy due to STXBP1 mutations. In addition to its wholly owned programs, the company has validating CNS partnerships with AbbVie, Lilly, CRISPR Therapeutics, and the AbbVie partnership was expanded to include ophthalmology disorders. Capsida was founded in 2019 by lead investors Versant Ventures and Westlake Village BioPartners and originated from groundbreaking research in the laboratory of Viviana Gradinaru, Ph.D., a neuroscience professor at Caltech. Visit us at www.capsida.com.

SOURCE Capsida Biotherapeutics