Orca Bio is preparing to make a splash in the cell therapy market. The biotech has hired Steve Gavel as chief commercial officer, securing itself a leader with cell therapy expertise accrued at Legend Biotech and Celgene.
California-based Orca reported phase 3 data on its allogeneic T-cell immunotherapy in leukemia patients in March, laying the foundation for talks with the FDA about bringing the treatment to market. At the time, Orca said it was readying for commercialization by adding employees in manufacturing, regulatory, medical and commercial.
The biotech has now identified Gavel as the person to lead its emerging commercial operations. Gavel has worked on cell therapy commercialization for eight years, helping Celgene develop the launch plan for Abecma before joining its BCMA CAR-T rival Legend Biotech.
At Legend, Gavel scaled the commercial group to support the launch of Carvykti in multiple myeloma.
“Steve is a cell therapy veteran with a proven track record of building and scaling organizations in preparation for commercialization,” Orca CEO Nate Fernhoff, Ph.D., said in a statement. “As we prepare for the commercial launch of Orca-T, Steve brings a perfect combination of background, experience and strategic vision to lead Orca Bio into this next phase of growth and maturation.”
Orca disclosed the appointment of Gavel alongside a note that it has “also strengthened its broader commercial organization with the addition of several senior leaders with extensive cell therapy experience” to its market access, commercial operations and medical affairs divisions, though the company didn’t list those leaders’ names.
The biotech also noted Wednesday that it has hired Allison Frisbee as senior vice president of legal. Orca said Frisbee, who was most recently chief administrative officer at Kronos Bio and previously held leadership roles in the legal departments at Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Bristol Myers Squibb, has experience tackling “complex legal and regulatory challenges.”