Appointment set to advance presence in Viral Vector manufacturing

Darren Leva has been appointed Chief Business Officer by full-service CDMO Exothera SA, specialised in gene therapy. Mr Leva brings to his new role over 20 years of broad commercial expertise and experiences with CDMOs, therapeutics, and software companies. Most recently, he held leadership positions in Cell and Gene Therapy at Thermo Fisher Scientific, while also being deeply involved in the manufacturing response to the Covid-19 pandemic. As Head of Commercial Operations, he helped build and lead both GMP Plasmid and GMP Cell Therapy businesses. Diverse experiences in the software industry has helped him develop a deep understanding of data-driven processes, which, combined with Univercells’ technologies and bioprocessing capabilities, will help Exothera realise its vision of making cell & gene therapy available to all.

Prior to joining Thermo Fisher, Mr Leva held various commercial roles at several start-ups and growth-stage companies, including IntroMaps, Althea Technologies (now Ajinomoto), Cerimon Pharmaceuticals and Seven Bridges Genomics. In his new role at Jumet, Belgium-based Exothera, Darren will leverage his experience in scaling cell and gene therapy businesses to help the company accelerate its growth in viral vector manufacturing.

Thibault Jonckheere, CEO of Exothera said: “We are delighted that Darren has joined us in our mission, bringing his extensive experience in CDMO business development to accelerate what we have built over the last three years. His passion and commitment are already spreading within our team, with new ideas and new challenges to further grow and better help our clients reach their goals.

Darren Leva added: “I have been truly impressed with the team at Exothera and their commitment to excellence across the organisation. Combined with their state-of-the-art GMP facility, I am not surprised by their stellar track record with customer experience. As part of the Exothera family, I couldn't be more humbled to help deliver cell and gene therapies to patients.”

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