He joins Uniqure with more than 25 years of biotechnology experience in quality, process development, scale-up, technology transfer from bench to commercial scale as well as manufacturing operations for a variety of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished drug products including small molecules, proteins, antibodies and vaccines. McMillan will be based in the companys Lexington, Massachusetts, facility. The new COO will report to CEO Matt Kapusta. Scott brings to uniQure a strong track record of operational excellence that is highly relevant for uniQure as we ramp up GMP production to support our pivotal program in hemophilia B and advance our other gene therapy candidates into the clinic, said Matt Kapusta.
In addition, Sander van Deventer, a co-founder of Uniqure and Board member since 2010, will be the companys Chief Scientific Officer, effective immediately. Van Deventer will also resign from the Board of Directors upon the appointment by the shareholders of his replacement, which is expected to occur on September 14, 2017. The company also announced the nominations of Madhavan Balachandran and Jeremy Springhorn to its Board of Directors. An Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders (EGM) will be held on September 14, 2017 for purposes of considering their elections to the Board.